July 12, 2023

July 12, 2023: Cocaine at the White House, Lindsay Graham flip-flopper, Surprisingly Strong US Economy, Proper role of the US Supreme Court

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Cocaine was recently discovered in the White House. This never happened in the Trump Administration. Is this a big deal?
Senator Lindsay Graham has taken quite a beating recently. First he was as anti-Trump as any Republican, then he was Trump’s most loyal defender. After January 6, Graham was again anti-Trump, but later was the first to endorse Trump’s 2024 candidacy. Most pundits say that this all shows that Graham will do anything for power. Is Lindsey Graham unique? Is he just worse at hiding who he is deep-down? Do you think that most elected officials will do anything for power?
Here we are midway through 2023 and the US economy is doing better than economists forecasted it would. Inflation is definitely a problem, but wages are up and unemployment is down. Yet, most Americans think that the economy is performing poorly and there are striking partisan differences in what people think. Why is that? Why would Republicans and Democrats have such different views about something objective like the state of the US economy?

Big Question: The Supreme Court is Ideologically, to the right of the rest of the American public. This can be seen in a lot of the decisions that have come down in the last couple of years. It is hard to know what the Founders intended with the Supreme Court. President Oaks said that not every Supreme Court decision is inspired, and he does not list judicial review among the principles divinely inspired in the constitution. Article III of the Constitution is very short, which leaves the Supreme Court with a lot of latitude in deciding their proper role in society. They are the only of our three branches of government led by unelected individuals. Is it good for the Supreme Court to be involved in public policy? Do they overstep their own constitutional bounds when they override legislation?

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