North America Archives - Page 15 of 21

North America

The Frustration of Being Elizabeth Warren

The significance of a campaign that couldn’t get a look from the voters

March 10, 2020 • by Miranda Yaver

It is a familiar story, and one that frustrates many close followers of Democratic Party politics. The field has narrowed from a diverse array of candidates spanning different races, genders, ages, and sexual orientations, to two familiar white men who seek to unseat the current president. Warren’s departure from the field ...

The Frustration of Being Elizabeth Warren

North America

Don’t Cry for Her — Elizabeth Warren!

Democratic voters have shown themselves increasingly likely to vote for women, and Warren will be back in 2024

March 10, 2020 • by Sidney Tarrow

The commentariat -- almost to a woman -- wrung its collective hands when Warren dropped out of the race (where were they when she needed them?). Writing for The Guardian, Moira Donegan lamented that “As a woman, the Massachusetts senator always faced an uphill battle of double standards and misogynist resentment. She had ...

North America

Heartland Despair and the Democratic Primary

The appeal of populism to marginalized white Americans is one of the strongest arguments for Bernie Sanders’s candidacy

March 9, 2020 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

Both Brian and his wife Sarah are burdened by substantial medical and educational debts. Sarah works as a nurse, Brian works in a tire shop. They struggle to make ends meet, they worry about the future -- and, for now, they are putting off having children. The profile’s central theme is ...

Heartland Despair and the Democratic Primary

North America

Warren Supporters Have Vowed to Persist

But are the flaws in the Sanders campaign significant enough that backing Joe Biden’s “establishment” bid is the best political choice for them?

March 7, 2020 • by Claire Potter

David Plouffe, who was on the News Hour last week talking about his new book and a radically pruned Democratic presidential candidate field, says there isn't. I guess Plouffe (pronounced "Pluff" — I have been calling him "Ploofe" for years) should know. If there were an establishment, he would be ...

North America

Democrats Might Have the Stronger Party.

They also have a harder job.

March 5, 2020 • by Julia Azari

Does this mean the system “worked?” First, I agree with Hans Noel that it’s early and there’s lots we don’t know. But it’s also important to think about the demands of the Democratic Party coalition when we assess the effectiveness of the party. And there are several glaring strategic and institutional problems. ...

Democrats Might Have the Stronger Party.

North America

If Sanders Wants to Lead the Democratic Party…

Then he should do more to build bridges and stop attacking “The Democratic Establishment”

March 3, 2020 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

At the same time, Bernie Sanders clearly has assumed front-runner status. It is no surprise that this has his supporters jubilant, and has his opponents concerned and even frightened. There surely are some Democratic donors and operatives who absolutely hate the thought of a Sanders nomination -- whether for ideological or tactical reasons -- ...

If Sanders Wants to Lead the Democratic Party…

North America

The Speech that Mike Bloomberg Should Have Given Last Week

How the former Mayor might redefine the importance of an outsider candidacy — by leaving the race, and supporting a candidate who can win

March 2, 2020 • by Jeffrey K. Tulis

But at the moment, he is actually harming both. He is hurting Democrats by blunting the message of all the candidates other than Bernie Sanders. And he is hurting the country by making it less likely that the Democrats will nominate a person who will be able to defeat Donald Trump. Yet he ...

The Speech that Mike Bloomberg Should Have Given Last Week

North America

Are the Primaries – or the Voters –“Just Dumb”?

As the Sanders revolution surges ahead, efforts to block his candidacy increasingly look like rigging – not reform

February 29, 2020 • by Claire Potter

When we look back on the 2020 election cycle, one clear theme will be the tension between reform and revolution that Democrats have wrestled with since the primary season began. A second may be the need to reform the rules regulating the party’s primaries and caucuses. Case in point: the lead editorial ...

Are the Primaries – or the Voters –“Just Dumb”?

North America

The Four Hurdles and The Four Temptations of Bernie Sanders

February 25, 2020 • by Andrew Arato

The final hurdle is the Constitution. This involves the separation of powers, a powerful Supreme Court, and federal decentralization. Each hurdle also suggests a temptation inherent in populist politics, which Sanders represents on the left, as Trump does on the right. Securing the Democratic nomination in 2020 is a tall order for ...

The Four Hurdles and The Four Temptations of Bernie Sanders

North America

The Specter of George McGovern’s Defeat in 1972

Similarities — and Key Differences — with the Prospects for Sanders in 2020

February 25, 2020 • by Bruce Miroff

Now that Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, has emerged as the clear frontrunner for the Democratic nomination in 2020, the old warnings echo even louder. Veteran media commentator Chris Matthews is typical of alarmists in prophesying that Sanders as nominee would match McGovern in losing 49 states (presumably Vermont ...

The Specter of George McGovern’s Defeat in 1972

North America

Buttigieg’s Nevada Speech Was Terrific if the Goal is to Defeat Sanders Rather Than Trump

Slandering the party’s leading candidate is bad

February 24, 2020 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

This does not obviate the real limits of the Sanders campaign and the challenges it must address moving forward, if Sanders is to successfully claim the nomination much less the presidency. On Saturday night Jacobin, the organ of Sanders’s hard-core ideological supporters, declared that “After the Nevada Blowout, It’s Bernie’s Party Now” (indeed, ...

Buttigieg’s Nevada Speech Was Terrific if the Goal is to Defeat Sanders Rather Than Trump

North America

Revisiting the Netroots, 2020 Edition

Recent reports that Russia has been interfering with the election are no surprise — but this is what to do about it

February 22, 2020 • by Claire Potter

But at Public Seminar, we have been paying attention to the corruption of what blogger Jerome Armstrong dubbed “the netroots” in 2002: grassroots political activism that occurs primarily online. In collaboration with our friends in the Eurozine network, we have a cluster of articles in this week’s issue about Disinformation. Adam Ramsay shows how disinformation, on its ...

North America

The Frustration of Being Elizabeth Warren

The significance of a campaign that couldn’t get a look from the voters

Don’t Cry for Her — Elizabeth Warren!

Democratic voters have shown themselves increasingly likely to vote for women, and Warren will be back in 2024

Heartland Despair and the Democratic Primary

The appeal of populism to marginalized white Americans is one of the strongest arguments for Bernie Sanders’s candidacy

Warren Supporters Have Vowed to Persist

But are the flaws in the Sanders campaign significant enough that backing Joe Biden’s “establishment” bid is the best political choice for them?

Democrats Might Have the Stronger Party.

They also have a harder job.

If Sanders Wants to Lead the Democratic Party…

Then he should do more to build bridges and stop attacking “The Democratic Establishment”

The Speech that Mike Bloomberg Should Have Given Last Week

How the former Mayor might redefine the importance of an outsider candidacy — by leaving the race, and supporting a candidate who can win

Are the Primaries – or the Voters –“Just Dumb”?

As the Sanders revolution surges ahead, efforts to block his candidacy increasingly look like rigging – not reform

The Four Hurdles and The Four Temptations of Bernie Sanders

The Specter of George McGovern’s Defeat in 1972

Similarities — and Key Differences — with the Prospects for Sanders in 2020

Buttigieg’s Nevada Speech Was Terrific if the Goal is to Defeat Sanders Rather Than Trump

Slandering the party’s leading candidate is bad

Revisiting the Netroots, 2020 Edition

Recent reports that Russia has been interfering with the election are no surprise — but this is what to do about it

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