何毓琦的个人博客分享 http://blog.sciencenet.cn/u/何毓琦 哈佛(1961-2001) 清华(2001-date)

博文

What a week for the US – Democracy at her best

已有 11539 次阅读 2015-6-27 00:43 |个人分类:生活点滴|系统分类:海外观察

For new readers and those who request to be “好友 good friends” ,  please read my 公告first.

 

What a week for the US – Democracy it her best

For people follow US Washington politics and haveprogressive views, this past week has  been huge.

First , Congress passed the TransPacificPartner (TPP) on international trade and gave President Obama what he wanted in trade agreements with Asia despite objections from some parts of his own party. This is truly bipartisan legislation and not political gridlock.

Second, the Supreme Court upheld the legality of the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare,   the President’s signature legislation and legacy, for the second time  which brought  universal health care to the US in line with other developed nations of the world.

Third, the Supreme Court upheld a wider interpretation of the Fair Housing Act  which  forbids even unintentional discrimination.

Fourth, same sex marriage is now legal in 14 States that still held out against  such  marriages so that everyone in the entire country is equal before the law  regardless of  sexual orientations. Majority of Americans already prefer such equality but  die-hard conservatives wish to adhere to the religious view that only  marriage between a man and a woman is legal.

I can hardly remember a week in which so many momentous events on social issues  are  decided and accepted by the population in a democratic way. Being a liberal, I  am  of course happy with the results. But I am even happier that these events  demonstrated that  democracy is still alive and well and that the check-and-balance system of government  in the US worked.




https://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-1565-900868.html

上一篇:Money talks (3)
下一篇:The Greek Economic Crisis,The Euro zone, and the UN
收藏 IP: 74.104.133.*| 热度|

4 李天成 魏焱明 朱传卫 zhangfeng123

该博文允许注册用户评论 请点击登录 评论 (3 个评论)

数据加载中...
扫一扫,分享此博文

Archiver|手机版|科学网 ( 京ICP备07017567号-12 )

GMT+8, 2024-11-14 09:25

Powered by ScienceNet.cn

Copyright © 2007- 中国科学报社

返回顶部