All posts tagged: Trump

Report Card: Year Two of the Trump Administration

Published by littlelaosontheprairie

Shortly after the elections in November, 2016, Little Laos on the Prairie responded with an article assessing possible implications for the Lao community in the coming years ahead. On January 30th, 2018, President Trump delivered his first State of the Union address following a year that was filled with many challenges from all fronts. Expectations are understandably high, because 2018 is also the year for US midterm elections, which will be hotly contested. On the line are 435 seats in the United States House of Representatives and 33 of 100 seats in the United States Senate, in addition to 39 governorships among other key positions. Under a normal presidency, the President’s party, historically, loses majority control of Congress. This is not necessarily a given in 2018, but current polling suggests that Democrats may be on track to significant victories across the country in November. CNN has called Minnesota ground zero for the midterms, saying “The governor’s office, as many as five House seats and not one but two Senate seats are up for grabs.” And …

The Possible Realities of Lao America Under a Trump Presidency

Published by Bryan Thao Worra

This is a series of opinion pieces on the Lao America response to post-elections 2016.  For Lao Americans, the results of this year’s presidential election in many ways didn’t come as a surprise. After all, since our diaspora began over four decades ago, we’ve seen that any number of unusual candidates can rise into public office, such as actors Ronald Reagan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Clint Eastwood, or Jesse Ventura. A good study of civics obliges us to place faith in the electoral college system, designed to ensure small states have an equal vote as much as larger states to preserve the republic. This year the statistics show that a little over 46% of eligible voters did not do so, but Minnesota, at least, came out in higher voter turnout than the national average. We know that our local fellow Southeast Asian and API communities organized to get out the vote and to encourage our fellow Lao to be civically-engaged. For the next four years or so, the Republican party will now be in charge of all …