Things Fall Apart?

Perhaps, but in the shadow of Trump this is not a good thing

Bruenig is one of many young writers on the left to take heart from the mainstream Democratic panic over Sanders’s ascendancy. On Facebook, Alex Gourevitch, a fine political scientist and frequent contributor to Jacobin, was even more emphatic. “The jury is out on what Bernie’s ultimate effect will be,” wrote Gourevitch, adding that ...
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Things Fall Apart?

How The New York Times Turned Me into a Bernie Supporter

When the liberal media cries wolf, it energizes the grassroots

Among my reasons for resisting his renewed candidacy: the bad taste left in my mouth from the Bernie Bros phenomenon, his age, and honestly? His gender. As the 2020 democratic field came into focus, my choice to support Elizabeth Warren felt easy. Warren boasted an impressive record, but one that wouldn’t allow ...
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How The New York Times Turned Me into a Bernie Supporter

Why Nationalism Hurts Us All

Eliminating borders would be revolutionary

Nationalism is central to the maintenance -- and expansion -- of border control regimes. Defense of laws denying freedom of mobility across national territorial borders animate large swaths of those defined as the nation-state’s “citizens.” Anti-migrant politics is sold as an effective response to experiences of impoverishment, expropriation, and exploitation. ...
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Why Nationalism Hurts Us All

Yes, Putin cares about Trump’s impeachment trial — but not for the reason you might imagine

He has another target in mind

But the Kremlin does not need assistance from Trump -- much less from Rudolph Giuliani -- to find or manufacture dirt in Ukraine about Trump’s political rivals. Russia has highly trained professionals for that: kompromat, or compromising material, and blackmail are key Kremlin tools. Trump’s claim that he was concerned about corruption in Ukraine makes sense ...
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Yes, Putin cares about Trump’s impeachment trial — but not for the reason you might imagine

Why Ukraine’s president said there had been ‘no pressure’ from Trump

The word is weighted with different meanings in Ukraine.

And yet, as some Republican members of Congress have noted, in his televised Sept. 25 meeting with Trump, when asked about the now-infamous July 25 phone call in which Trump asked for a favor, Zelensky said “nobody pushed me.” Why would Zelensky claim that “nobody pushed” if military aid was indeed on the ...
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Why Ukraine’s president said there had been ‘no pressure’ from Trump

Trump says he was looking for corruption in Ukraine — where President Zelenskyy was known for mocking corruption in Ukraine

Like Trump, Zelenskyy was a showman before he entered politics. So what does he stand for?

Zelenskyy’s career as a showman reveals Ukrainians’ shared sense of moral values, frustration with politicians’ corruption and national solidarity in the face of Russia’s politics of division. I’ll explain below. Zelenskyy emphasized shared values Trained as a lawyer, Zelenskyy made his name in the Russian-speaking world through competitive improvisational comedy, on a ...
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Trump says he was looking for corruption in Ukraine — where President Zelenskyy was known for mocking corruption in Ukraine

Moderate Republicans

Past Present Podcast, Episode 214

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: Where have all the moderate Republicans gone? Neil wrote about Susan Collins and the end of moderate Republicans in his column for The Week. Niki shared Geoffrey Kabaservice’s book Rule and Ruin as the definitive history of moderate Republicans. Natalia discussed Ezra Klein’s recent New ...
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Thomas Paine’s Radicalism, and Ours

Rights of Man for the 21st century

But in truth, many of his principles and propositions can be traced back still further, to the ideas of founding father Thomas Paine in Rights of Man (1791-1792). Although Paine made no mention of either public health care or tuition-free universities during a period when medicine was still in its infancy and ...
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Thomas Paine’s Radicalism, and Ours

How Disinformation Became a Winning Strategy

Fomenting political fury is something that concerns us all

The recent UK election was a quarrel about the character of politics. On the one hand, the Labour Party argued that it can be used for good, ‘for the many’. They promised to transform lives and communities, to take action on climate change and poverty. The Conservative Party, conversely, claimed ...
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How Disinformation Became a Winning Strategy

We Still Need the ERA

How Activists Can Learn From History to Win It This Time

To many older feminists, the ERA remains the unfinished business of the 1970s. Today’s gender justice activists should expect to battle the same coalition of corporations and social conservatives that defeated their predecessors in 1982. But to win this time, they must learn from their own history. The ERA is not ...
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