Archive for the ‘Progressives’ Category

Kansas Progressives and Reaction – Video


Kansas Progressives and Reaction
Overview of Progressivism in Kansas in the early 20th century and conservative reaction to Progressivism.

By: Doug Harvey

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Kansas Progressives and Reaction - Video

Have Progressives Won? – Video


Have Progressives Won?
This is an excerpt from Hillsdale College #39;s online course "Constitution 101." Watch the full Q A and lecture here: http://online.hillsdale.edu/course/con101/part10/week-10-lecture.

By: Hillsdale College Online Courses

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Have Progressives Won? - Video

Real Progressives Should Support Indianas Law

TIME Ideas politics Real Progressives Should Support Indianas Law Michael ConroyAP A window sticker on a downtown Indianapolis business, Wednesday, March 25, 2015, shows its objection to the Religious Freedom bill passed by the Indiana legislature.

Ilya Shapiro is a senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute and co-author of "Religious Liberties for Corporations? Hobby Lobby, the Affordable Care Act, and the Constitution."

Im for marriage equality having filed many briefs supporting challenges to restrictive state laws but I have no problem with Indianas new religious-freedom law. And neither should progressives.

After all, would you want Unitarians to work the audio equipment at a Southern Baptist revival? Would you force a Jewish printer to produce anti-Semitic flyers? Would you require Muslim butchers to serve pork ribs?

The Supreme Court said in 1990 that the First Amendment doesnt grant exemptions from generally applicable laws, so religious objectors have to seek relief from the legislature. Accordingly, a near-unanimous Congress passed, and President Bill Clinton signed, the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act to ensure that laws and other government actions only burden religious exercise where absolutely necessary to achieve a compelling goal.

Twenty states have followed suit including Illinois, with the support of state Senator Barack Obama plus courts in 11 other states interpreted state constitutions to provide similar protections. So mark me unimpressed by Hillary Clintons tweeted disappointment that this new Indiana law can happen in America today.

Indeed, the American Civil Liberties Union and other progressive groups long supported these laws, which have been used to protect religious practices involving hallucinogenic substances, animal sacrifices, eagle feathers, and symbolic daggers but not discrimination in hiring employees or serving customers.

None of these laws, at either the federal or state levels, have ever allowed exemptions from anti-discrimination laws. Indiana isnt even one of the 21 states that prohibit employers from discriminating based on sexual orientation, so theres no exemption to be granted here.

Some who protest the new law point to its explicit application to disputes between private parties. But most courts including the most progressive federal appellate court in the nation, the California-based Ninth Circuit have interpreted the federal RFRA in this manner too. And that makes sense: If someone invokes a law to force you to do something, your objection would be to that law, without which there would be no burden on your religious exercise.

But again, never has a RFRA allowed a private party to discriminate against gays (or anyone else) in employment, service, housing, or any other scenario in the parade of horribles raised by opponents of Indianas law.

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Real Progressives Should Support Indianas Law

APC condemns terrorist attack on Kenyan varsity

The All Progressives Congress says it strongly condemnsThursdaysterrorist attack that left 147 people dead at the Garissa UniversityCollege in Kenya, calling it dastardly and unjustifiable.

In a statement in Lagos on Friday by its National PublicitySecretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party described the Somali terrorgroup, Al-Shabaab, which claimed responsibility for the killings, as abunch of cowardly extremists, who have no place in a decent society.

APC said, Nothing can justify such a deadly and senseless attack on innocentand defenceless citizens, and those who planned and executed theheinous killings in Kenya stand condemned globally.

Terrorism has become a global scourge, and any terrorist attackanywhere is a terrorist attack everywhere. Therefore, terrorists willnot find any hiding place, it said.

It expressed its deepest condolences to the government and people ofKenya, and prayed that the families of the victims would find succourwhile wishing those injured in the attacks a speedy recovery.

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APC condemns terrorist attack on Kenyan varsity

PROGRESSIVES REJECT THE PRINCIPLES OF THE FOUNDING – Video


PROGRESSIVES REJECT THE PRINCIPLES OF THE FOUNDING

By: red3lima

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PROGRESSIVES REJECT THE PRINCIPLES OF THE FOUNDING - Video