{"id":13882,"date":"2026-03-13T02:08:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T02:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trendusa1.online\/?p=13882"},"modified":"2026-03-13T02:08:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T02:08:26","slug":"20-minutes-ago-in-washin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trendusa1.online\/?p=13882","title":{"rendered":"20 Minutes ago in Washin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The break was brutal.<\/p>\n<div class=\"code-block code-block-9\">\n<div id=\"ternalnews.com_responsive_2\" data-google-query-id=\"CK-7jKvlm5MDFTyhgwcdp30egg\">\n<div id=\"google_ads_iframe_\/23201474937\/ternalnews.com\/ternalnews.com_responsive_2_0__container__\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>After forty years as a Democrat, Nebraska State Senator Mike McDonnell walked away \u2014 pushed<\/p>\n<p>he says, for refusing to abandon his pro-life convictions rooted in his Catholic faith.<\/p>\n<p>Party leaders insist it wasn\u2019t about religion at all, but about core principles and reproductive rights.<\/p>\n<p>McDonnell\u2019s decision to cross the aisle was not a quiet paperwork change but the culmination of a long,<\/p>\n<p>bitter clash between personal conviction and party discipline.<\/p>\n<p>As a former firefighter and union leader, he once fit the classic Midwestern Democratic mold.<\/p>\n<p>Yet his unwavering pro-life stance, shaped by his Catholic faith,<\/p>\n<p>steadily alienated him from party leadership, who restricted his role and ultimately voted to censure him.<\/p>\n<p>Republican leaders now gain a crucial advantage in Nebraska\u2019s unicameral Legislature:<\/p>\n<p>a 33-member bloc, just enough to break filibusters and drive a conservative agenda on abortion and other wedge issues.<\/p>\n<p>Democrats, led by state chair Jane Kleeb, frame McDonnell\u2019s departure as proof of their commitment to reproductive freedom and LGBTQ rights.<\/p>\n<p>His switch exposes a deeper national fracture, where questions of faith, conscience, and party loyalty collide in the harshest possible light.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The break was brutal. After forty years as a Democrat, Nebraska State Senator Mike McDonnell walked away \u2014 pushed he says, for refusing to abandon his pro-life convictions rooted in his Catholic faith. Party leaders insist it wasn\u2019t about religion at all, but about core principles and reproductive rights. McDonnell\u2019s decision to cross the aisle&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-wrap\"><a href=\"https:\/\/trendusa1.online\/?p=13882\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;20 Minutes ago in Washin&rdquo;<\/span> &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13883,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendusa1.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendusa1.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendusa1.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendusa1.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendusa1.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13882"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/trendusa1.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13884,"href":"https:\/\/trendusa1.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13882\/revisions\/13884"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendusa1.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendusa1.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendusa1.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendusa1.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}