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Keshav Srikant

Keshav Srikant is currently an opinion writer at The Tufts Daily. Keshav is a junior majoring in Quantitative Economics and Mathematics, and can be reached at Keshav.Srikant@tufts.edu.

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Viewpoint

There is no one reason Harris lost

By Keshav Srikant | November 19

On Nov. 5, 2024, Democrats were handed their worst defeat in a presidential election since 2004. Donald Trump decisively defeated Kamala Harris, winning the popular vote by around two points and sweeping every swing state. The “tipping point” state in the election was Pennsylvania, which Harris lost by two points, roughly the percentage by which she lost the national vote. This was not a close election and Harris’ loss cannot be attributed to Electoral College bias or depressed voter turnout. On Election Day, American voters sent a loud and clear signal they wanted Donald Trump back in the White House.

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Viewpoint

What we can learn from the defeat of David Duke

By Keshav Srikant and Sadie Roraback-Meagher | October 28

In 1991, Louisiana voters were faced with two unfavorable options for governor: Democrat Edwin Edwards and David Duke, a white supremacist and former KKK grand wizard. Edwards had a history of gambling, corruption and scandalous affairs. In 1985, Edwards even admitted to taking $1.9 million to sell state hospital and nursing home permits. Nevertheless, faced with the choice between Edwards and a white supremacist, Lousianians chose Edwards as the lesser evil. 

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Viewpoint

Fund our national parks

By Keshav Srikant | September 17

At the end of eighth grade, my school decided to take us on a one-week overnight trip to Yosemite National Park. We learned about Yosemite’s ecosystems and history while hiking through forests and among thundering waterfalls. Almost a decade later, I remember this trip vividly, just as I remember every national park I’ve been to.

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The Policy Perspective: Reasons to hope

By Keshav Srikant | April 22

I’ve spent the last year writing columns about how U.S. public policy can be improved. From housing to public transportation to education to climate change, there are many areas where we can do better. For my last edition of this column, however, I wanted to write about beneficial public policies that have been passed and that are often missed or ignored in a media consumption environment with a strong negativity bias.

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The Policy Perspective: Blue states are floundering

By Keshav Srikant | April 8

Clean energy is a core part of the Democratic Party’s platform. The 2020 Democratic Party platform calls for building a “globally competitive clean energy economy”[a]. Yet in 2024, the state with the most installed solar infrastructure is not New York or California, where Democrats dominate state government, but Texas, a Republican-controlled state[b]. This isdespite billions of dollars spent by California’s state government to invest in solar[c].

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Viewpoint

The Policy Perspective: Don’t fall for degrowth

By Keshav Srikant | March 11

The idea behind the degrowth movement is simple: Economic growth and increased consumption is fueling the climate change crisis and to truly tackle climate change we need to decrease our levels of production and consumption. Though degrowth can be intuitive, the movement’s fundamental premise lacks evidence and the actions it advocates for are completely unfeasible.

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Column

The Policy Perspective: What caused the inflation crisis?

By Keshav Srikant | February 27

In June of 2022, inflation hit a 40-year record high, with consumer prices rising 9.1% over the course of one year. It surpassed economists' expectations and captured rising costs in everything from rent to automobiles, particularly in food and energy. Understandably, the magnitude of the inflation spike sparked a debate as to what was responsible for such high levels of inflation.

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The Policy Perspective: Fund the IRS

By Keshav Srikant | February 13

If there’s one thing that many Americans can agree on, it’s that they dislike the IRS. The Internal Revenue Service is a federal agency responsible for collecting and administering federal taxes. The IRS primarily ensures that everyone pays their taxes, often by auditing individuals or businesses, and processes requests for tax refunds. It’s understandable the IRS is not popular, especially as 56% of Americans feel their tax burden is unfair and a majority state that the complexity of the American tax system “bothers them a lot.”

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The Policy Perspective: The case for charter schools

By Keshav Srikant | January 30

The idea of charter schools is simple. They are publicly funded by taxpayers but operated by independent groups. In the face of traditional public schools that seemed to be failing, charter schools were an alternative. Unlike traditional public schools, charter schools face less governmental regulation, but they must meet accountability standards. They are also not beholden to teacher unions and can experiment with different learning styles. 

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The Policy Perspective: Improving air travel

By Keshav Srikant | December 4

As many of us look forward to flying home for Christmas, there’s one part of the journey that we dread: hearing the announcement that our flight has been delayed or canceled. Flight delays and cancellations have become an increasingly common part of the air travel experience; in the summer of 2023, 61% of travelers had experienced a flight delay or cancellation and most of those travelers lost money due to those cancellations or delays. Flight cancellations also increased in 2022, and there have been several massive flight cancellation events, such as Southwest’s infamous meltdown during the last holiday season.

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