Afleveringen
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I love June in Indianapolis. Schoolâs out for me. The gardens, flowers and lawns around town are blooming and greening with optimism. And the city is quiet as it recovers from its traditionally hectic month of May. As my favorite performer, David Ryan Harris, sang in concert many years ago, this time of year transforms âslow like the breezes of springtime melt into summerâs grace.â
As a dad, I am treated well in June. As a golfer, Indianaâs greens rarely run smoother. As a proud downtown dweller, my neighbors never love each other better. And that last one is all because of Indy Pride.
Indy Pride is celebrating thirty years as an organization in 2025. Its founding preceded President Bill Clintonâs declaration of June as Pride Month in 1999. Yes, there are organizations all over America holding events during this wonderful month. Iâve had comparative conversations with people from other cities countless times. They usually go like this: âOur Pride is the best becauseâŠâ An opening that often leads to an interruption of, âNo, ours is better becauseâŠâ
The truth is all of them are special, and while I love mine the most, Indiana is not all that different from the rest of America. Cities and towns all over the state also have events of their own. From Fort Wayne to Spencer, from Greenwood to River City Pride in Warrick County, Hoosiers celebrate the LGBTQ community, and importantly, our collective love of it this month.
That is why it so truly evil that Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith hates it so much.
I recognize Beckwithâs hatefulness. It grows from ignorance, and his relentless commitment to it. On May 30th, he posted âPRIDE MONTH ALERT: The Rainbow Beast is Coming For Your Kidsâ on his Micah Beckwith for Indiana Facebook page. The kooky post is largely lifted from the story posted on an equally kooky website called âThe Dissenter.â
Itâs difficult to editorialize on the lunatic rantings of, again, the sitting lieutenant governor of the State of Indiana. Itâs akin to arguing with an idiot; thereâs not much to be gained in the exercise.
But as humanity begins the loving and celebratory month of June, it is important to bring attention to a primary reason why Pride exists. It is the ignorance, the lunacy, and the hatefulness from the smallest of people, like Beckwith, that should motivate those of us who love Prideâs celebrations to stay focused on its absolute necessity.
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Michael Leppert is an author, educator and a communication consultant in Indianapolis. He writes about government, politics and culture at MichaelLeppert.com.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Indiana Citizen or any other affiliated organization.
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In the 1983 classic film, âTrading Places,â Louis Winthorpe III and Billy Ray Valentine are victims of a scientific experiment that is thrust upon them by the elite bosses of a Philadelphia commodities brokerage. Winthorpe is a young, snobby broker at the firm, with all the right credentials and upbringing. He is comprehensively replaced by Valentine, a streetwise but uneducated nobody. The amateur sociological experiment aimed to prove that environment is more predictive than genetics in determining personal success or failure.
After the switch, Winthorpe spots Valentine wearing the clothes he once owned, specifically his Harvard tie. Only the cream of the crop, the elites among the elite are worthy of wearing the schoolâs crest. An enraged Winthorpe exclaims, âLike oh sure, he went to Harvard!â
I used to repeat the line out loud anytime I saw Harvard gear being worn by anyone, anywhere--especially to friends who actually did go to school there. It used to be fun.
In 2025, Donald Trump is trying to destroy arguably our most reputable institution of higher education based on his âclaims that Harvard has failed to stamp out antisemitism on campus,â as reported by NPRâs Steve Inskeep, in the Morning Edition on Tuesday.
Itâs nonsense of course.
Pretend for a moment that a specific ground zero of all American antisemitism actually existed. Where would that place be? I might look at the places flying Nazi or Confederate flags. I might look at the places where historic hostilities toward minorities of any kind thrive. I might look where hate crimes are being committed and civil rights are under threat.
Trump has chosen to look at Harvard, a university with a Jewish population among undergraduates of approximately 26%, according to Hillel International. Thatâs where the MAGA crowd believes antisemitism needs thwarted. More importantly, they believe the make-believe crisis is worthy of annihilating one of the worldâs most respected institutions to solve it.
Again, itâs all nonsense. No one actually believes any of this. However, Trumpâs supporters love destroying things. The destruction of our global reputation, the U.S. Capitol, the rule of law, etc. are proof of that. Damn the consequences, they primarily enjoy burning stuff down.
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Michael Leppert is an author, educator and a communication consultant in Indianapolis. He writes about government, politics and culture at MichaelLeppert.com.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Indiana Citizen or any other affiliated organization.
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Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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Bureaucracy is a word that is often used as an excuse. It is the bogeyman that serves as the source of mysterious and insurmountable odds preventing government from delivering the obvious good and right things to its people.
Why are the streets in Indianapolis so horrible? Why is school funding seemingly always distributed unfairly? Eventually, the answers to those questions lead to the faceless phantom, known as bureaucracy. However, sometimes that phantom is identified, making accountability possible for whatever ails us. Thatâs when we point at an actual person, the sinister âbureaucrat.â
On May 7th, Whitney Downard reported for the Indiana Capital Chronicle, ââA giant leap backwardsâ: Indiana opts out of summer program for hungry schoolchildren.â She reported that in 2024, Hoosier families who qualify for food benefits and reduced-price school meals got a summertime boost: $120 per child monthly for food while schools were closed. It provided that assistance to 669,000 children.
What made it news earlier this month is that Indianaâs participation last year, wonât be repeated this year. The reason? You guessed it, bureaucracy. Downard asked âthree state entitiesâ about the withdrawal from the SUN Bucks program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, including the important question: why? At that time, no reasoning was provided.
I was hopeful more reporting would follow, and on May 16th, it did.
Rachel Fradette reported for WFYI that in a statement from Indianaâs Family and Social Services Administration, that âclear directionâ was needed from state leadership last year for the program to be rolled out in a timely manner. âUpon taking office, this administration quickly submitted a waiver application to the Food and Nutrition Service to explore all possible avenues for launching the program this summerâŠHowever, our review revealed that the gaps in prior preparations prevented implementation in time for Summer 2025.â
Thatâs the classic blaming of bureaucracy. But thereâs a face here, and that face is Governor Mike Braun. Could this Trump loyalist have made a phone call to the White House? Yes. Did he?
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Michael Leppert is an author, educator and a communication consultant in Indianapolis. He writes about government, politics and culture at MichaelLeppert.com.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Indiana Citizen or any other affiliated organization.
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In the opening scene of the film, âThe Hate U Give,â a father is having The Talk with his two young children. It is a common discussion Black families have in America to prepare for the inevitable contact with law enforcement they will face, and how to stay safe in those situations. It is a sad necessity, but a necessity all the same.
The movie was based on the 2017 award-winning novel by Angie Thomas. It was inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, though plenty of important things have happened in real life since then.
In The Talk, the father is instructing his kids how to be submissive when confronted by an armed aggressor with governmental authority. That submissiveness communicates to the authority the intent to be compliant and peaceful and is designed to lower the temperature of the moment. The goal is to survive the moment and then worry about justice through due process later.
Itâs good advice. At least it used to be. Before 2025, the advice from The Talk made some assumptions. Primarily, that those claiming to be the police were exactly that.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, has apparently made mask-wearing part of the standard attire when detaining people. Sometimes they are in military style clothing, and sometimes they are in plain clothes, an inconsistency that makes them even less trustworthy. The agents are often armed with semi-automatic rifles adding to the fear factor of the costumes being worn when capturing their targets.
When I first noticed it earlier this year, I was surprised and curious. With each passing video, my initial concern has evolved into outrage. It is disturbing how this approach to law enforcement has quickly become the norm at the Department of Homeland Security, the governing department of ICE.
We cannot stand for this practice to spread to other law enforcement agencies, or for it to continue with DHS. And The Talk wonât work for this.
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Michael Leppert is an author, educator and a communication consultant in Indianapolis. He writes about government, politics and culture at MichaelLeppert.com.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Indiana Citizen or any other affiliated organization.
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In âMother Night,â Kurt Vonnegut wrote: âWe are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.â I might add: âAnd for how long.â
I was invited to join a small group of students last week to celebrate the completion of their undergraduate degrees. We first met four years ago, and I remember the moment vividly. It was my first day as a full-time instructor at an elite business school and they were freshmen in their first week of classes.
Heading into the fourth lecture of that first day, I wasnât convinced I had made the right decision to leave a lucrative private sector career to teach. I didnât know how the technology in the classroom worked. I didnât know I could move the furniture around any way I wanted. I was so consumed with my own ignorance that I hadnât even considered the far more unsettled condition of these young people. They expected me to be brilliant, to be a source of stability in the middle of the chaos of their first week of college.
I wasnât brilliant. I was pretending. And I wasnât pretending very well.
The first three classes that day were filled with students who were nervously silent. My own nervousness didnât help. But when I entered that last class of the day, the students were talking and laughing with each other like they were old friends, hardly noticing that the evil professor had arrived. One of them made eye contact with me and I asked, âWhat, did all of you go to high school together?â She looked at me curiously, seemingly wondering if I had forgotten that it was the first day of school, and said, âuh, we just met.â That moment changed everything for me.
Four years later, the first days of my semesters are wildly different. I am a little evil, but not accidentally. I am a little anxious, but only because I know the fun that lies ahead. Iâm more than a little curious about my new students. Iâm truly fascinated by them. And that curiosity is everything.
I teach speech and writing to students who didnât go to college to learn either. They can all follow instruction on rhetoric and persuasiveness, and they all know what a complete sentence is. Teaching that stuff has become the easy part. The real challenge is helping them find their voice.
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Michael Leppert is an author, educator and a communication consultant in Indianapolis. He writes about government, politics and culture at MichaelLeppert.com.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Indiana Citizen or any other affiliated organization.
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Since the measure was first coined by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1933, the âFirst 100 Daysâ is the standard we exclusively give new presidents âas a symbolic window to set the toneâ of their administration. âIt represents a kind of political version of a first impression,â according to History.com. In 2025 though, the new president isnât really new, the first impression isnât actually the first one, and the symbolic window is less about the tone and more about the zone.
That zone is being flooded right now, a strategic mantra of President Donald Trumpâs on-again, off-again, ex-con adviser, Steve Bannon. Monday, April 28th, was a classic day from this playbook. Two national stories detailed an attack on the Civil Rights Act from two different federal agencies and on two different targets. The stories were written as if the perpetrators of them were independent of one another, operating without a hint of knowledge that both were attacking the same iconic American standard: equal rights.
On April 23rd, Trump signed an Executive Order titled, âRestoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy.â As Newsweek reported: âIt calls for an evaluation of all pending proceedings under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), which was first passed in 1974 and amended in 1976 to prevent lenders from discriminating against women based on marital status.â The obvious, rational question this EO provokes is a simple one: why?
The EO is attacking the principle of âdisparate-impact liability,â or âthe idea that racism, sexism, or some other form of discrimination can occur without explicit intent.â Bluntly, the Trump administration is concerned that the protections against discrimination created by ECOA half a century ago might be resulting in negative consequences for those clearly responsible for the original problem.
Ben Olinsky, senior vice president of Structural Reform and Governance at the Center for American Progress explains that the Trump teamâs justification of reviewing the laws this way: "Because that somehow might, in individual cases, cause a white young man to lose out because the criteria has been shifted."
Yes, of course. The ridiculous notion of âreverse discriminationâ is often described with terms like âmeritocracyâ by those known for ridiculous notions. And no, an EO cannot repeal a law. But it can direct federal agencies to behave differently, and in this case, the primary enforcement agency of ECOA is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The Trump team apparently wants to take the âprotectionâ out of that agencyâs mission across the board. Specifically in this example, protecting women, any and all women, is being rolled back.
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Michael Leppert is an author, educator and a communication consultant in Indianapolis. He writes about government, politics and culture at MichaelLeppert.com.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Indiana Citizen or any other affiliated organization.
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I have often wondered where the phrase âspinning a yarnâ came from, and what differentiates the descriptive from the blunter, âmaking stuff up.â This weekâs absurd spin, courtesy of Indiana Gov. Mike Braun, finally inspired me to do a little search for it.
Merriam-Webster theorizes that âit may be connected to the sailor's task of rope making,â because of the path of the termâs traceable usage through the maritime world. The tedious process of twisting fibers into yarns, yarns into strands, and then strands into rope by hand must have been torturous in the early 1800s, when the term first appeared in print. âIt is likely that tales were told by the sailors while making rope, leading to the figurative use âspinning a yarnâ for storytelling.â
Piles of rope were apparently made in the Indiana Statehouse last week in response to the updated and gloomy revenue forecast. Some mysterious set of circumstances turned the December forecast of $800 million in growth for the next biennium into more than $2 billion of expected losses. Hmm. What changed?
As reported by Arika Herron for Axios Indianapolis, âThe dismal forecast is driven by slower than expected growth in jobs and wages, stock market declines and the effects of federal policies around tariffs, immigration and spending cuts.â Uh, yea. That was as predictable as tomorrowâs sunrise. But while the forecast is truly dismal, it is still just a forecast. There is no reason to be certain in it because the source of its dismal nature is uncertainty itself. Reality could be worse.
And hereâs where the fibers-to-yarns process begins.
Gov. Braun issued a statement the day the forecast was released. He said: âTodayâs forecast reflects what we are dealing with in the aftermath of disastrous Bidenflation. There will be some tough times ahead, but the America First economic policies we are pursuing here and in Washington will unleash an economic boom.â
Wow. In those two prepared sentences, and I emphasize that they were prepared, the Indiana governor is blaming the former president for the problem, acknowledging tough times ahead, and topping it off with baseless economic optimism that the stateâs own forecasters wonât predict. Thatâs an awful lot of rope.
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Michael Leppert is an author, educator and a communication consultant in Indianapolis. He writes about government, politics and culture at MichaelLeppert.com.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Indiana Citizen or any other affiliated organization.
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âBridge of Spiesâ is a 2015 movie about an insurance attorney, James Donovan, who finds himself representing a Soviet spy, Rudolph Abel, in a highly publicized espionage trial in 1957. Yes, itâs directed by Steven Spielberg, and Tom Hanks stars in it, so, of course, there are Academy Awards involved. And yes, there were dramatic embellishments in the storytelling sprinkled throughout the film with one important exception: The government never betrayed its duty to the U.S. Constitution.
Imagine 1950âs America. We were at war with the Soviet Union. No one could be more unanimously seen as evil than that ominous enemy and their soldiers. And Rudolph Abel was guilty. Not because J. Edgar Hoover said so, but because he was convicted in a court of law.
I have immense pride in the things that make my home what it is. I have traveled abroad and met people where they live, and I have met an abundance of people here, who are not from here. The circumstances of our lives are what fascinates us with one another. And I have always preferred mine to theirs.
Those circumstances changed on Monday. History will date it.
Last Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a decision by U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis instructing the government to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia from El Salvador where he was erroneously deported. SCOTUS specifically instructed the Trump administration to âfacilitate and effectuateâ the return of Garcia, a Salvadoran migrant who had been living in Maryland and has had a work permit since 2019.
The Department of Justice had been fighting the lawsuit filed by Garciaâs family in response to the deportation, even though it acknowledged it was done in error. The legal wrangling of the government to avoid righting its wrong in this case has been absurd for weeks. However, when the highest court in the land issued its decision last week, the American in me had a brief rush of hope that our constitution would hold.
That hope is now gone.
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Michael Leppert is an author, educator and a communication consultant in Indianapolis. He writes about government, politics and culture at MichaelLeppert.com.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Indiana Citizen or any other affiliated organization.
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The term âglad handingâ appeared in the American vernacular at the beginning of the 20th century, through the phrase, âto give the glad hand,â or extend a welcome. But that type of welcome has generally come with a twist, an intention, or an agenda.
Merriam-Webster defines the term as âa warm welcome or greeting often prompted by ulterior reasons.â It makes sense that the practice is most often attributed to politicians who are working a room. Even with ulterior motives, the practice would feature a pleasantness and happy charisma to audiences, much like an effective Instagram account would today. Not all politicians are great at it, even though most used to at least try to be.
Not Sen. Jim Banks, R-Indiana though. No, no. His communication strategy flips glad handing on its head. He doesnât want people, voters, you know, Hoosiers, to see him being insincerely polite or jovial. Not even in a moment of weakness. Heâs proudest of his public displays of meanness, or what should now be labeled, âmad handing.â
Iâm in the words business, so Iâm taking my shot at coining a phrase in hopes of making it into a credible dictionary someday.
ABC reported last week about the now infamous and viral video of Banks telling a man on Capitol Hill who identified himself as a recently fired Health and Human Services employee that he "probably deserved it" because "you seem like a clown." The freshman senator is proudly refusing to apologize and is even promoting the video himself as some sort of achievement.
Why? I went on a search to try to identify the phenomenon and there actually is some science out there that is helpful.
Dr. Mark Travers wrote âWhen Anger is a Strategyâ for Psychology Today in 2022. The article reviewed a study published in the medical journal, Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. The sports-based study found that low competitive status is linked with higher aggression. Dr. MaciĂ Buades-Rotger of the University of Barcelona and co-author of the research said, âPut bluntly, losers are more aggressive than winners on average, and that makes sense: If your rival outperforms you, you must resort to aggression to try and stop them.â
Yes, it makes perfect sense and in so many ways. Not just on the playing field of sports, but in the constant jockeying for fame and favor in right-wing politics. In the Banks example from last week, he didnât have the confidence or courage to defend the haphazard and mass firings that have decimated many vital federal institutions, so he defaulted to aggression. Not by mistake, but by design.
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Michael Leppert is an author, educator and a communication consultant in Indianapolis. He writes about government, politics and culture at MichaelLeppert.com.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Indiana Citizen or any other affiliated organization.
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A friend sent me a link to an episode of âPod Save Americaâ on Sunday with the short message, âThis is worth your time.â The podcast is a favorite among the left, hosted by a small group of former Obama advisers who describe the show as being for people âwho are not ready to give up or go insane.â I have occasionally listened to it, but frankly, I didnât want to give it an entire, torturous hour of my precious weekend.
A few hours later, I find myself in the middle of a project: learning about the âabundance agenda.â Jon Favreau hosted the episode featuring authors Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson and a discussion of their new book, âAbundance.â The blurb describes it as âa once-in-a-generation, paradigm-shifting call to renew a politics of plenty, face up to the failures of liberal governance, and abandon the chosen scarcities that have deformed American life.â
The challenge in that description is obvious. Liberals have to face up to their failures? Oh no, anything but that!
Commentary and polling data of late is showing a frustration toward what appears to be a void of leadership on the left. Itâs a predictable cycle following an election like the one that happened five months ago. The other side won. Electoral minorities donât get inaugurated. They donât have black-tie galas to celebrate their defeat and anoint the poohbah of the resistance either. In the spring following an election like 2024, it is customary for the losing team to still be searching for its recovery plan.
However, this moment is clearly different than that typical spring-after. American institutions are being decimated by a Trump administration not because of some ideology or consensus-based ambition of the GOP, but simply for the joy of the decimation itself. Resisting, effective resisting is what the Democrat faithful seem to be demanding more than anything.
Democrats, and mathematically, the majority of Americans, can vividly see what it doesnât like happening in Washington. What is less clear to both leaders and followers of progressive politics is what the proactive alternative should be. Abundance, as an agenda, could become that alternative.
Basically, the agenda is that blue cites and blue states need to govern better, but not just for the sake of governing. Klein explains on the podcast that abundance, as an agenda, attempts to answer this simple but important question: âwhat donât we have enough of and how do we get it?â
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Michael Leppert is an author, educator and a communication consultant in Indianapolis. He writes about government, politics and culture at MichaelLeppert.com.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Indiana Citizen or any other affiliated organization.
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Henry Reider is a young man from Sierra Leone who recently and miraculously survived tuberculosis. Using the words ârecentlyâ and âmiraculouslyâ to describe his recovery from a disease that has had a preventive vaccine since 1921 and a cure since 1943 is reason enough to become obsessed with the question: why?
âEverything is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infectionâ is not a book I would choose to read under normal circumstances. Outside of the medical community or those afflicted with it, who would? I am hopeful that, for starters, it will be read by the same people who put other John Green books on the bestseller lists. And then growing from that unusual initial gathering of readers, it reaches the souls of every individual who needs to read it.
Green met Reider and his mother several years ago on a trip to the west African nation, and the families have become friends. Greenâs son, not to mention his famous brother, is also named Henry, which has led Reider to refer to both as the ânamesakes,â in their regular calls since his recovery. All of the components of that recovery serve as the primary human story and the vehicle for the latest great book in Greenâs library of greats.
Reiderâs story is fascinating, especially when told by one of the great storytellers of our time. But the history and the evolution of responses to the infection is the real star here. From the now ridiculous sounding strategies and treatments of it, to the way cities and even states, like New Mexico, were developed in large part to combat the infection, are all expertly detailed. Even fashion trends would evolve and modify based on what can only today be seen as irrational theories on how infections function.
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Michael Leppert is an author, educator and a communication consultant in Indianapolis. He writes about government, politics and culture at MichaelLeppert.com.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Indiana Citizen or any other affiliated organization.
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Sun Tzu, the former Chinese general, military strategist and philosopher, is known for his treatise, âThe Art of War.â Itâs remarkable how valuable the writings, believed to have been written in the 5th century BC, continue to be today. Forget the arguments about whether he is the one who wrote it and when. It doesnât matter. The lessons are simple, and they still work.
I cannot recall a legislative decision as ridiculous as the one made Friday by New York Sen. Chuck Schumer and the Senate Democratic Caucus he leads. After weeks of articulating the awful things contained in the Republican version of the budget continuing resolution, or CR, he abandoned his position at crunch time and chose to give it enough votes to pass. Democrats gained, let me count, zero things in exchange for their acquiescence.
Two days earlier, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, told NBC News, âDemocrats had nothing to do with this bill. And we want an opportunity to get an amendment vote or two. And so thatâs what we are insisting on.â Apparently not for long.
One of Sun Tzuâs principles of war is to seize opportunity. Democrats failed that one.
They seized nothing by conceding to the Republicans here. Absolutely nothing. Schumerâs stated reasoning for caving was that a shutdown would create opportunity for the White House to do even more unconstitutional and damaging things. Donald Trump and Elon Musk werenât asking congress for permission before Fridayâs vote. Now that the shutdown has been averted, they still arenât.
I think the mere existence of the filibuster is dumb, and I always have. The 60-vote necessity to proceed, particularly on CRs, served Republicans well throughout Joe Bidenâs presidency. Likewise, it should have been used last week by the Democrats to either block the CR or to gain concessions by using it as leverage. Itâs the reason it exists. Neither happened.
Worse yet, Schumer and the Democrats gave the Republican budget package ten votes, when all the concession required was seven. By giving the GOP three more votes than they needed, it gave Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, the freedom to vote no on the package for his personal, political reason that the package doesnât reduce debt. Thatâs simply malpractice.
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Michael Leppert is an author, educator and a communication consultant in Indianapolis. He writes about government, politics and culture at MichaelLeppert.com.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Indiana Citizen or any other affiliated organization.
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I teach storytelling, though the official titles of the classes are things like presentations, writing or speech for business. But on the first day of school in all of my classes, I put a slide on the screen with this quote from the late Steve Jobs: âThe most powerful person in the world is the storyteller.â Then I ask my new students if they believe that or not
Jason Isbell is one of Americaâs greatest storytellers, and yes, heâs on one of my first day of school slides too. His latest album, âFoxes in the Snow,â was released Friday morning, and in my opinion, itâs his best album yet. I was predisposed to loving this one because the production is stripped down to nothing but Isbell, his guitar and a microphone. I first became a fan because of the words he writes. Then I noticed he is an incredible guitarist. I love this album most because thatâs all we get. The best songs are always at their best in their simplest of forms.
On âFoxes,â Isbell tells the Wall Street Journal: âThereâs a lot of heavy stuff on the record, and it felt privateâŠI didnât really want anybody else in the room for that.â Listeners get to join him there.
Iâm not sure this stuff is any heavier than usual, but I get why itâs heavier for him. His recent divorce, his new love interest and his new part time residency in New York City are detailed throughout the song list. What seems to make it heavy is that this is a new world for Isbell, filled with disappointment and excitement, but most of all, newness.
Thatâs what I hear in all of these songs, particularly in âOpen and Close,â in which he sums up the description of his new life with the declaration, âitâs time to be brave.â
What I am trying to get my students to achieve with their audiences is connection. That sounds like a vague, generic term when they hear me use it the first time. But as should be expected, there is a scientific term for it, known as âneural coupling.â This is âthe literal synchrony in brain states between speaker and listener. When youâre the speaker, your goal is to replicate the same pattern of brain activity that you have in your head inside the head of your conversational partner,â as described by Dr. Matt Johnson in Psychology Today.
I donât feel the specific pain of Isbellâs divorce or the specific excitement of his new love, but I mirror many of the components of his emotional state that come from facing a new world. Specifically, the pressure that is felt from the need to be brave.
This is why storytelling is so powerful.
Amanda Zurawski never had plans to describe a profoundly personal slice of her life on a big stage. Yet she was at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater in Bloomington on Friday for a screening of âZurawski v Texas,â the 2024 documentary about her battle for womenâs reproductive rights.
The filmâs synopsis captures what has become a familiar modern story: âWomen denied abortions under Texasâ ambiguous and unforgiving abortion bans band together with a fearless attorney to sue Texas.â The fearlessness is the thing that connected with me.
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Michael Leppert is an author, educator and a communication consultant in Indianapolis. He writes about government, politics and culture at MichaelLeppert.com.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Indiana Citizen or any other affiliated organization.
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I left public service in 2002. The experiences of the thirteen years I spent as an employee of the State of Indiana help define me. On paper, my career path wouldnât make immediate sense to most people today. But it makes perfect sense to me. Why? Primarily because I enjoyed serving the public, and importantly, I was good at it. People thanked me for my service when I left.
In less than two months since the inauguration of President Donald Trump, approximately 75,000 federal employees accepted a buyout package offered by the new administration and voluntarily left public service. Another 30,000 have been fired. For context, Delta Airlines employs 100,000 people, and United Airlines Holdings, Inc. employs 107,500.
This will cause significant and widespread suffering in predictable and unpredictable ways. Americans will feel this, one way or another. Even in the post-trust era, this is one thing we can all count on. And Trump and Elon Musk are just getting started.
Included in those breathtaking numbers are individual people who were doing important things, vital things, even life-saving things that are no longer being done. An excellent example is âEmily,â a recently terminated lab technician who worked at the National Institutes of Health. She worked in a cancer research lab, and she worries what these cuts will mean to people who need the treatments NIH is, or was, developing. âPeople will lose their lives,â she said in an interview with the NBC local affiliate in Washington.
Also commenting was White House spokesperson Kush Desai. He said, âThe Trump administration is committed to slashing waste, fraud, and abuse while increasing transparency of where limited taxpayer dollars from NIH are going and how exactly theyâre advancing scientific research and development.â The âwaste, fraud, and abuseâ bit is the go-to storyline for the entire enterprise of this profoundly troubling cleansing of public servants. And while that spin is becoming the new Big Lie, adding the phrase âincreasing transparencyâ makes it even more absurd.
In Indiana, Luke Britt, the stateâs longest serving public access counselor, stepped down last week after 12 years in the role following changes to his office by state lawmakers this time last year, as reported by WFYI. Prior to last yearâs legislation, Brittâs office was designed to construe disputes about public access to government records in favor of government transparency. His office was created in 1999 in response to public outcry for exactly that, transparency.
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Michael Leppert is an author, educator and a communication consultant in Indianapolis. He writes about government, politics and culture at MichaelLeppert.com.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Indiana Citizen or any other affiliated organization.
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There are so many stars and influencers surrounding us these days, itâs difficult for the uncool to keep up. I donât know exactly when I crossed over into that territory, but Iâm guessing it was shortly after my first son was born. He celebrated his 30th birthday this month.
Back when I was cool, reading was not among the reasons. Now, it might be the coolest thing I do.
In my youth, Dolly Parton wasnât cool. She was originally a country and bluegrass musician, which in the world of my youth, was coolâs opposite. But after her singing voice slowly became embedded in the fabric of America, her cultural voice followed. That voice is cool as it gets.
Parton started the Imagination Library in 1995 for the children within her home county in East Tennessee, not far from my childhood home. The program delivers one age-appropriate book per month to children five-years old and younger. To recipients, the books arrive via U.S. Mail, free of charge. Do the math. Thatâs as many as 60 books in a personal library of each participating child. There is no catch, no burden, no problem.
But as the uncool know so well, nothing is truly free. Books cost money, and thirty years since the program started in one county, it is now available in five countries and gives millions of free books each month to children around the world. Itâs an intricate operation, involving a long list of operational and funding partners to make it all happen.
Indiana is one of 21 statewide partners in the U.S., though the partnership is now threatened by the Indiana Houseâs recently passed budget. In 2023, the legislature approved a $6 million expenditure in its budget for the program. Thatâs a budget item big enough to notice, and small enough that cutting it canât possibly be celebrated. I am unaware of any public discussion about discontinuing the appropriation during the first half of this yearâs legislative session.
So, when the House passed its budget last week and the funding was surprisingly gone, the silence about it ended. I learned about it first from the national media. âWe are hopeful that Gov. (Mike) Braun and the Indiana legislature will continue this vital investment by restoring the stateâs funding match for local Imagination Library programs,â Jeff Conyers, president of the Dollywood foundation, said in a statement to the Daily Beast.
Conyers was not hysterical about it. He was cool. And while Braun responded quickly to the call out coming from an organization with a big name on it, I found the response to be less than cool, even cold.
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Michael Leppert is an author, educator and a communication consultant in Indianapolis. He writes about government, politics and culture at MichaelLeppert.com.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Indiana Citizen or any other affiliated organization.
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An abundance of adjectives can be used to describe the first 30 days of the second Trump administration. âChaoticâ would be my first choice. But Thesaurus.com provides a list of synonyms to consider in my search for the perfect word. The six strongest matches to my top choice also work. âTumultuousâ or âturbulent?â Yes. âDisorganizedâ or âhelter-skelter?â Ditto. âLawlessâ and âanarchicâ are the others on that short list, and yes, they both sadly apply as well.
This first month has not been about egg prices or healthcare. Nor has it been about education or justice. And though headlines are big about Ukraine and Gaza, those too are merely components of what todayâs true battle is really all about: turf.
America is in the midst of a turf war. Itâs so old-school, most donât even recognize it for what it is. But when Trumpâs new leadership at the Department of Justice eviscerated the Republican team in its Southern District of New York to force the dismissal of the corruption case against Mayor Eric Adams, the White House was seizing the local government of the city.
The case against Adams is, or was, about as open and shut as possible. Turkish nationals were pumping campaign funds and luxury travel to the mayor and were receiving favors in return in several easily traceable instances. The corrupt relationship began when Adams was the president of the New York borough of Brooklyn. It intensified during his mayoral campaign, and it continued after he took office. The SDNY has or had the goods on him.
So, what is the motivation for Team Trump to dismiss a corruption case against a prominent Democrat? Again, with the word calisthenics, an oft used political descriptor would be âleverage.â But I think that word is a soft, understatement.
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Michael Leppert is an author, educator and a communication consultant in Indianapolis. He writes about government, politics and culture at MichaelLeppert.com.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Indiana Citizen or any other affiliated organization.
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February 12, 2025
I have been thinking about Winston Churchill since Donald Trump announced his planned seizure of the board of trustees of the Kennedy Center last Friday.
In 1938, Churchill said, âThe Prime Minister (Neville Chamberlain) âŠhas reminded us of the old saying that it is by art man gets nearest to the angels and farthest from the animals.â
On the floor of the Indiana Senate last Thursday, Minority Leader Shelli Yoder, D-Bloomington, made a point of order just before the vote on Senate Bill 289. The bill would create a series of prohibitions and requirements regarding diversity, equity and inclusion programs in Indiana. Itâs a conglomeration of poorly developed ideas that chaotically attempt to send a message to Hoosiers that the undefined âwokeâ ideology is being put down in the state for good. Itâs a bad-idea bill that is written poorly enough that even four Republicans voted against it.
I am certain I will write about the awfulness of this bill in future columns. Today, I will just label it as a collection of pretzel-like twists of racist gestures designed to comfort a constituency who has demonized DEI programs before bothering to learn what they are. Stay tuned for more on the substance of it.
In the midst of the three-hour Senate debate on SB 289, Lt. Governor Micah Beckwith posted this to his campaign Facebook page: âIndiana just TORPEDOED Woke Indoctrination!â The post goes on about how the rebellion of equal rights has been put down, and how âthe left is LOSING IT.â Itâs the kind of post to more likely come from a MAGA-cult member standing in line to get into a Lee Greenwood concert. Except it wasnât. It came from the President of the Indiana Senate, in reference to legislation that was being debated on the Senate floor at that very moment.
And it was written in past tense, as if the vote and the outcome had already occurred. It was at least two hours early.
In Indiana, the lieutenant governor is the nonvoting, presiding officer of the Senate. He or she manages the process and is assisted by a parliamentarian to assure the process is followed in accordance with the stateâs constitution and the rules of the Senate. From 1989 through 2004, a Democrat presided over the Republican controlled body. Awkward, right?
Nope. Not at all. Both of those former governors, Frank OâBannon and Joe Kernan, in their roles as lieutenant governor, did their jobs with a commitment to statesmanship and respect for the body. It is not what either man will be remembered for, primarily because it didnât take great restraint or character to simply do the damn job as our citizenry has come to expect. And by the way, every Republican LG, dating back to at least 1980, has done the same.
Today, that is apparently too much to ask of Micah Beckwith. He would rather use the position to garner attention for himself, even if it means prejudging outcomes while he presides.
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Michael Leppert is an author, educator and a communication consultant in Indianapolis. He writes about government, politics and culture at MichaelLeppert.com.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Indiana Citizen or any other affiliated organization.
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February 5, 2024
It's an old joke, and though I made a reasonable effort to track down the original source, I failed. However, I did find that early versions of it, dating back to at least 1930, centered on indecent proposals for sex. Not surprisingly, and nearly a century later, the anecdote often is aptly applied to policy dealmaking negotiations in legislative bodies across America.
Skipping the indecency of the set-up, this is a family friendly column after all, a version of the punchline goes like this: "We've already established what we are. Now, we're just haggling over the price."
Healthcare debates in the Indiana Statehouse are primarily an exercise in "haggling over the price." But like the original version of the joke, the more important part of the debate really is the "establishing what we are" part.
Whitney Downard, reporter for the Indiana Capital Chronicle, succinctly reported last week on a hearing of the Indiana Senate Committee on Health and Provider Services that featured five legislative proposals moving forward that were almost entirely about the price. The bills dealt with financial incentives for patient referrals, tracking the average negotiated charge between healthcare providers and insurers, non-compete agreements for physicians, prior authorization of care by insurers, and finally, two bills regarding pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs. Whew. I read the story several times and still don't see the part about Hoosiers getting healthier.
The most important part of the healthcare debate often doesn't even come up in the rooms where decisions are being made: What can we do to live healthier lives? Anyone who believes that either Indiana or America will magically become healthier by resolving all the debates about price first, should also be shopping for Jack's beanstalk beans.
Establishing "the price" isn't the mission. Improving the public's overall health is.Connect with Michael Leppert
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Michael Leppert is an author, educator and a communication consultant in Indianapolis. He writes about government, politics and culture at MichaelLeppert.com.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Indiana Citizen or any other affiliated organization.
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January 29, 2025
The word Indiana is literally defined as âthe land of the Indians.â When Congress divided the Northwest Territory in 1800, it named the western section the Indiana Territory, and when it became a state in 1816, Indiana became its name.
In 2025, new Governor Mike Braun, in his first budget proposal in office, proposes to end funding for the Native American Indian Affairs Commission. The cut comes as part of his 15% cut to the Indiana Civil Rights Commission. That may sound like a lot of money, but it isnât. The state is spending less than $3 million a year on the ICRC in the current budget.
A new governorâs first budget proposal is uniquely important. Votersâ eyes often glaze over when this part of governing comes up, and I get that. But budgets are where we as a people proclaim what matters to us. Though the legislature must enact the two-year spending plan, governors generally propose them at the beginning of the law-writing session. The first budget proposal from a newly elected governor is a marker. It defines his priorities to us, and in this case, aptly defines his character as well.
On January 6, 2025, outgoing Governor Eric Holcomb signed a government-to-government agreement with the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians. Holcomb said in a news release, âIâve sincerely enjoyed learning about Pokagon history and culture as well as getting to know and work with Chairman (Matthew) Wesaw.â The state has a relationship with the federally recognized tribe, and our now former governor treated it with respect.
Times have apparently changed.
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Hear ye! Hear ye, America! Itâs Inauguration Week! But please donât confuse it with infrastructure week. The swearing in of a convicted felon actually did happen on Monday.
The striking components of Donald Trumpâs second inauguration speech werenât filled with goodness, with inspiration, or with charm. Of course they werenât. What child of our nation was expecting a highlight real like that?
The sequel to his 2017 âAmerican Carnageâ inauguration address was not terribly different in its tone or in its fundamental wrongness. This speechâs title will likely come from his promise of the beginning of a âGolden Age of America.â Again though, the erroneous assumptions contained in it are strikingly similar to eight years ago: everything is broken and terrible and his presence in office will magically fix all of it and make it wonderful.
Just like eight years ago, it was a speech grounded in civic ignorance directed only at those who share the same fantasy-laden view of the office he reclaimed on Monday. But it is that ignorance that is necessary for much of his agenda, if one can call it that, to become reality.
Exhibit number one is the executive order Trump signed on Monday attempting to end birthright citizenship. No, this constitutional provision cannot be repealed by executive order. If it could, the entire document that effectively defines America, could also be ended by the same pen. This is not new posturing from him, but the certain legal response from an army of litigants will force another branch of government, the courts, to defend the jurisdiction of our founding document again.
Exhibits two and three are not as clearly unconstitutional, but merely illegal.
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