United States Archives - Page 26 of 73

Feature

I Believe Christine Blasey Ford

Republicans have no plausible argument about why Brett Kavanaugh is innocent

September 19, 2018 • by Claire Potter

What will come of the allegation by Christine Blasey Ford, a clinical psychologist and professor at Palo Alto University, that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when he was seventeen and she was fifteen? As of today, it is not clear that Ford will testify before the Senate ...

Democracy

The Powerlessness of the Powerful

Living in post – truth, seeking alternatives, examining Nicolae Ceausescu and Donald Trump

September 14, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Goldfarb

This was most dramatically revealed in the fall of Nicolae Ceausescu on December 21, 1989. As this video documents. A mass rally in support of the leader morphed into a demonstration against the regime, apparently in a flash, though this was not as spontaneous as it appeared at first. In private, ...

Feature

Judge Kavanaugh’s Cynical Appeal to Precedent

Why resisting Kavanaugh’s appointment is crucial for the future of SCOTUS

September 12, 2018 • by Peter Alexander Meyers

Our hearings in the Senate prove that Brett Kavanaugh has a prodigious memory. Is that why precedent is such an important category for him? Precedent is a special type of memory. For this Judge to call forward precedent as he does, however, is dangerously misleading. Those who decide the future of the Supreme Court ...

Judge Kavanaugh’s Cynical Appeal to Precedent

Blue Monday

Twisted

Thoughts on the insanity in the White House

September 10, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

"I merely took the energy it takes to pout, and I wrote some blues." -Duke Ellington This past week we have been vividly reminded of what we long have known: that the man currently occupying the office of President of the United States, the Chief Executive and Commander in Chief of ...

Feature

Two Cheers for Hypocrisy

A gray appreciation of John McCain, thinking about Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Donald Trump

August 31, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Goldfarb

Francois de La Rochefoucauld: “Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue.” I have long been intrigued by this epigram and its political implications. I like its ironic cogency, and think that historic and contemporary hypocrites demonstrate the insight of this pithy observation, but also its limitations. I am thinking about ...

Feature

Don’t Run Against Trump

As the general election looms, what is the best way for Democrats to win?

August 29, 2018 • by Claire Potter

When Democrats go to sleep at night, they dream of sticking it to Donald Trump in November. But that's not how you win elections -- or at least, not how you should win elections. While the media outrage machine often feeds the idea of impeachment as the ultimate endgame, there ...

Uncategorized

Elegy to a Flawed Man?

Remembering Senator John McCain

August 27, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

John McCain was a flawed man who was also a leading conservative Republican. And any honest assessment of his life must account for both of these things: his personal flaws, and the injustices associated with his ideological leanings and political choices. But does this mean that it is wrong, or foolish, ...

Blue Monday

Evil Ways

Reflections on sometimes supporting politicians who make us sick, and on politicians and musicians who raise us up

August 27, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

"I merely took the energy it takes to pout, and I wrote some blues." -Duke Ellington Last Thursday night, while watching MSNBC, I was taken aback to see a new TV ad from the re-election campaign of Senator Joe Donnelly (D-Indiana). Donnelly, along with West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, has long positioned ...

Feature

Democrats: Stop Parroting GOP Talking Points

Nancy Pelosi and the future of the Democratic leadership in the House

August 25, 2018 • by John Lawrence

The dog days of August have arrived (no pun intended with respect to President Trump’s disgraceful Omarosa misogynist insult), and the topic of the week seems to be whether Nancy Pelosi should pack it in after a decade and a half as the House’s top Democrat. As Pelosi’s chief of staff ...

Democrats: Stop Parroting GOP Talking Points

Feature

In Defense of Civility

Why protest and respect can go together

August 21, 2018 • by Nathan Eckstrand

The hostile words and actions recently directed at Trump officials have provoked much debate. Perhaps the most famous example is the refusal of the Lexington, Virginia Red Hen restaurant to serve Sarah Huckabee Sanders – a refusal many on the Left argued was justified. Jessica Valenti, for example, has written “that when ...

Feature

Populism as the Political

An excerpt from Ritchie Savage’s latest book

August 21, 2018 • by Ritchie Savage

In the following, you can read an excerpt from The New School alumni Ritchie Savage’s recent book Populist Discourse in Venezuela and the United States: American Unexceptionalism and Political Identity Formation preceded by a Q&A with the author. *** Q&A with the Author Public Seminar (PS): What made you decide to write a book ...