Rachael Larimore, die-hard Republican, can’t bring herself to vote for either Trump or Hillary, and she suspects she may not be alone. “There are millions of rank-and-file voters who are dismayed by Trump’s hijacking of the party and many thousands, surely, who will not be able to bring themselves to check that box in November,” Larimore writes. “Maybe we will stay home; maybe we will vote Libertarian; maybe someone will prevail upon Mitt Romney to ride in on his unicorn under a third party’s banner.” Regardless, Larimore promises us, here and now: Trump won’t get her vote.
The Food and Drug Administration is currently calling for citizens to comment on whether there should be an FDA definition for “natural” food. We should be worrying way less about labels and way more about broader problems in American food production, writes Margot Pollans. “Relying on transparency alone essentially creates two food systems: one that provides nutritious, safe, and environmentally responsible food to the wealthy; and a second, much larger system that provides chemical-laden food to everyone else, with dire environmental and health consequences.”
Americans are in debt because they buy too much frivolous stuff, right? Wrong, write Amelia Warren Tyagi and Elizabeth Warren in a new book, which we’ve excerpted on Slate as part of our Slate Academy, The United States of Debt. “Americans cling so tightly to the myth not because it is supported by hard evidence, but because it is a comforting way to explain away some very bad news,” Tyagi and Warren write. “If families are in trouble because they squander their money, then those of us who shop at Costco and cook our own pasta have nothing to worry about.”
You know there’s something messed up about the NCAA’s rules when a college football player’s girlfriend can accept money to advertise candy on her social media feed, while her boyfriend can’t, writes Josh Levin. While rumors circulate that the NCAA may be considering allowing college athletes to endorse products, Levin doesn’t believe it: “That would be fair and just, which means there’s no way the NCAA will allow it to happen. In the meantime, the money will keep flowing into the hands of people adjacent to the workers themselves.”
On JStor Daily, Alexandra Samuel argues that screen time for kids is a feminist issue. “When we fret about excess screen time as bad parenting, what we’re really talking about is bad mothering,” Samuel writes. “When we worry that parents are shirking their duties by relying on an electronic babysitter, we’re really worrying that mothers are putting their own needs alongside, or even ahead of, their kids’ needs.”
For fun: Megan McBride’s mom let her and her brother decide what to do on family vacations, and it sounds like it was great.
Ah, to ride in the backseat once again,
Rebecca
