Every four years our nation goes through a political paroxysm of (pick one or all): furious activity, anxiety, fear, or loathing. The Presidential election -- this year may be the worst ever. The nation has gone through a grueling time since the 2020 election. Now, not only must we choose our president & vice-president, 1/3 of all Senators, all members of the House of Representatives, countless governors and state legislators – we are faced with two very different philosophies of governance.
This SDG proposes to study Election 2024 in each of the three terms in 2024. While we will focus on the Presidential race, we’ll also discuss important local and national trends & issues as they emerge.
This 14-week SDG, at Gayley.
Barbara Klein Coordinator; Ed Markarian Co-coordinator.
The first term, winter 2024, will cover the candidates. If there is no opposition to the Biden/Harris ticket, we'll study their performances over the past four years in depth. We'll study ALL other candidates for President - assessing their backgrounds, philosophies, strengths and weeknesses. The remainder of the first term will cover issues which are the most pertinent in the election. These include, but are not limited to: women's health, immigration, race, wokeness, climate change, war, and the international scene and its impact on the US.
The second term, spring-summer, will be open to all, but folks who participated in the first term will get priority. Likely topics will be California, the Supreme and other courts, the media, money, interest groups, gerrymandering, apparent strategies, importance of control of small, local public governmental bodies - and we'll follow conventions, platforms, any primaries and debates.
The third term, fall, will be open to all, but folks who participated in the first two terms will get priority. Likely topics will be swing states and how they seem to be swinging, California & its ballot measures, impact of "the big lie", debates, the Electoral College v popular vote, polls & polling, voter suppression v voter fraud.
Each week of each term we'll spend time discussing any new developments in issues, strategy, funding, scandals - if it's important and relevant, we'll discuss it.
Any & all news media