The Politics of Student Loan Cancellation

The American Left needs to keep pressing for more ambitious solutions to the problem of student debt

Biden’s action on student debt indicates that Americans may be ready to move on from the austerity politics that defined the Republican Party from Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump....

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The Politics of Student Loan Cancellation

Part 2: My Convictions

Revelations of the War in Ukraine: An anti-war activist’s personal and political reckoning

Having faulted American policies myself—emphatically so from Clinton forward, when I took on that role of Boston Globe op-ed pundit—I nevertheless refused now to place blame for Putin’s war on America’s drive to protect, in the left-wing argot, its “global hegemony.”...

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Part 2: My Convictions

When I Was One-Dimensional

How Herbert Marcuse’s text changed my life

"For their sincere reception," Cavell concludes, some life-altering texts require "the shock of conversion." Reading Marcuse, I had felt that shock, with pleasure. Few experiences are quite as rapturous as the conviction that one has embarked on a splendid new life with the firmest of good convictions: as Plato long ...
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When I Was One-Dimensional

Jesus in a Cowboy Hat

A conversation with historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez about why white evangelicals support MAGA politics

When the thrice-divorced, self-proclaimed billionaire, casino entrepreneur, and unfailingly crass Donald Trump announced his candidacy for the 2016 Republican nomination, his significant popularity among white evangelical Christian voters surprised political commentators. When their support carried President Trump all the way to the White House, Calvin University historian Dr. Kristin Kobes ...
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Jesus in a Cowboy Hat

The Global Rise of Xenophobia, the New Issue of Social Research

The New School journal unveils its latest issue

The rise of Xenophobia, globally, has unfortunately become increasingly virulent. The latest issue of Social Research, through a set of case studies, draws connections between the personal and the political with contributions from Marci Shore, Erika Lee, Bálint Madlovics, Irena Grudzińska Gross, Sina Arnold, Jocelyne Cesari, Mehmet Kurt, Munawwar Abdulla ...
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The Global Rise of Xenophobia, the New Issue of <em>Social Research</em>

The Future of the GOP

Has the Republic National Committee firmly dragged the Republican Party into Trump’s war on our democracy?

Coming as the statement did, just after former President Trump said that Pence had the power to “overturn the election” and, that if reelected, Trump would pardon those who attacked the Capitol, it has put the Republican Party openly on the side of overturning our democracy....

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The Future of the GOP

The Chip Wars Heat Up

Chips with a side of CHIPS

"...there’s something much bigger at work here: The Chip Wars, as I’ve dubbed them, are heating up, and revealing some of the tensions between national needs and extraction from local communities."...

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The Chip Wars Heat Up

What’s at Stake in Ukraine

“If you want peace, prepare for war”

Thus, the potential occupation of Ukraine should not be seen as a local affair, nor should the country be viewed as a strategic sacrifice to appease Putin’s fears about NATO. Instead, it should be seen as a warning of how far he can push his might, if not properly restrained. ...
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What’s at Stake in Ukraine

For Want of Wild Beasts

For many in Eastern Europe, prison was the hallmark of Communism. Today, the United States is experiencing its own carceral society. What can be learnt from this comparison and can we redefine the term “political prisoner”?

How do we understand both the uses and disadvantages of thinking across time and space? How do we negotiate the fact that in any biography or historical event, there are both elements that are unique, and elements that are universal? For me, these questions belonged to a larger question: namely, ...
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For Want of Wild Beasts

The Phantom of the “Greatest Generation”

“Citizen soldiers” of America, unite!

With the greatest generation serving as their antithesis, it has become de rigueur to mock and attack the baby boomers: spoiled children of fathers infinitely better than they. But whatever the errors and failings of the post-war generation, it rose up against war and racism and stifling rules, all of ...
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The Phantom of the “Greatest Generation”

The Socialist Revival

Can the Democratic Socialists of America claim to be a vanguard? Not yet

Could socialism be in the cards for the United States? Recall Senator John Edwards’s joke from 2008, “Objects in mirror may be closer than they appear.”  Socialism has become more familiar to Americans, thanks to the politician who has done more than anyone to render obsolete its traditional meaning. That would ...
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The Socialist Revival