How We Got Here

Transition failures, their causes, and the populist interest in the constitution

The answers to these questions are related. In the following, in the form of six theses, I start with what I mean by “populism”. Next, I wish to point to the two deficits of liberal democracy that provide the context for the rise of populist politics. These deficits have been ...
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Triangulation is the Not-So-New Black

Party Coalitions, Racial Scapegoating and the Carceral State

Bill Clinton vilified African-Americans with his draconian crime bill while pushing for economic deregulation policies that he hoped would woo Republicans while also not upsetting the labor base of the Democratic Party too much. By the time Obama came around, African-Americans went from being vilified by the Democratic Party to ...
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Confronting Fundamental Problems of the Human Condition and Pressing Problems of the Day… by any means necessary

Four years of Public Seminar

Now many fine colleagues have joined the project, as we had hoped would happen. Their creative imagination, experience, scholarship and commitment have made it what it is today and what it promises to be tomorrow. Claire Potter and I oversee the operations in adjoining offices, across from The New School ...
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March for Racial Justice and March for Black Women

Sept. 30, 2017 DC

Black Women First! Black Women First! Shouted several thousand people as they marched up Pennsylvania Ave. from the Capitol on September 30.  They were leading two marches, which started at two different points on Capital Hill before joining to march to the Department of Justice on 10th St. There they planned to turn south to go to ...
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March for Racial Justice and March for Black Women

Free Speech Matters vs. Black Lives Matter?

The Life of the Mind Online

Yet, today, thanks to the President’s decidedly un-presidential performances, free speech once again is a broad concern of the American public, although the suffering of hurricane and fire victims has been unrelenting. As he exchanged insults with Kim Jong-un, increasing the chances of nuclear disaster, as the Republicans (thankfully) failed once ...
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Breitbart, Bannon, Trump, and the Frankfurt School

A strange meeting of minds

Breitbart's stated goal in creating the news outlet that bears his name was to attack the "Democrat media complex" with the help of the Internet and social media. Bannon, inspired by Lenin, Julius Evola (a darling of the Italian fascists and today popular with Greek neo-Nazis and Hungarian nationalists), and ...
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In the Spirit of Disruptive Action

A Stand Against Torture

The protests against Yoo and the APSA in San Francisco this week revealed the way in which universities and college campuses are entangled within broader systems of violence, torture, and oppression. In other words, universities and college campuses in the U.S. are not what they so often claim to be: ...
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Solecism or Barbarism (Part 2)

The Swedish Nationalist Milieu and a Cultural Struggle from the Right

Swedish radical nationalism has undergone a process of normalization, much like its international counterparts. In Sweden, such a normalization becomes evident in the fact that, according to recent opinion polls, the nationalist Sweden Democrats have swelled to become the second largest political party in terms of support. However, parliamentary pursuits ...
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Taking Political Differences Seriously

Why I Did Not Protest John Yoo at the APSA Meetings

But I did not protest John Yoo's presence at this year's APSA meeting in San Francisco, and the reason why is simple: I believe the protest was misplaced and also advanced a principle that I find disturbing and cannot support. Let me be clear: I did not and do not “oppose” ...
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Solidarity after Machiavelli

An interview with Ira Katznelson

So first, when you ask what Machiavelli would advise, he would probably take some time, though since he was a genius, he would probably figure it out: what kind of rule this is, what kind of rulers these are. But he would have been surprised in a different dimension. He ...
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Solecism or Barbarism (Part 1)

The Swedish Nationalist Milieu and a Cultural Struggle from the Right

Swedish radical nationalism has undergone a process of normalization, much like its international counterparts. In Sweden, such a normalization becomes evident in the fact that, according to recent opinion polls, the nationalist Sweden Democrats have swelled to become the second largest political party in terms of support. However, parliamentary pursuits ...
Read More
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