The Specter of George McGovern’s Defeat in 1972

Similarities — and Key Differences — with the Prospects for Sanders in 2020

Now that Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, has emerged as the clear frontrunner for the Democratic nomination in 2020, the old warnings echo even louder. Veteran media commentator Chris Matthews is typical of alarmists in prophesying that Sanders as nominee would match McGovern in losing 49 states (presumably Vermont ...
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The Specter of George McGovern’s Defeat in 1972

Is Democratic Socialism in America’s Future?

The success of every radical movement in American history has occurred when it is co-opted by the forces of reform.

More than at any time since World War I, Americans are talking about socialism. Conservatives fear it. Liberals question it. Many progressives and radicals embrace it. Why is that word, and its egalitarian vision, enjoying a resurgence in the United States? And does it mean that socialism is on the ...
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Is Democratic Socialism in America’s Future?

Solidarity Means Sharing In Active Freedom

Democracy and The Public Square

“Democracies are not going to defend themselves. It is we the citizens who have to defend them. I believe it is not too late.” -- Adam Michnik, New School Centennial Lecture, October 2019 How can we resist the retreat from our beleaguered democracies and hold onto the embattled freedom we still have? I ...
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Solidarity Means Sharing In Active Freedom

Buttigieg’s Nevada Speech Was Terrific if the Goal is to Defeat Sanders Rather Than Trump

Slandering the party’s leading candidate is bad

This does not obviate the real limits of the Sanders campaign and the challenges it must address moving forward, if Sanders is to successfully claim the nomination much less the presidency. On Saturday night Jacobin, the organ of Sanders’s hard-core ideological supporters, declared that “After the Nevada Blowout, It’s Bernie’s Party Now” (indeed, ...
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Buttigieg’s Nevada Speech Was Terrific if the Goal is to Defeat Sanders Rather Than Trump

The Cultural Counter Revolution in Brazil

Fascism’s advance in education

The government is not only restricting our freedom of expression, though. It is more than that. They are attacking our educational system, and thus attacking our common culture. Brazil is a very diverse country, in terms of culture, and unequal, in terms of wealth and opportunities. It is not at ...
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The Cultural Counter Revolution in Brazil

Democracy is Losing the Online Arms Race

How media monopolies have damaged the public sphere – and what we can do about it.

I started writing about the potential for computer-mediated communication in 1987, decades before online communication became widely known as “social media.” My inquiries about where the largely benign online culture of the 1980s might go terribly wrong led me to the concept of the “public sphere,” which had received a ...
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Democracy is Losing the Online Arms Race

A Post-Impeachment Roadmap for Congress

Impeachment may be over, but President Trump is continuing his assault on the Constitution. The House can check him. Here’s how.

The problem is that Donald Trump does dwell on the past. His recent impeachment has replaced his 2016 presidential election the primary focus of his resentment. He seeks to magnify the significance of his acquittal and diminish that of his impeachment. As Americans turn their attention away from impeachment, Donald ...
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A Post-Impeachment Roadmap for Congress

Why Bloomberg is a Disaster for the Democratic Party

And it will take a healthy Democratic party to defeat Trumpism

Enter Mike Bloomberg, billionaire tycoon, former Republican mayor of New York City, master of social media, sincere adherent of some liberal causes (gun control, environmentalism) and sincere partisan of the new Gilded Age capitalism, and -- did I forget to mention it? -- mega-billionaire. Can Bloomberg outspend Trump? Surely. Can he outsmart ...
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Why Bloomberg is a Disaster for the Democratic Party

The Bloomberg-Clinton Ticket is a Myth

But it points to the troubling fact that political disinformation is being deliberately spread by legitimate news outlets

What was also predictable is that Donald Trump’s media handmaidens would find a way to bring Hillary Clinton into it. They will do this regularly for the rest of the 2020 cycle. They will do this, not just to increase the chaos, but to divert attention from the charges of ...
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The Bloomberg-Clinton Ticket is a Myth

Why Bernie Is the True Feminist Choice

For feminists, this election presents a clear choice — between advancing the interests of 1 percent of women and fighting for the liberation of the rest

Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, and their supporters, including those on the New York Times editorial board, are strongly making the case that the time has come for a woman to be president. Warren and her supporters have been especially persistent in these appeals to gender politics. If Bernie Sanders weren’t in the ...
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Why Bernie Is the True Feminist Choice