Arrows into the Heart of Democracy

Attacks on Gender Studies and the conquest of democracy

The history of women’s suffrage taught us that democratic rights and institutions must be fought for and can never be taken for granted. They are fragile. Today, in the face of worldwide attacks on democratic rights and the neo-reactionary conquest of democracy, we desperately need to remember this. In countries such ...
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Arrows into the Heart of Democracy

The Blue Eraser

You can’t draw a blue wave with a red pencil

Picture five pencils. On a table. Two are red. Two are blue. One is green. Move one of each color to the center. Set two aside. First put the green with the red. Take a breath. Next put the green with the blue. Repeat this a dozen times. Two dozen. ...
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The Blue Eraser

Civilization or Barbarism?

The American election results viewed from the radical center

I voted! My vote was more a ritual offering to my political commitments, than a set of democratic decisions. It was as if I live in a one party state. I affirmed my support for the party. With my community, my friends and neighbors, my students and colleagues, and my family and loved ...
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Civilization or Barbarism?

A Few Quick Take-Aways

Reflecting on the 2018 midterm election

A short blog on the election; it will take a little while to fully digest the results. But some results seem clear and important to note. Obviously, the major news of the day is the Democratic resurgence in the House, with Democrats winning back the majority they lost so spectacularly in ...
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A Few Quick Take-Aways

Neoliberalism with An Inhuman Face

How Bolsonaro won and how the Left failed in Brazil

The consolidation of the Brazilian extreme right is a recent fact and deserves to be debated in a more analytical fashion. Even though Brazil had significant parts of its society immersed in the tacit defense of the military dictatorship and in actions marked by the absence of any social solidarity ...
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Neoliberalism with An Inhuman Face

Still Fighting Jim Crow in Georgia

Stacey Abrams is not just battling Brian Kemp, she is battling history

In 1964, Clara Curtis worked as a poll watcher at her local Cobb County, Georgia precinct. She had been working to establish a Republican Party in a state where the Democratic party had a stranglehold on local and state politics. Curtis watched each voter drop a ballot into the wooden ...
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Still Fighting Jim Crow in Georgia

A (Liberal) World We Have Lost?

What we can learn from Arendt’s insights into an earlier crisis of liberalism

Reading Hannah Arendt’s Crises of the Republic in the Age of Trump: A Symposium Hannah Arendt’s Crises of the Republic is not so much a book as a collection, published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich in 1972, of three essays and an interview that first appeared, individually, in the years between 1969 and 1971. Three of ...
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A (Liberal) World We Have Lost?

Constitutional Courts and the Project of Democratic Defense

Courts should make the defense of democracy a priority

In the wake of the Kavanaugh nomination, a debate has erupted on the broadly progressive left about the role of constitutional courts in advancing valuable social ends. Samuel Moyn’s broadside against the “juristocracy,” and Andrew Seal’s response here reflect two potential positions. That debate has been so far focused on the relationship ...
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Constitutional Courts and the Project of Democratic Defense

Hannah Arendt’s Crises, and Ours

The “worldlessness” of our time manifests itself in right-wing populism

Reading Hannah Arendt’s Crises of the Republic in the Age of Trump: A Symposium Hannah Arendt’s Crises of the Republic is not so much a book as a collection, published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich in 1972, of three essays and an interview that first appeared, individually, in the years between 1969 and 1971. Three of ...
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Hannah Arendt’s Crises, and Ours

Why I Won’t Vote for Joe Donnelly

Or the ethical and strategic limits of red-baiting

Over the past two years I have written over sixty pieces arguing that Trumpism poses a clear and present danger to liberal democracy; that an effective opposition to Trumpism must involve resistance but also the deepening of democracy; and that given the nature of the US political system, this means ...
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Why I Won’t Vote for Joe Donnelly

Welcome the stranger. Defend democracy. And defend ourselves.

Some perhaps surprising initial thoughts about the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting

First things first. The shootings are despicable and outrageous, and they are both awful in themselves and a symptom of a much deeper and more extensive poison that is being spread throughout the country by Donald Trump and by every politician, whether Republican or Democrat, who in any way draws from ...
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Welcome the stranger. Defend democracy. And defend ourselves.

The Democrats’ Dilemma

Looking ahead to 2020

Although the crucial mid-term elections are a mere two weeks away, it never takes long before most political conversations turn to the question of the 2020 Democratic nominee. So while the outcome of 2018’s contests is still very much up in the air, let’s focus on an election still two ...
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The Democrats’ Dilemma