Tag: Power (social and political)

But examination of presidential Cabinets over the past 50 years reveals that both parties maintain similar levels of connections with elite corporate actors. Yet the Trump administration has taken this relationship to new heights. What is more, Freitag found that little difference existed between Republican (78 percent) and Democratic Cabinet members (73 percent) when it came to corporate affiliations. This new cohort of social scientists reshaped the conversation concerning the intersection between corporate and political power, bringing in a much more critical perspective on U.S. politics. The power elite has continued to shape American politics. Since the Nixon administration, more than 70 percent of both Republican and Democratic Cabinets have been filled by either corporate veterans or by people who decamped to corporate America after serving in the Cabinet. George W. Bush (100 percent), Nixon (90 percent), and Ford (82 percent) possessed the highest percentage of these elite appointments, while the Carter (71 percent) and George H.W. Bush (71 percent) administrations had the lowest. And yet, Trump has taken this tradition to a new level. His administration has featured more individuals coming from the corporate sphere than any recent administration (72 percent).

Now, with his son newly installed as a top aide to the president, Kushner even expressed hope, one close family friend said, that he might receive a pardon. Absolution, however, is not what the White House has conferred on the Kushners. Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn are studying whether one of Kushner's daughters dangled White House influence before prospective Chinese investors. Most recently, the head of the federal Office of Government Ethics informed a House member in a letter that he had asked the White House counsel to examine meetings in the White House last year between Jared Kushner and officials from two financial companies. That Josh Kushner, 32, has made no secret of the fact that he did not vote for Trump upset his brother, several friends said. "We are actively involved in more than US$3 billion of projects and banks are providing US$1.5 billion of financing in the first six months of this year," he said. Josh Kushner, who runs the investment firm Thrive Capital, which recently raised a US$700 million fund, cleared the meeting with outside counsel beforehand, his spokesman said. Charles Kushner says he is willing to buy out his partner, but some business associates say that would only double an already money-losing real estate bet. She added that her brother had left the firm to work in the Trump administration. "My daughter, our company, did nothing wrong," he said.

When the West Virginia governor and legislature agreed last week to boost teacher salaries, it represented a major victory and show of political strength for the educators who had walked out on strike nine days earlier. But the strike also illustrates the ways that political debates still reflect the long-standing dominance of men in American politics and how collective action led by female teachers was able to confront and overcome what my research calls a “legacy of patriarchy.” In my book manuscript, “Educating the Nation: Gender, Federalism and Women’s Empowerment in the United States,” I define the legacy of patriarchy in the United States as consisting of two features. First, men no longer dominate women as they once did in American society, with women now having more political power. Before passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920, many American women lacked the right to vote. In addition, women in many states gained the right to vote in school elections and were elected to county and state superintendent positions. Women’s power in the teaching profession Second, in addition to votes, occupational standing empowers women politically as they challenge patriarchy and its legacies. And while of course many teachers in West Virginia are men, teachers organizations in the state are mostly led by women. Seventy percent of 51 county presidents in West Virginia’s NEA affiliate and 59 percent of 37 county presidents in West Virginia’s American Federation of Teachers affiliate are women. Because there are 50 sovereigns in the federal system, teachers’ rights are privileges from the state. One consequence of the strike is that it may have made it easier for teachers in the state to gain bargaining rights down the road.