Jordan P. Cooper

Progressives, Aligned on Issues, Spar for Hearts and Minds SILVER SPRING – A packed house greeted the presumptive Democratic successors to Maryland’s longtime Senator Barbara Mikulski. Representatives Donna Edwards and Chris Van Hollen each strove to make the case that they were the more effective progressive. The candidates, both currently representing the Washington metropolitan area, struggled to differentiate themselves on the issues in the debate, which was co-hosted by the Women’s Democratic Club, Progressive Neighbors, and the Leisure World Democratic Club. It quickly became apparent that it would be their stylistic approaches to governance and their personal and legislative experience that would most clearly distinguish the candidates for Democratic Primary voters in Maryland on April 26 th . The Montgomery County audience was generally more receptive to Chris Van Hollen, offering frequent and robust applause to his analytical responses that focused on th...

Policing in the Post-Ferguson World SILVER SPRING – A solid cadre of WDC members began filling the intimate corner room this evening, trickling in to the sight of well-known friends and familiar faces to those on the political circuit in Montgomery County. Lucy Freeman’s famous chocolate chip oatmeal cookies fed small conversation among members of the community and representatives of the Montgomery County Police Department (MCPD) who had arrived for an event born of recent national tragedies. The evening was pulled together by the Education Committee to shed light on how MCPD conducts its business, how it stacks up to its peers around the nation, whether the incidents that spurred the #BlackLivesMatters movement could happen closer to home in Montgomery County, and a slew of other issues that has been in the public dialogue from firearm regulation to the war on drugs. The audience’s personal familiarity with the police officers combined with its initial applause in r...

Re: "Sanders redefines what it means to be a 'democratic socialist'", Sunday Oct 18 Mr. Weigel and Mr. Fahrenthold, I am writing you regarding an article that was printed in this past Sunday's Washington Post entitled " Sanders redefines what it means to be a'democratic socialist .'" In the last column of the article on page A7 you write that "Sanders wants the government to start providing it to everybody, a national single-payer system that might cost something like $15 trillion." By means of establishing my credibility, I have a master's degree in health policy from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and have worked on health policy the Maryland General Assembly, National Partnership for Women and Families, and Kaiser Permanente. My quarrel is with the $15 trillion that you write would cost, presumably, tax payers and health insurance premium payers should a single-payer system ...

I am here tonight to speak about trust. Trust in our democratic institutions. Trust in our elected officials. And trust in justice. A vibrant and healthy democracy requires that an informed public be actively engaged in the selection of its representatives. Exercising your right to vote is the most fundamental right granted to citizens in a representative democracy. Each Election Day, voters hold their elected officials accountable for their leadership decisions of the previous term and decide whether to return the incumbents to elected office or whether to replace them with new leadership. Accountability can be further advanced only in the context of reasonably apportioned districts. Gerrymandered districts disenfranchise Marylanders and contribute to partisan polarization by removing incentives for candidates to appeal to the wider public. Our gerrymandered congressional districts tend to predetermine the outcome of our General Elections, turning our Primary E...

It is an indisputable fact that guns fire bullets and that when bullets enter the human body, one common result is the death of that person. Both gun rights advocates and gun regulation advocates agree that gun violence is detrimental to society and should be reduced. In essence, both groups wish to advance the public interest by protecting the public’s health. The opposing groups only diverge when it comes to their ideas of how society should go about trying to prevent bullets from entering people’s bodies. Generally gun rights advocates argue that people kill people, essentially arguing that guns are not lethal unless a person aims the gun and pulls the trigger. Gun rights advocates believe that society will be safer if everyone were carrying a gun at all times. The logic behind this sentiment is that violence will be reduced because the lethal threat posed to would-be assassins, villains, and thieves will act as a deterrent to acts of violence. Advocates for increased f...