Important headlines for July 18th – Religious representation in South Florida
Bottom Line: These are stories you shouldn't miss and my takes on them...
Underrepresented in politics, Muslim candidates seek to become a force in South Florida - Sun Sentinel - AP
Excerpt: From Congress to state legislatures and school boards, Muslim Americans spurred to action by the anti-Muslim policies and rhetoric of President Donald Trump and his supporters are running for elected offices in numbers not seen since before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, say Muslim groups and political observers.
Hot Take: Where to begin... How about with the first false editorial advanced as fact in this story...spurred to action by the anti-Muslim policies and rhetoric of President Donald Trump. Anti-Muslim polices? So, state please. That's demonstrably false, in fact the Supreme Court just recently ruled on that issue and yet it's being reported falsely as fact? How is that deemed acceptable? It's quite literally fake news. Now second, to the premise of the story – Muslims are under-represented in Florida, and specifically South Florida.
According to the Census Bureau there were just under 165,000 Muslims in our state in 2010 (most recent data available). That was good for the 6th largest Muslim population nationally – at a time when Florida was just about to pass New York for the 3rd largest population with 18.84 million residents. Put it altogether and .9% of Florida's population is Muslim. They should be equitably represented as all Floridian's/Americans should be but technically not having a Muslim representative isn't underrepresenting based on Muslims making up less than 1% of our state's population...what's interesting, however is the desire to advance this narrative. When was the last time you can recall the media advancing the call for increased religious representation in politics? I guess it just had to be a religion they wanted to advance.
What Critics Missed About Trump-Putin Summit Roger Kimball, American Greatness
Hot Take: Anything meaningful...but mostly President Trump's foreign policy credibility that exceeds that of any living person because Donald Trump has achieved more foreign policy success than any President since Reagan. They missed that the US and the world are safer today than prior to Donald Trump becoming President. They missed that dialogue with Putin makes the US safer and the world safer than not having dialogue with him. They missed the point of the summit.
Until Tomorrow...