The Big Picture

What we saw on Tuesday, January 6th, as a Joint Session of Congress convened to certify Joe Biden’s election as President, was an attempted bloodless coup. We watched a mob of Pro-Tr*mp supporters given the complete ability to storm the Capitol building. The first three people in the order of the Presidential Succession, the VP/Speaker/Senate President Pro Tem were all inside when this took place. Confidential documents were stolen and photographed. All of this over an election that was in no way stolen or unfair. All of this stems from unchecked white privilege that has officially lost touch with reality.

As a black person or any person of color, we saw two things on display Tuesday; an attempted coup by a group of sore losers, and yes, white privilege at its peak. I would say imagine what the response would be if those protesters were black, but we don’t even have to imagine. During the Summer protests as black people took to the streets to protest for our lives, the national guard protected government buildings and monuments as if these peaceful protesters posed any serious threat to them. Juxtapose that to the almost nonexistent response to a mob that breached a federal building and has left five people dead. 

The problem now lies in where do we go from here? Sure, the Joint Session reconvened to finish certifying Biden’s win as a show of our “democracy in action”- but is that enough? The one and only answer is no. There must be real accountability. Not just for the actual domestic terrorists that carried out the insurrection, but the President who has been inciting them for months, and the Republican Party that has enabled this behavior for 4 years. This also includes law enforcement agencies and officers who frankly should have known this was coming, and for failing to respond appropriately as it was taking place. We’ve seen the videos of the officers opening the security gates, and others of officers taking selfies with terrorists. 

This doesn’t mean a bunch of strongly worded letters and tweets. It means investigations, charges, convictions, and jail time. There is no way forward without addressing what took place Tuesday with the strongest response possible. President-Elect Biden, and the 117th Congress have a duty to bring all perpetrators to justice, and this also includes expelling the Members of Congress who have supported Tr*mps rhetoric. They have shown us they have no real intention of serving their constituents or this country, but rather their own political ambitions.

• Twitter
• Instagram
• LinkedIn

The infamous Electoral College. Created to ensure a more fair presidential election that balances the interests of large and small states. A seemingly ingenious and necessary idea- at least that’s what we’re taught.

The Electoral College was established not as a way to protect the interests of “small states” because after all, states don’t vote, people do. Instead, it was created to give slaveholding states in the south more political power. You see, in the 1780’s we were on the verge of implementing a direct election system for the president, until a Virginian named James Madison noticed that the north outnumbered the south greatly. To Madison, this meant the interests of the North would outweigh the south in elections, so he proposed the electoral college (with the inclusion of the 2/5ths compromise) which gave southern states a major political advantage in the new presidential election system. Here’s a more detailed read from TIME here if you’re interested in reading more on the Electoral College’s history. I wanted to start with the Electoral College’s history so you know that yes, it is (unsurprisingly) rooted in racism and inequality. 

Now that we have the history down, let’s go into detail about how it works. There are 538 electors that make up the electoral college. The number of electors a state gets for the Electoral College is derived from the number of congressional districts, plus the two Senators each state has. For example, North Carolina has 13 congressional districts, plus our two senators, equals our 15 Electoral College votes. During presidential elections, the ballots we cast for president essentially tell somebody else who we want to vote for. 

In most states, North Carolina included, we are a “winner-take-all” state. This means that once a candidate wins a majority of the popular vote in a winner-take-all state, they are awarded 100% of that state’s electoral college votes. Sound democratic to you? It’s not. Another example: Tr*mp received about 49% of the vote in NC in 2016, while Clinton received about 46%. Since Trump won by a little more than three percentage points, he took all 15 of NC’s electoral college votes. It does quite literally invalidate the minority of votes. 

So what do we do about it? 

First, we vote. I’m tired of saying it too, but we must vote. Many of you may have seen the graphic circulating on Instagram that showed around 233,000 black people didn’t vote in a handful of cities around NC in 2016. Considering Tr*mp won NC by 173,000 votes, it’s safe to say we could’ve changed the outcome of the election had we shown up. Now, I’m not in the business of blaming black people for not voting, we’re often targeted for voter suppression, or disenfranchised by harsh and discriminatory laws that strip the right to vote from felons. However, if I can do anything with this blog it’ll be showing you how important your vote can be when you exercise it; especially in the races down ballot as those impact you more directly! This is not to say that voting is the only way for us to make actual change, but it’s definitely one of the most important tools we can use. 

Second, we get rid of the electoral college, or at the very least get rid of the winner-take-all system. I’m in favor of the former over the latter, but considering that nixing the electoral college could require a constitutional amendment; states are in a better position to decide that they will allocate a proportionate amount of electoral college votes, based on the candidates share of the popular vote in the state. It’s highly unlikely that we’ll see changes to either in the short term, but should a candidate win the presidency again without winning the popular vote for the second time in a row (Tr*mp), I believe it’ll be on plenty of people’s minds. 

Today’s post was a bit more content heavy than usual, but I hope you walk away with this: the electoral college doesn’t help us, it’s antiquated, and was born out of racism; but it can be beaten. If we do our part, make a plan to vote, and encourage our friends and families to turn out, we can beat the system and send Tr*mp and his cult packing… and then the real work will begin. As always thank you for reading, stay safe, and always look for The Bigger Picture! 

• Twitter
• Instagram
• LinkedIn

What’s going on y’all? Welcome back to The Big Picture blog. It’s been a few weeks since the Democratic National Convention, and the joke of a Republican National Convention wrapped up towards the end of last week. Did you catch either of the two?

If not, you didn’t miss much. While both parties laid out their visions for America, Republicans presented less of a “vision” and more of a blind support for Tr*mp. In all seriousness, both parties traditionally vote on an official platform for the party, but this year Republicans removed any doubt that they have abandoned all but one principle: loyalty to Tr*mp. 

The Democratic Convention had its faults too—plenty of them. For one, it seems like instead of reaching out to the voters who feel ignored the most by the party (young progressives for example), the party made the case that Joe Biden is the best pick because he’s likeable, or because he considers the views of people on all sides of the political spectrum. His ability to be “open-minded” is not bad, per se, but when you need the votes of millions of young Black people, or other POC, one would think the Deomocratic party would reassure Black voters that it has their interest in mind, not the interests of Republicans who voted for Tr*mp in 2016.

This leads me to the topic of today’s post. If neither candidate truly represents how you feel, they don’t necessarily support all the policies you do, or they just aren’t good people, then why should you vote at all?

Since 2016, my timeline has been overwhelmed by this debate, and as we get closer to Election Day I’m sure it will only become a bigger topic. Although, at times, I find myself agreeing with people from both perspectives, I think I finally have an answer that at the very least explains my own rationale for believing that voting in November, for Joe Biden, is still better than not voting at all.

Oddly enough, my reasoning doesn’t center on policy much, if at all. After all, Biden’s support for the policies that will move America in the right direction—policies such as Medicare for all, an end to the War on Black … oop, I mean, Drugs, a Marshall Plan for the communities forsaken by industrialization, student loan forgiveness—should be described as weak as Tr*mp’s grip on reality. In other words,  Biden is out of touch with the direction that a significant fraction of his base—including young voters—want to take this country. Take a look at the other side, and you find that Tr*mp doesn’t support any of those things either. So voting for a candidate based on their policy proposals is almost a nonstarter in this election. I say almost because I do think Biden’s platform includes some productive proposals; such as strengthening gun control, investing in clean energy infrastructure, and campaign finance reform among a few others.  

So, why vote?

I firmly believe this election presents a crossroads for our country. Four more years of Tr*mp would take us to a place of no return. I think about the Judiciary, where the President appoints federal judges to benches across the country, where they will serve for the rest of their lives.

Yes, judges have lifetime tenures. In his first four years, Trump has been able to appoint and confirm around 200 judges (2 being Supreme Court Justices), who will absolutely still be on the bench decades from now, long after Trump is gone. These Judges/Justices are usually very conservative, could easily jeopardize women’s abortion rights, voting rights, and civil rights in the future. For example, Judge Kenneth Lee of the California 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has a history of having extremely conservative views like supporting felon disenfranchisement (losing the right to vote); and he’ll most likely sit on the Court for at least a couple decades.  

Equally concerning is Tr*mp’s not-so-subtle and consistent slide towards authoritarianism. He openly praises dictators. He “jokes” about not leaving office if he loses and his flagrant attack on the USPS before an election should be concerning to everybody. If Tr*mp gets four more years, I have a strong feeling that a “fair” election in 2024 may not be a thing, if there is an election at all.

My last reason has nothing to do with Biden or Trump. Yes, this is a Presidential election and that race gets all the attention, but there are dozens of offices on the ballot. Most of these other races are for local and statewide positions, which affect you much more directly than the Federal government does. Here in North Carolina, our Governor, Roy Cooper, is running against his Lieutenant Governor, Dan Forrest— a Trump sycophant and wannabe. The control of the State Senate, if not both Chambers in the General Assembly could also flip to Democrats after this year. There is so much on the line that doesn’t involve Trump and Biden. We cannot allow that one race to stop our participation.

Like many of you, I’m not excited or motivated to vote for Biden, but I’m less excited for the prospects of what another four years of Tr*mp would look like. Those two simple, but far reaching reasons are why I personally feel like voting in November is the right thing to do. For many of my subscribers, this will only be our second Presidential election, and it will also be the second time we feel like we’re forced to choose between “the lesser of two evils”. It’s wrong, and I completely understand how/why people get discouraged to vote—but please, Vote!

I’m really interested in carrying on this conversation with y’all, so please comment below, or use the links below to my social media accounts  to chat with me on there. If you’ve made it this far, thank you so much for reading, and, like always, keep looking for the Big Picture.

• Twitter
• Instagram
• LinkedIn

Hey friends, and welcome back to The Big Picture blog. As the title suggests, this will be the first weekly update for the site. Being that I’m still pretty new at this, bear with me, as the format may change over time, and I may miss some events/stories here and there too. Nonetheless, I’ll break this up into two separate sections, a national section, and North Carolina. Now without further ado, let’s get into it.

National

Both Chambers of Congress recessed early last week notably without passing a second round of COVID-19 relief that many hope will include a second stimulus check. The Democratic House passed the HEROES Act back in May, and the Republican Senate passed the HEALS Act about a month ago. The two bills are drastically different in content as Democrats are proposing another round of $1200 checks, extending the $600 federal unemployment benefit, forgiving student loans up to $10k, and a list of other measures to support state/local governments and small businesses.

The Republican HEALS Act includes some similar proposals like $1200 stimulus checks, extensions to programs that benefit small businesses. Differences come in the unemployment benefit section where Republicans want to reduce the weekly amount people receive from $600 to $200, and while they’re also allocating money to state governments, up to 2/3rds of it is reserved for schools with reopening plans, the Republican bill also leaves out any student loan forgiveness. I’m vaguely summarizing these bills in the interest of time, but if you have a few minutes, check out a deeper review on the National Law Review here: https://www.natlawreview.com/article/public-policy-briefing-july-28-2020

While both chambers are on Recess, leadership is still supposedly negotiating a deal, so it’s possible we could see more relief coming soon, but don’t hold your breath.

In my second blog post I talked about Tr*mps war on the USPS. With the amount of pressure he and the Postmaster general were under, they have finally agreed to back off “until after the election”. This is a good thing, yes, but in many places the damage has been done as sorting machines that have been taken offline at facilities across the country, won’t be put back into action. With that being said, if you still plan to vote absentee, do it. Just make sure you mail it in early, or just drop it off at your local Board of Elections yourself.

The Democratic National Convention began this week, and it runs until Thursday the 20th. I’ll be back next week with my thoughts on that, but heading into the Convention, Democratic Nominee Joe Biden announced that Senator Kamala Harris would be his running mate for the general election. Her nomination was met with mixed reviews, but regardless it is historic as she is the first Indian-American and Black women to run for the Vice Presidency.

North Carolina

It had almost been a quiet week in North Carolina, and then classes started back. UNC Chapel Hill made national news as within the first week of classes, more than 130 cases of COVID-19 had been confirmed on campus; prompting the University to shift to remote learning. The worst part about this all, is that they and the UNC System as a whole were warned. UNC officials went against the advice of public health officials, and now students are once again facing the possibility of being sent home, this time with no refunds on housing, or other campus fees. Other NC colleges are seeing cases pop up, but so far UNC is the only one to go remote.

K-12 schools also restarted this week, with some going fully virtual and others returning to in-person. It’s still too early to tell if the in-person instruction is a good idea, but if what happened at Chapel Hill is an indicator, it probably won’t end up being good.

Lieutenant Governor Dan Forrest, who is running against Gov. Roy Cooper in November, had his legal challenge to reopen the state against Governor Cooper’s Executive Orders shot down in court. He argued that Gov. Cooper abused his power by ordering businesses to close, but the court disagreed.

Conclusion

I guess you can say this week was a slow one, but with the NC General Assembly out of session, and Congress recessed, there aren’t many policy changes being made or debated right now.

I’m trying to keep these updates a bit shorter, and more brief than my more specific posts, but in doing this I know I can easily leave out information, or not explain things as thoroughly as some may like. Please feel free to leave feedback on if this format is helpful to you, or what kinds of things I can do to make these better, I’m all ears. Like always, thank you again for reading, and keep looking for the big picture.

• Twitter
• Instagram
• LinkedIn

The United States Postal Service (USPS) was originally created in 1792 by the Postal Service Act, and has had a single mission ever since: deliver mail to anybody, anywhere. To me, the service provided by the USPS is one of the most basic, fundamental things a government can do for its citizens. Like pretty much every other government agency, the USPS needs money to pay its employees and to carry out day-to-day operations. However, unlike pretty much every other every government agency, the USPS isn’t funded by taxpayer dollars allocated from Congress. They make their money solely by the sale of the services they provide (stamps, delivery, etc.). With the advent of the digital age, most things are done electronically now, which has decreased the volume of mail USPS handles greatly. Over the last several years, the USPS has consistently posted financial losses, and has had to re-organize and consolidate operations drastically to continue serving the public. The financial losses aren’t the fault of the USPS alone; but can in part be attributed to its mandate to fund all of its employees retirements well in advance, and a fairly complicated process used to raise its retail prices.

Donald Tr*mp has entered the chat. 

The financial problems the USPS have been aren’t the result of actions taken by Tr*mp solely, but they have been exasperated by the recent appointment of Louis DeJoy to be Postmaster General. Since taking over at USPS, DeJoy has been doing his best to dismantle the service like removing top officials, and delaying late arriving mail. While these are being done by DeJoy, you better believe it’s coming from the direction of the President.

Now let’s add some context as to why this is important to us now. COVID-19 hit the United States like a pile of bricks that we slowly watched come towards us. About 6 months since the first case, it’s clear we’ll be living in this new socially distanced society for a while. The need to keep our distance from each other won’t change on Election Day, which is why states across the country (NC included) are trying to make it a little easier to vote by mail/absentee ballot. For NC voters, an absentee ballot is a paper ballot that’s mailed to you, completed by you, and is mailed back/dropped off to your county Board of Elections office.

Starting to see why what tr*mp is doing, is wrong? He is intentionally trying to slow the mail service right before an election where the use of mail will be higher than ever before, and he knows it. Using mail greatly expands the number of people who are able to vote – think people who can’t vote early or on Election Day because of work or other obligations. On top of allowing mail to be delayed, tr*mp has also publicly said he would BLOCK any congressional funding intended to help fund the USPS prior to the election.

This. Is. Voter. Suppression. The president claims that he is only trying to prevent “voter fraud”, but there has been no evidence to support his claims, and he actively encourages voters in red (Republican) leaning states to vote by mail, I’m serious, he only wants his supporters to vote.

In conclusion, tr*mp is going to try and steal this election. Let’s try not to let this happen. Everybody’s situation is different, vote how you need to vote, but I highly recommend voting early. Early voting locations are typically spread throughout a city (I’ll touch on how voting locations are used to suppressed votes at a later date), open for most of the day, and are usually relatively empty compared to on Election Day. However, you should do what you believe is best for the well being of you and your family. If you’re going to vote absentee, just remember to request your ballot EARLY (deadline to request is Oct. 27), and mail it back EARLY, or better yet, drop off your ballot to the county BOE.

We’ve gotta do what we can to ensure we get that man out of office, even while they’re doing everything they can to drown our voices out. Thank you for reading, don’t forget to wear your masks, and keep looking for the big picture.

Hey friends! My name is Jordan and I want to start this post off by thanking you for visiting The Big Picture blog. I started this blog to, as the website header says, help make sense of a world that just doesn’t.

Specifically, I’ll be analyzing, and sharing my opinions on what’s going on in North Carolina state politics, as well as politics on a national level. I want to reiterate, that while I’ll be using fact based articles and reports, I’ll be sharing MY OPINIONS on what they may entail. My hope is that my posts will help make sense of the latest news, and spark curiosity in you to go and learn more on your own.

But who are you? You may be (rightfully) asking. I’m currently a Legislative Assistant in the General Assembly of North Carolina, but also a recent grad (2019) of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. I’m a native of Charlotte, North Carolina, and let me add that I absolutely love the city that I’m from. Truthfully, I care about a lot. However, lately I’ve been more determined than ever to help educate people on what is going on in the world around them. It’s easy for me to get a notification from a news outlet with the latest Executive Order from the President, and to understand it without much trouble. Unfortunately, that doesn’t work out the same for everybody; and over the last few years, I’ve learned you can’t hold that against people. American politics is… ugly, to put it simply. It’s massively complicated, and purposefully designed to illicit “compromise”. In school, we’re taught the basics, a very barebones introduction to American Government, and after that you don’t really touch it again unless you decide to Major in Political Science in college.

The failure of our education system in teaching us about our own system of government, and the need to remain engaged with it, has taught me the need to meet people where they are, wherever they are, and to make information accessible to them.

If you’ve made it this far in, thank you again for reading! When I get this blog up and running you can expect a weekly update on the latest NC/National news, and also special opinion pieces on pressing issues. Please share with anybody you think could benefit, and feel free to follow me on my socials: Twitter: JordanALopez_; IG: jordanlopez_ . Take care y’all, and always look for the bigger picture.