Politics Archives - Page 71 of 143

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Two Cheers for Hypocrisy

A gray appreciation of John McCain, thinking about Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Donald Trump

August 31, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Goldfarb

Francois de La Rochefoucauld: “Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue.” I have long been intrigued by this epigram and its political implications. I like its ironic cogency, and think that historic and contemporary hypocrites demonstrate the insight of this pithy observation, but also its limitations. I am thinking about ...

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Sexual Assault and the Other

On the Contemporary Politicization of Sexual Violence

August 30, 2018 • by Maria Bucur

Though it has been receiving a lot of attention in the media since the #MeToo movement started, sexual violence remains a poorly understood phenomenon. But the statistics on this crime of national proportions are getting better, because the climate of accountability and protection for victims has actually improved over the ...

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Don’t Run Against Trump

As the general election looms, what is the best way for Democrats to win?

August 29, 2018 • by Claire Potter

When Democrats go to sleep at night, they dream of sticking it to Donald Trump in November. But that's not how you win elections -- or at least, not how you should win elections. While the media outrage machine often feeds the idea of impeachment as the ultimate endgame, there ...

Uncategorized

Elegy to a Flawed Man?

Remembering Senator John McCain

August 27, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

John McCain was a flawed man who was also a leading conservative Republican. And any honest assessment of his life must account for both of these things: his personal flaws, and the injustices associated with his ideological leanings and political choices. But does this mean that it is wrong, or foolish, ...

Blue Monday

Evil Ways

Reflections on sometimes supporting politicians who make us sick, and on politicians and musicians who raise us up

August 27, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

"I merely took the energy it takes to pout, and I wrote some blues." -Duke Ellington Last Thursday night, while watching MSNBC, I was taken aback to see a new TV ad from the re-election campaign of Senator Joe Donnelly (D-Indiana). Donnelly, along with West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, has long positioned ...

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Democrats: Stop Parroting GOP Talking Points

Nancy Pelosi and the future of the Democratic leadership in the House

August 25, 2018 • by John Lawrence

The dog days of August have arrived (no pun intended with respect to President Trump’s disgraceful Omarosa misogynist insult), and the topic of the week seems to be whether Nancy Pelosi should pack it in after a decade and a half as the House’s top Democrat. As Pelosi’s chief of staff ...

Democrats: Stop Parroting GOP Talking Points

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What Do We Even Want From One Another?

Anxiety, Permeation and Identity in the Age of a Slowly Imploding Liberalism

August 24, 2018 • by Jamieson Webster and Luce deLire

In a time identified by the breakdown of fantasy, xenophobic malaise, and the salve of identity politics, philosopher Luce deLire and psychoanalyst Jamieson Webster take us to the limits of 'the self.' They muse on anxiety's collectivizing forces, the political instrumentalization of unsolvably fractured identities, and their permeation. They suggest ...

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The Destruction of Empathy, Part Two

On the political situation in Spain

August 23, 2018 • by Amador Fernández-Savater

Below is Part Two of an article originally published on the Spanish blog El Diario. It was translated to English for Public Seminar by Liz Mason-Deese. The Mandate of Masculinity According to Rita Segato, the first expression of the pedagogy of cruelty is sexist violence. Predatory capitalism establishes a battlefield on the ...

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The Destruction of Empathy, Part One

On the political situation in Spain

August 22, 2018 • by Amador Fernández-Savater

This article, originally published in Spanish at the blog El Diario, is part one of two. It was translated to English for Public Seminar by Liz Mason-Deese. Is it possible to read the current socio-historical political moment in Spain not only as a dispute between different groups for power, but as a ...

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In Defense of Civility

Why protest and respect can go together

August 21, 2018 • by Nathan Eckstrand

The hostile words and actions recently directed at Trump officials have provoked much debate. Perhaps the most famous example is the refusal of the Lexington, Virginia Red Hen restaurant to serve Sarah Huckabee Sanders – a refusal many on the Left argued was justified. Jessica Valenti, for example, has written “that when ...

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Populism as the Political

An excerpt from Ritchie Savage’s latest book

August 21, 2018 • by Ritchie Savage

In the following, you can read an excerpt from The New School alumni Ritchie Savage’s recent book Populist Discourse in Venezuela and the United States: American Unexceptionalism and Political Identity Formation preceded by a Q&A with the author. *** Q&A with the Author Public Seminar (PS): What made you decide to write a book ...

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Imran Khan’s Promised Land

Can Imran Khan deliver on his pledge to tackle corruption?

August 19, 2018 • by Maria Khan

Since the 2016 presidential election in the U.S. we have witnessed a severe divide between the Democrats and the Republicans. In Pakistan, however, we have experienced a polarization between two different mind-sets and attitudes. The first can be characterized as stoic and materialistic, and perhaps even skeptical, while the second ...