Articles by Jesse S

For the past few days, the liberal media has been going haywire over a New York Times profile of a white nationalist. The Times was forced to issue multiple responses to accusations that they were normalizing white supremacy, and even retroactively altered the title of the article in response to public pressure. I initially decided to steer clear of the controversy and avoid the piece, but after reading The Atlantic’s December cover story on Andrew Anglin — one of the alt-right’s most prominent...

With Election Day just a week away, New Yorkers are getting bombarded with millions of dollars worth of negative messaging about the constitutional convention. While I used my previous column to detail why voters should ignore the information being spread by the “vote no” coalition, I want to focus here on some of the positive outcomes that could result from holding a convention for the first time since 1967. For starters, I should say that the possibilities of a convention are truly endless. ...

New Yorkers have a chance to end corruption in their state, once and for all. This fall, the people of New York will vote on whether or not to hold a state constitutional convention next year. The opportunity to hold one of these conventions in New York only happens once every 20 years. In the state with the worst political corruption and the most economic inequality in the country, it would seem like a no-brainer that the voters would vote “yes” on holding a constitutional convention. The co...

The DNC knows it has a populism problem. The Democratic Party is more divided than ever in the wake of the 2016 election. But does their new platform go far enough to reassure American voters that they’re trustworthy and that they’ve reinvented the party since the 2016 election? Recent history indicates otherwise. The election of Tom Perez as DNC Chair did little to alleviate concerns of progressives who thought a shakeup in party leadership could set the party’s course straight. Of course, P...

A true demonstration of democracy is underway in Florida. Over the past two months, the Constitution Revision Commission -- a political body that will select constitutional amendments to place on the 2018 ballot in Florida -- held nine public hearings across the state where voters could speak out about the issues they want addressed. The final hearing took place in Tampa Wednesday night. Thus far, one of the most popular topics of conversation was open primaries. Dozens of voters turned out at ...

Since the early days of Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign, my social media feed has been filled with a menagerie of Bernie-themed GIFs, clickbait, news, and statuses. On Facebook and Twitter it has appeared, for months now, that Sanders’ campaign is the focal point of the world -- the emphasis of the media’s coverage of the 2016 race and a barometer of Sanders’ success in his presidential bid. In this virtual Bernie-centric domain, Hillary Clinton content is a rarity, and when it does appea...

Are the Democratic and Republican political establishments in trouble? That question seems to be the topic of many headlines since the presidential campaigns of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump took off. But while support for Sanders can be easily explained -- and not a huge threat to the Democratic establishment -- the Republican Party is going to require some serious soul-searching as they seek to realign themselves with the American populous, should Trump be nominated. Sanders’ popularity can...

It’s tough to imagine a scenario in which both U.S. Senators Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) are nominated by their respective parties in the 2016 presidential race. But in a hypothetical world where Sanders and Paul are both nominated, there would be significant overlap in their supporters, just as there is with their platforms. Already in New Hampshire, where unaffiliated and independent voters can vote in either primary, Sanders and Paul are targeting similar supporters. Ron Pau...

Common Sense Action (CSA), a grassroots network of college students who are working to formulate methods through which Generation Y may traverse the many onerous political and economic challenges that they will likely inherit in the coming years, is conjoining with Run for America (RFA), a nonprofit political advocacy group with a similar mission, to form Run for America Action. With 40 campus chapters dispersed across 20 states -- from Boston University to UC-Berkeley, Michigan State to the Un...