Author: Robert Wesley Branch

San Francisco liberal – used as an epithet. Progressive – hurled as a pejorative. Dumb. Low IQ. DEI hire. Communist. Bitch. These are all attacks hurled by candidates and campaigns in order to win an election (or at least to win the news cycle!) – all made with the intention of dismissing the seriousness, eroding the viability and demeaning the character, judgment and decision-making of the opponent running for the same office. Some people wear these labels proudly, taking them as battle scars and are not in the least bit insulted by them. Others receive these insults as deeply personal attacks and fight back by devastatingly hitting below the belt. During an election cycle, we see this every day. For those of us who are not politicians, who are just out here being humans each day, how do we respond to the insults we receive? To react is to rely on and lead with emotion in our words and deeds. To respond is to carefully craft an intention and to consciously create, through our words and deeds, thoughts and behaviors that spiritually govern matter. In other words, we are conscious of Ephesians 6:12: “For we wrestle not against flesh and Read More …

You can make the right decision. And you can make the decision right. So many political analysts, pundits and opinion writers (myself among them!) were expecting, even hoping that Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro would be selected by Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris to be her pick for Vice President. For some of them, in the wake of her choice of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, that hope has turned to cope. Most of you know what it’s like to be the hope of your family. You may be pursuing a career path in an occupation in which no one in the family before you has ever practiced and succeeded. Your income may be above all the rest of the kinfolks. You may have purchased the first home the bloodline has ever known, elevating the whole tribe from generational urban renters to suburban owners. Because of your line of work, you may have traveled the world in business and first class. You may arrive at the airport on the opposite coast, to a tuxedo-clad gentleman holding a small placard with your name on it, waiting to escort you to an idling sedan, that whisks you to and from the airport in the Read More …

Everything is energy. Nothing rests. Everything moves. Everything vibrates. Political scientists who write opinion pieces for national newspapers, who offer regular and constant punditry on podcasts and cable news network TV shows – these are the folks who eat, sleep and drink politics as a passion and for profit. Even as this media class broadcasts and livestreams their views to the public, it often feels like they are, in essence, speaking primarily to themselves, amongst themselves. Tuning in to them is, for the wise, a measured practice, taken in balance with the wider realities of average people in everyday life. In other words, listen to them critically, carefully and in context.  In this presidential election season, the political science of it all, for this political observer, takes a backseat to the spirit of it all. Science, analysis and strategy originate in the left brain. Creativity, passion and imagination reside in the right brain. The left brain is linear, mathematical, practical, always in control, realistic, ordered and logical. Much of the punditry of political scientists comes from the left hemisphere of their brains – the daily and hourly analysis of trending in polls is the demonstration of their left brains constantly Read More …

The older I get, the more labels I leave behind. Human beings understand our world through the stories we tell and teach about ourselves and others. We write and speak about the ideas and concepts we were taught and have come to learn and think we understand; the beliefs and traditions we have inherited and either outgrown or deepened. Within the American melting pot, there is an alphabet soup we use to communicate with (and to understand) one another. The Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender-Queer community has their call letters: LGBTQ. The formerly enslaved have been called Colored, Negro, Black and African American. American Descendants of Slavery are now, in some socio-political and academic circles, referred to as ADOS, as distinct from Black African immigrants to the United States and Black immigrants from the Caribbean. In conversation and debate, political scientists refer to themselves and speak of others as being on the Right or Left, identifying as Liberal, Moderate, Conservative, Radical, Revolutionary, Nationalist or Separatist – left wing, right wing, far left or far right. Partisans vote for either the Democratic or Republican parties, with others standing outside of that two-party system as registered Independents. Fascists. Marxists. Communists. We study and understand history through Read More …

Do you hear what I hear? Over the course of her vast and storied career, when broadcaster and journalist Barbara Walters (1929-2022) asked pointed questions to world leaders, did opinion writers of her day characterize her questions as “accusatory?” Perhaps they did and I was too young to be paying close attention at the time. No doubt Ms. Walters, unquestionably a pioneer and trailblazer in the field of journalism, faced her share of criticism as a woman asking tough questions to high-profile and prominent men in politics, sports and entertainment. Had she been a woman of color perhaps the criticisms of her may have been even more fierce. The tone of ABC News’ Rachel Scott’s opening question to former President Donald Trump at Wednesday’s National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) conference in Chicago was not (to my ear!) “accusatory,” as described by Peggy Noonan in her Wall Street Journal “Declarations” opinion piece, “The Fight of Trump’s Political Life: Kamala Harris has the wind at her back. Her strengths became clearer in the last two weeks.” (August 1, 2024. 5:52 p.m. ET) In case you missed it, here is Rachel Scott’s opening question in its entirety. “Hi, Mr. Trump. Rachel Scott. Read More …