Politics Archives - Page 34 of 143

Past Present

Fat Activism

Past Present Podcast, Episode 218

March 3, 2020 • by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Nicole Hemmer and Neil J. Young

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: In recent years, “body positivity” has become a buzzword. Natalia cited The Fat Studies Reader and this Campus Reform article about more extreme forms of fat liberation. Niki referred to this Bitch Media article about the connections between fat and queer liberation. We previously discussed plus-size models on Episode ...

Democracy

Hong Kong on the Brink

March 3, 2020 • by Jeffrey Wasserstrom

The irony of the UK, one of the world's great democracies, belatedly handing over a colonized people from one distant ruler to another, in Beijing, was not lost on the people living nearly 2,000km south of China's capital. It is hard to say how genuine Margaret Thatcher's claimed optimism at the ...

North America

The Speech that Mike Bloomberg Should Have Given Last Week

How the former Mayor might redefine the importance of an outsider candidacy — by leaving the race, and supporting a candidate who can win

March 2, 2020 • by Jeffrey K. Tulis

But at the moment, he is actually harming both. He is hurting Democrats by blunting the message of all the candidates other than Bernie Sanders. And he is hurting the country by making it less likely that the Democrats will nominate a person who will be able to defeat Donald Trump. Yet he ...

The Speech that Mike Bloomberg Should Have Given Last Week

Politics

Health Care & the Dangers of Demanding the Impossible

What Bernie Sanders Might Learn from Elizabeth Warren

February 28, 2020 • by Leo Casey

I have been struck today by how much of the argument I saw in the last few days before the Nevada caucuses, much of which was swirling around disagreements between the Bernie campaign and the Culinary Workers Union in Nevada, was based on a common misunderstanding of the dynamics of ...

Health Care & the Dangers of Demanding the Impossible

Exiles on 12th Street

Ripped From the Headlines

Exiles on 12th Street, Episode Seven

February 28, 2020 • by Claire Potter

What has happened to the news? As the proliferation of terms like “fake news” and “alternative facts” indicates, we can’t take everything we read at face value. So who can we trust? The seventh episode of Exiles on 12th Street investigates how news media has changed, and how the headlines ...

Democracy

Must A Leader Not Be Above the Law?

Understanding the a-legal Foundations of Trumpism

February 27, 2020 • by Jeffrey S. Librett

Having spent some years studying and teaching about the structure and functioning of Nazi ideology, and having written books on the Christian-Jewish relationship in German culture, as well as German Orientalism, I would like to apply some of what I may have learned about extreme right-wing ideologies to the current ...

From the Editors

The 2,000-Year-Old Men

February 26, 2020 • by Claire Potter

We have had this guilty thought long before Mayor Pete articulated it for us in his unique tone, one in which he manages to convey optimism, despair and his own brand of aggression simultaneously. Lately, as Sanders’s actual policies seem to be impressing more and more voters, and an extraordinary ...

North America

The Four Hurdles and The Four Temptations of Bernie Sanders

February 25, 2020 • by Andrew Arato

The final hurdle is the Constitution. This involves the separation of powers, a powerful Supreme Court, and federal decentralization. Each hurdle also suggests a temptation inherent in populist politics, which Sanders represents on the left, as Trump does on the right. Securing the Democratic nomination in 2020 is a tall order for ...

The Four Hurdles and The Four Temptations of Bernie Sanders

North America

The Specter of George McGovern’s Defeat in 1972

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

February 25, 2020 • by Bruce Miroff

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 ...

The Specter of George McGovern’s Defeat in 1972

Past Present

COVID-19 and Protective Face Masks

Past Present Podcast, Episode 217

February 25, 2020 • by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Nicole Hemmer and Neil J. Young

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: The threat of coronavirus has lately made protective face masks a fixture in many global cities. Natalia cited this Vox article about the hoarding of such masks. Neil referred to this Quartz piece about the broader use of face masks in Asian countries. In our regular closing feature, What’s Making History: Natalia recommended Mac ...

Politics

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.

February 25, 2020 • by Peter Dreier

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 ...

Is Democratic Socialism in America’s Future?

Democracy

Solidarity Means Sharing In Active Freedom

Democracy and The Public Square

February 24, 2020 • by Elzbieta Matynia

“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 ...