United States Archives - Page 28 of 73

Blue Monday

Of Summits, Blowhards, and Hard Blowing

Thoughts on Trump, treason, and defending democracy

July 23, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

"I merely took the energy it takes to pout, and I wrote some blues." -Duke Ellington In the wake of Donald Trump’s recent Helsinki “summit” with Vladimir Putin, which followed quickly on the heels of Trump’s disastrous meeting with EU leaders in Brussels, talk of “treason” is in the air. To ...

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Families Belong Together

2000 people gathered across from White House on June 30

July 22, 2018 • by Jo Freeman

On June 30, almost two thousand people gathered in Lafayette Park across from the White House to denounce President Trump’s "zero tolerance policy" for immigrants seeking to escape violence in Mexico and Central America. The policy led to children being taken away from their parents when families reached the border, ...

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A Democratic Tea Party?

An incoming wave of ideological hardliners

July 21, 2018 • by John Lawrence

The surprise defeat of NY Rep. Joe Crowley by non-traditional, anti-establishment newcomer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has fueled extensive speculation about worrisome chasms opening within the Democratic Party as it struggles to reclaim a House majority. As with the victories of other newcomers in a number of races around the country, some speculate ...

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On Opposing Fascism with a Reality TV Face

“Politics as a vocation,” the social condition and Donald Trump

July 20, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Goldfarb

I am waiting, ever more impatiently, for my fellow citizens to wake up, to confront that it is happening here and now, that fascism with a reality TV face is upon us. Even though the situation appears ridiculous and often comic, it’s ominous. I am not ready to declare that “The ...

On Opposing Fascism with a Reality TV Face

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So You Want To Be POTUS?

Avoid the disasters that long presidential campaigns produce

July 18, 2018 • by Claire Potter

Checking my Instagram a few evenings ago, I saw that Senator Elizabeth Warren was live. I clicked. In a grainy video, I saw her striding out onto a marble plaza talking to an aide, her blunt cut blond hair swinging slightly as she strode into the darkness. The sound of ...

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When Trump Met Putin

An Eyewitness Report of the Helsinki Summit

July 18, 2018 • by Elizabeth Kendall

The evening before the Trump-Putin “summit” in Helsinki, I got on my white Finnish Jopo bike and went to see what was happening at the Hilton Kalastajatorppa in the seaside suburb of Munkkiniemi. It was extremely weird that Trump & Co. would be at my favorite hotel, just up the ...

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Militancy and its Discontents

What the civility conversation gets wrong about activism

July 16, 2018 • by Dan Royles

In early July, historian David Greenberg issued a kind of warning about the current state of American politics, the latest entry on the hand-wringing over civility on the anti-Trump left. He’s not alone: recently a CNN anchor chided a commentator for calling Stephen Miller, the ostensible architect of Donald Trump’s “zero-tolerance” immigration policy, a ...

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“There Is No Space for Us”

New York’s Housing Shortage Leaves Hurricane Evacuees in Limbo

July 15, 2018 • by Paula Moura

The terrifying message came via a robo-call on April 20. “Pack your things. Your stay is not the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA’s) responsibility anymore,” Andrea Tejeda, 26, recalls hearing on her cellphone. She was one of a dozen Puerto Rican families dislocated by last September’s devastating Hurricane Maria staying in ...

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Two Cheers for Revolution and Restoration…Three Cheers for Responsibility and Principles

Notes on Posts

July 13, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Goldfarb

Last week, I expressed my concern that the barbaric incivility of the leader of what very well may become the formerly free world is being mirrored by his opponents with negative effects. Oppositional incivility, I fear, very well may alienate Trump’s ambivalent supporters, who could turn against him, as it ...

Two Cheers for Revolution and Restoration…Three Cheers for Responsibility and Principles

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Moral Blindness and Immigration in America

The Trump administration’s inhumane approach to immigration

July 12, 2018 • by Siobhan Kattago

Reactions to Donald Trump’s immigration policies -- whether in the Supreme Court’s upholding of the Muslim ban, rejection of domestic and gang violence as valid reasons for asylum or, more pointedly, the separation of families seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexican border, have primarily focused on the architects of such policies ...

Moral Blindness and Immigration in America

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Stepping Outside the Echo Chamber

The importance of engaging with differing perspectives in the Age of Trump

July 12, 2018 • by Martin O. Heisler

Like so many others, I have been frustrated by my inability to find the language and style of discourse for engaging Trump supporters in reasoned discussion about their choice and their reactions to his pronouncements, executive orders and consequential tweets. Attempting to engage in such conversations invariably led to confrontation ...

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When Democracy Wins

Residents of the small town of Springfield, Or., band together to end jail contract with ICE

July 10, 2018 • by Jewel Murphy

As a longtime ally but newly woke activist, I found myself sitting in the Springfield, Oregon, City Council chambers as they were getting ready to vote on whether to amend the city’s controversial contract to provide jail beds to ICE. First, a little bit of background. Springfield, with a population of ...