Opinion

The next president of the United States will confront a virulent jihadist threat, mounting effects of climate change, and an economy becoming ever more unequal.

When Republic presidential candidate Ben Carson made news recently by questioning whether a Muslim American could (or should) ever become president of the United States, his assertions recalled similar concerns raised by a political supporter of John McCain’s presidency at a rally seven years earlier. “I can’t trust Obama,” Gayle Quinnell told McCain, “I’ve read about him…and he’s an Arab.” Whether she meant Arab or Muslim, two identities often conflated in American understandings of Muslims, her fears revealed deeper concerns by some segments of the American public about the loyalty of Muslim Americans to the United States. McCain’s response was equally revealing. He did not challenge the idea that Arab Americans or Muslim Americans could and should be trusted to occupy the highest office of the land, but instead, he defended Obama against the “accusation” of being Arab. Obama was not an Arab, he responded, “he’s a decent family man, citizen” as if being an Arab or Muslim American prohibited decency or ties to family – or even American citizenship.

Cuban immigrants account for less than 1% of the US population , but they are uniquely poised by our immigration system to receive power and status that, in just one generation, can produce a candidate – or two – ready to enter the political scene on a national level.

Perusing a passage on the Civil War in a high school student’s history textbook in Texas might leave you wondering if black Americans were ever enslaved and if there really is any truth to anti-black racism at all.

One of the 17 presidential candidates recently said, “I can write a tax code in three pages.” Carly Fiorina isn’t alone among her fellow 2016 presidential contenders in advocating tax reform and simplification of the tax code. But none is quite so ambitious.

In responding to the attacks on multiple sites in Paris, French President François Hollande announced that Da’ish had declared war on France and promised retaliation. But why didn’t he call it the Islamic State? Or ISIL, like Barack Obama would? Or ISIS, as The New York Times or the BBC would? And why does it matter?

In the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks, political leaders have lined up to denounce the acts as inhuman and uncivilized, unworthy of our day and age.

Western countries and the Middle East are (finally) engaged in serious negotiations around resettling many more of the refugees from Syria – the largest humanitarian crisis since World War II.

Late next June, when each party will almost certainly have its presidential nominee in place and voters other than party stalwarts start paying real attention to the 2016 race, the US supreme court will likely hand down a ruling that will change the course of the race and many American women’s lives. That is because, on 13 November, the court announced that it will hear Whole Women’s Health v Cole, a challenge to HB2, Texas’s draconian anti-abortion statute.

The horrendous terrorist attacks in Paris and the resulting blanket media coverage have once again raised questions about the proportionality of news coverage when it comes to reporting deadly events.

The distended Republican presidential field’s response to the terror attacks in Paris is a conglomeration of policy proposals that look something like this: a ground invasion of Syria and Iraq that will explicitly be less careful about killing civilians, combined with a policy of relief for refugees only if they’re Christians.

France has been hit twice by radical Islamist terrorism in the last year to punish it for its strong military support for Obama’s war against ISIS known as Operation Inherent Resolve. First there was the Charlie Hebdo attacks in January, which led people across America to proclaim on their Facebook pages “Je suis Charlie.” Now we have the massacre of over one hundred Parisians by terrorists said to be tied to ISIS, which has led many to post on their Facebook pages “We are all French.”

The student protests at the University of Missouri and on other campuses across the country have brought greater attention to the educational plight of black students.