Decision Day?

Decision Day?

The Democratic presidential campaign could be decided today in Texas–the nation’s most populous state with one of its most diverse populations. (Candidates have likened campaign there to stumping in five states.)

The Lone Star State also has the most complicated set of voting rules of any state in the union. The document detailing the delegate selection process is thirty-seven dense pages long. Some people call the system the “Texas Two Step.” Others have termed it a primacaucus — a hybrid of a primary and caucus. Whatever you call it, the youth voter group, Why Tuesday?, established to make election reform an issue that our elected pols can’t keep ignoring, has created a new video to explain how Texas really selects its delegates.

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The Democratic presidential campaign could be decided today in Texas–the nation’s most populous state with one of its most diverse populations. (Candidates have likened campaign there to stumping in five states.)

The Lone Star State also has the most complicated set of voting rules of any state in the union. The document detailing the delegate selection process is thirty-seven dense pages long. Some people call the system the “Texas Two Step.” Others have termed it a primacaucus — a hybrid of a primary and caucus. Whatever you call it, the youth voter group, Why Tuesday?, established to make election reform an issue that our elected pols can’t keep ignoring, has created a new video to explain how Texas really selects its delegates.

And if you want to keep your own delegate tally today as voting unfolds in Ohio, Vermont and Rhode Island as well as Texas, check out Slate’s nifty new delegate counter. Is it possible for Barack Obama to get a majority without the help of superdelegates? Could Puerto Rico’s delegates really decide the nomination? How much would a narrow victory in Texas help Hillary Clinton? The delegate counter knows.

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

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Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

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