North America Archives - Page 14 of 21

Democracy

Blaming Trump, Blaming Biden, Saving Ourselves

Can we save ourselves, from the plague that is COVID or the plague that is Trump?

April 3, 2020 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

This shouldn’t be a controversial point. Everyone from presumptive Democratic nominee former vice president Joe Biden to prominent columnists like Michelle Goldberg believes it. But it’s proved harder to do than it would seem. Even as Trump lies, promotes unproven cures, and continues to carry out petty personal vendettas at the expense of saving lives, ...

Blaming Trump, Blaming Biden, Saving Ourselves

Democracy

In Praise of Bureaucracy

How our patrimonial presidency endangers us all

April 2, 2020 • by Jeffrey Kopstein

But we’ve mostly disregarded one danger and it’s the one I believe is the most significant: Trump’s attack on the administrative state. The novel coronavirus bug revealed the American state, so impressive on the global stage with its ability to project unparalleled military force anywhere in the world, as shockingly unable ...

Democracy

There’s No “Trade-Off” Between Saving Lives and Saving the Economy

A humane society doesn’t trade some lives for others

March 28, 2020 • by Peter Dreier

Nonsense. In February, when he had a chance to take decisive action to get ahead of the virus, Trump told his advisors not to “do or say anything that would further spook the markets.” Trump’s weeks of downplaying the crisis, and his failure to prepare for the looming pandemic, deepened the problem. But having finally acknowledged the ...

There’s No “Trade-Off” Between Saving Lives and Saving the Economy

Democracy

Over 900 U.S. Political Scientists are Worried about Democratic Elections in November

Here’s Why

March 25, 2020 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac and William Kindred Winecoff

In the spirit of reflexive inquiry, we offer the following hypotheses: The current COVID pandemic is a global health crisis and an economic crisis of unprecedented proportions, and such crises always place stress on democracy. Political scientists understand that such crises can place extraordinary strain on even the most functional and legitimate ...

Over 900 U.S. Political Scientists are Worried about Democratic Elections in November

North America

For the Love of Humanity, We Should Never Stop Talking About “Bernie Bros”

A response to Jesse Singal

March 19, 2020 • by Anne Taylor

In the 2016 election cycle, I worked for Senator Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign. Those months are a blur. In October 2015 I was an eager volunteer in a student group at the University of Colorado Boulder; within two months the campaign hired me as their first field organizer in the ...

For the Love of Humanity, We Should Never Stop Talking About “Bernie Bros”

North America

The Great Immobility

March 17, 2020 • by T. Alexander Aleinikoff

Less obvious is the lesson we could come to learn about mobility. At first glance, the restrictions on travel to the United States seem to affirm a common trope: our borders need to be sealed against immigrants who would do us harm. Build the Wall; stop the germs! But there is another ...

North America

Confessions in a Time of Plague

Or, the Virtues of Ideological Inconsistency

March 16, 2020 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

A revised version of my doctoral dissertation, written under the supervision of Robert Dahl while I was a grad student at Yale, my book was titled Power and Marxist Theory: A Realist View. In it, I offered an earnest defense of neo-Marxist theories of power circa 1986 (drawing on the work of theorists such ...

Democracy

Coronavirus Testing Lag? Not My Fault, Says Trump

The president who insists that he alone can solve all problems runs away from this one. It could be fatal.

March 14, 2020 • by Heather Cox Richardson

This quotation, from Trump’s answer, when a reporter asked him if he took responsibility for the lag in testing for the novel coronavirus, will be in every single history book written about this era. He went on. When PBS White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor asked why he doesn’t take responsibility for ...

Coronavirus Testing Lag? Not My Fault, Says Trump

North America

COVID-19: The Fierce Urgency of Now

National political organizations need to recalibrate: this is not business as usual

March 13, 2020 • by Micah L. Sifry

Indivisible isn’t alone. The Joe Biden for President campaign is currently asking people to sign-up to knock on doors for him in Florida, Arizona, and Illinois. AccessNow, the digital rights organization, just sent me an email asking for nominations for the “Privacy Defenders and Offenders” project, with the winners of the Privacy Defender ...

North America

Next Steps for the Left – and for America

Why the Democratic Party must coalesce around Joe Biden – and Biden must compromise with the left

March 10, 2020 • by Peter Dreier

It is possible, perhaps even likely, that no candidate will win a majority of Democratic delegates. But seems clear now that Biden will have a plurality. At this point, it makes no sense to prolong the internal battle within the Democratic Party and endure a conflict at the July convention ...

Next Steps for the Left – and for America

North America

Will Sanders Democrats Support a Politics of Coalition — or Isolation?

Some Thoughts on Where the Left Goes From Here

March 10, 2020 • by Leo Casey

Asked why he continues to do poorly with African-American voters, Sanders responded with a dodge that his campaign was actually “winning among people of color in a very significant degree.” While it is certainly true that Sanders has won impressive levels of support from Latino voters, the same is clearly ...

Will Sanders Democrats Support a Politics of Coalition — or Isolation?

North America

‘Resistance’ Women Loved Elizabeth Warren. Here’s Why Their Groups Didn’t Fight for Her.

Wary of factional battles and worried about beating Trump, resistance groups withheld endorsements.

March 10, 2020 • by Lara Putnam

I know someone who has a “Nevertheless she persisted” tattoo. If you hang out with the kind of fierce, aging, progressive women who have been moving mountains since Donald Trump’s election, you probably do too. Since 2017, I have been following the new grassroots democracy groups that popped up like wildfire across the country ...

North America

Blaming Trump, Blaming Biden, Saving Ourselves

Can we save ourselves, from the plague that is COVID or the plague that is Trump?

In Praise of Bureaucracy

How our patrimonial presidency endangers us all

There’s No “Trade-Off” Between Saving Lives and Saving the Economy

A humane society doesn’t trade some lives for others

Over 900 U.S. Political Scientists are Worried about Democratic Elections in November

Here’s Why

For the Love of Humanity, We Should Never Stop Talking About “Bernie Bros”

A response to Jesse Singal

The Great Immobility

Confessions in a Time of Plague

Or, the Virtues of Ideological Inconsistency

Coronavirus Testing Lag? Not My Fault, Says Trump

The president who insists that he alone can solve all problems runs away from this one. It could be fatal.

COVID-19: The Fierce Urgency of Now

National political organizations need to recalibrate: this is not business as usual

Next Steps for the Left – and for America

Why the Democratic Party must coalesce around Joe Biden – and Biden must compromise with the left

Will Sanders Democrats Support a Politics of Coalition — or Isolation?

Some Thoughts on Where the Left Goes From Here

‘Resistance’ Women Loved Elizabeth Warren. Here’s Why Their Groups Didn’t Fight for Her.

Wary of factional battles and worried about beating Trump, resistance groups withheld endorsements.

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