Donna Brazile
We can be thankful President Barack Obama is taking aim at one of the prime causes of climate change and extreme weather: air pollution. The EPA's carbon pollution standards are the most significant step forward our country has ever taken to protect our health by addressing climate change.Collection: Thankful
The untold secret driving the obstruction to Obama's economic equality agenda is this: The opposition isn't really battling Big Government. The opposition is protecting an economic system that's putting more and more of the earned income out of reach for those aspiring to better themselves.Collection: Equality
Because of my faith and my imagination, I was able to enjoy my childhood, even though it was tough.Collection: Imagination
If you're a Supreme Court justice, the American people have elevated you to one of the highest offices in the land out of the goodness of their heart and out of deference to your legal wisdom. You get a lifetime appointment, limitless prestige, a great office, and what I have to assume is a very comfortable chair.Collection: Legal
I was motivated to be different in part because I was different.Collection: Motivational
While the law cannot force a person to be moral or tolerant, through the law we can demand respect and expect equality.Collection: Equality
It takes but one person, one moment, one conviction, to start a ripple of change.Collection: Change
Politics is a rough and tumble business. It's not for the faint-hearted. I've got bruises and cuts from being in the political arena. But by and large, I understand how to navigate the process.Collection: Politics
Civic education and civic responsibility should be taught in elementary school.Collection: Education
As a practicing Catholic all my life, my faith and the church are never far from my mind. The lessons I learned in the church have structured the way I've approached my life and my career. They were lessons of grace, kindness, forgiveness, and compassion.Collection: Forgiveness
We march on toward the realization of the American Dream. We are not diverted by those who would deny opportunity based on what we look like or where we came from or who would deny equality based on who we love.Collection: Equality
Look, Congress has allocated more money to finance the upcoming Iraqi elections than it has for the American elections. There's something wrong with that.Collection: Finance
I think people involved in politics make good actors. Acting and politics both involve fooling people. People like being fooled by actors. When you get right down to it, they probably like being fooled by politicians even more. A skillful actor will make you think, but a skillful politician will make you never have to think.Collection: Politics
I keep telling these millennials it's all about them to get into politics and start making things happen. They don't care about whether or not someone is gay. They don't care to see contraception taken away or want to even discuss it. They're going forward, not backward.
As a child, I lived through and survived the segregated South. I sat at the back of the bus at a time when America wasn't yet as great as it could be. As a grown woman, I saw the first black president reach down a hand and touch the face of a child like I once was, lifting his eyes toward a better future.
I was told, time and time again, that God's potential didn't exist in people like me. I've spent my life fighting to change that. And, from the first day when I met Hillary Clinton, I've known that she's someone who cares just as much and fights just as hard.
At the same time that Donald Trump was facing a federal discrimination lawsuit for refusing to rent to minority families, Hillary Clinton risked her own safety to seek out the truth, to comfort the afflicted, and to make a home for justice where there was none. It was at the Children's Defense Fund that I met Hillary.
Let me say this as your incoming chair of the Democratic national committee: I promise you, my friends, I commit to all Americans, that we will have a party that you can be proud of. We will elect Democrats up and down the ballot.
The middle ground in Congress has all but disappeared. The founders intended competing principles and interests to check excesses and create a balance in our politics that would benefit 'we the people.' Gerrymandered districts and a hyped-up fight-night media offer a partial explanation of why we seem to have neither checks nor balances.
Why do we need to support the food stamp program? Because low-income families experience unemployment at a far higher rate than other income groups. Because cutting nutritional assistance programs is immoral and shortsighted, and protecting families from hunger improves their health and educational outcomes.
Food stamps are an investment in our future.
Being on food stamps can be demeaning. Cashiers know the difference between the new plastic SNAP cards and a credit card. Some food stamp recipients say some cashiers have made them feel uncomfortable and embarrassed.
Why not add benefits for making healthy food choices, provide a transition bonus for getting off food stamps, or increase job training opportunities and income - raising minimum wage?
I think it's important to remember that civil rights and economic rights are mutually dependent.
I grew up in the once segregated South. I experienced forced integration during my formative school years. I lived the sacrifices, burdens, and tears. I also lived the moments of understanding, of acknowledgment, of fellowship and success. I saw my parents and grandparents coming home beaten down - and some of my friends beaten up.
If you don't know about the 'black male code,' you should. It's something black boys learn early, even before adolescence. It goes, in part, like this: Even though you're not a criminal, some people assume you are, especially if you're wearing certain clothes. Never argue with the police, but protect your dignity and take pride in humility.
A government of, by, and for the people requires that people talk to people, that we can agree to disagree but do so in civility. If we let the politicians and those who report dictate our discourse, then our course will be dictated.
Remember, Obama was elected by a bigger margin than George W. Bush. He deserves to have his appointees, and he deserves to have votes on the issues, to have the government function, and to fight for the policies on which he was elected.
For some Republicans, 2016 is 1992: Hating Hillary Clinton is chic again. Only more so, since the former secretary of state is also the partner of and potential successor to the last two Democratic presidents - Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
Some of us believe, with good reasons, that the Republicans are 'mad-dogging' Hillary Clinton with the Benghazi hearing to damage not only her presidential prospects, but also to damage President Obama's credibility.
Until there are no more hate crimes, no more vicious bullying and ugly slurs, whenever a person comes out - whether that person is a celebrity or a 'nobody' - it should be celebrated like the triumph of courage it is.
My mother wasn't a very patient woman. If I complained about being lonely or bored, she'd tell me to go help someone, anyone. To this day, when I start feeling sorry for myself, I look for a good deed to do.
Men don't wear high heels, and they don't make allowances for women who do. Tottering down the corridors of power in beautiful but crippling stilettos telegraphs your preference for style over substance.
We march on because all lives matter, not to be judged by the color of their skin.
The walk from Selma to Montgomery that turned into Bloody Sunday leaves us with a strong reminder of how much those before us gave for basic human rights.
It is easy to fall into despair thinking about all that is wrong with the world. The joys seems so small in comparison. Internet videos of cats riding Roombas just can't compete with a father talking about how his dead 13-year-old son had wanted to be a pilot.
If you want your checkbook to follow your heart, make a donation to those doing work you support.
When I was growing up, our nation was partitioned: Blacks were segregated by law in the South and largely by custom in the North, though it, too, had segregation laws. Our best universities had quota systems. Many white communities had real estate covenants to keep nonwhites out.
As the civil rights struggle progressed, Americans responded to the justice of the cause, shedding layers of the crusty armor that shielded the white majority from contact with its large black minority. There are layers left. It feels so much better to be on good terms with one another.
The grand jury system - not just in Ferguson, but nationwide - needs a hard look. Millions feel that officers who are trigger-happy are handed a license to shoot - based not on facts, but on stereotypes the officers carry.
Before Hillary-bashing became its own thing, she was subjected to the standard-issue woman-bashing used on every powerful woman in Washington.
Women in Washington - and in positions of power anywhere - should be subjected to the same criticisms and held to the same standards as men. That does not include the assumption that any successful woman has attained her position through flattery, feminine wiles, or her ability to provide maternal comfort to a more powerful man.
Due process policies such as tenure are put in place to protect good teachers from being fired without cause. They aren't there to protect 'bad' teachers.
Over the years, I've worked for and alongside the American Federation of Teachers and National Education Association. That's because I am proud of our public school teachers - including my niece who teaches down in Louisiana - just as I am proud of our nation's education system.
Democratic candidates who run from President Obama in red states where he is unpopular are making a big mistake. Their holding Obama at arm's length deprives voters of a clear choice at the ballot box.
As a longtime political operative, I know firsthand how a vote here or a vote there can make a huge difference in a close election.
Voting shouldn't be a challenge. It should be as easy and accessible as possible. We shouldn't require forms of ID that folks don't have. We shouldn't restrict days or hours that allow working people a chance to both do their job and exercise their democratic right, and we damn well shouldn't be throwing up new obstacles midstream.
As Democrats, we believe in giving every eligible citizen the opportunity to vote - whether it's early because they can't take off work on Election Day or absentee because they might have plans to be out of town.
Our democracy relies on participation, and we've never done better by excluding folks.
As Americans, we are proud that we are a country that people run to, not from.