From the Editors Archives - Page 148 of 171

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The Right’s Walls and the Left’s Commons

Critical reflections on the long – running clash between left and right

December 16, 2016 • by Todd Gitlin

In a knife-edge election, many are the causes that tip the balance between victory and defeat. Politics is, as Branch Rickey memorably said of baseball, “a game of inches.” Minor changes in a campaign scenario produce major differences. Surely Donald Trump’s victory derived in no small part from his appeal ...

The Right’s Walls and the Left’s Commons

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Democratic Deficits and the Electoral College

Why the possible alternatives to an outmoded relic of slavery are worse than the relic itself

December 16, 2016 • by Julie Novkov

The electoral college is an outmoded relic of slavery that should be removed from the constitution, not modestly revised, and certainly not politically activated. The civics explanation for the college -- that it provided a stopgap to prevent popular passions from running amok and that it helped to ensure that ...

Democratic Deficits and the Electoral College

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Is There a Crisis of Democracy?

The Rise of Trump-like Figures in Democracies

December 15, 2016 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

There is a very interesting debate taking place between Yascha Mounk and Roberto Stefan Foa and Erik Voeten on Monkey Cage and Wonkblog. According to Mounk and Foa: “Public attitudes toward democracy... have soured over time. Citizens, especially millennials, have less faith in the democratic system. They are more likely to ...

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Performing the Brown Man Post 11/8

The Looks of Strangers and the Gaze of Phantoms

December 15, 2016 • by T. A. S.

This piece is part of the OOPS Series, "Social Interaction." I noticed him straight away. It was not the way he walked, slouched, each step an exercise in ascending and descending; like his legs were made out of the springs that vacillate bobble heads. It was not the casual style in ...

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Trump and the Anti-Establishment Fantasy

The Balance of Power in the New Trump Administration

December 14, 2016 • by Rafael Khachaturian

After running as a political outsider, Donald Trump now finds himself having to navigate between two uneasily aligned factions. On one side is an emboldened right-populist base, personified by incoming White House chief strategist and Senior Counselor Stephen Bannon, that wants to see a fundamental turnover among the people in ...

Trump and the Anti-Establishment Fantasy

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The Armenian Violence Question

A Conversation on Means and Social Change

December 13, 2016 • by Tamar Shirinian and Nelli Sargsyan

How do we make sense of a general population's acceptance of militarization? We see the following conversation as an attempt to entangle and disentangle some of the complexities of this particular historical juncture in post-Soviet Armenia. In reflecting on the Armenian experience and on the larger process of postsocialism and ...

Education

Politics of Small Things

December 13, 2016 • by Patrick Gilger, S.J.

This piece is part of the OOPS Series, "Social Interaction." Jeffrey Goldfarb’s “The Politics of Small Things” is a both an insightful work of social analysis and -- through this analysis itself -- an enactment of this-worldly hope in, as he might phrase it, these dark times. Instead of focusing on ...

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The Tweets of a Clown, When No One Is Around

How Comedy Will Demolish Trump

December 12, 2016 • by Richard Kaplan

“Well they're some sad things known to man, But ain't too much sadder than, The tears of a clown when there's no one around.” --Smokey Robinson Beyond bad teeth, I don't really have much in common with P.J. O’Rourke, the former humor writer for National Lampoon and for the last two decades right-wing comedic ...

The Tweets of a Clown, When No One Is Around

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What Does “Draining the Swamp” Really Mean?

Alexandr Dugin, Putin’s Brain, Weighs In

December 11, 2016 • by Lev Marder

More than once President-Elect Donald Trump has promised to “drain the swamp.” Can he rid Washington of corruption? Is he already failing at the task? What Trump actually means by “draining the swamp” is not that clear, considering how poor he is at defining what he takes to be corruption or ...

What Does “Draining the Swamp” Really Mean?

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The Metamorphoses of the 2013 Brazilian Protests

December 9, 2016 • by Isleide Fontenelle

In June 2013, Brazilian cities were occupied by street demonstrations sparked by the protest against the increase in public transportation fares in the city of São Paulo. Over the course of weeks, these demonstrations grew, a vast array of claims was incorporated, and new types of protesters emerged, eventually taking ...

The Metamorphoses of the 2013 Brazilian Protests

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Can Art Save Us from Bullshit?

The Practice of Making Political Art that Works

December 8, 2016 • by Stephen Duncombe and Silas Harrebye

This essay is a version of a presentation given by the authors at the Public Calling conference, sponsored by the Fritt Ord Foundation & KURO/Public Art Norway, at the National Theatre in Oslo, Norway on 1 November 2016. Many years ago, there was an emperor so exceedingly fond of new clothes ...