Democracy Archives - Page 31 of 56

Democracy

A Political Paradox

Power, fallibility, and the Twenty-Fifth Amendment

October 7, 2020 • by Rebecca Lubot

The Twenty-Fifth Amendment was ratified on February 10, 1967, in the wake of the Kennedy assassination and a period of great anxiety about nuclear weapons. The first section deals with a vacancy in the presidency, the second section with a vacancy in the vice presidency. But it is Sections 3 ...

North America

Malarkey!

As Donald Trump spins increasingly wild fantasies, the campaign tries to contain him and the Proud Boys stand by

October 1, 2020 • by Heather Cox Richardson

----- So, what was happening while we were distracted by Donald Trump’s shocking performance in the first presidential debate this week? First, the President's tax returns, publicized daily by the New York Times since last Sunday, have taken a back seat to his support for the white supremacist gang the Proud Boys and his ...

Democracy

Detroit’s Project Green Light and the “New Jim Code”

Why video surveillance and digital technology intensify racism

October 1, 2020 • by Vince Carducci

————— Over the last three and a half years, the City of Detroit has greatly expanded Project Green Light, an initiative of the Detroit Police Department (DPD), along with local businesses and other organizations, to use video surveillance and digital technology to fight crime. Since the first cameras went live in ...

Detroit’s Project Green Light and the “New Jim Code”

North America

Joe Biden Faces Down the Fascist Donald Trump

Biden’s “Will you shut up, man” is the signature takeaway line from the debate

September 30, 2020 • by John Stoehr

CNN’s Jake Tapper is a highly conventional and thus highly respected news anchor. The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro is a venomous toad beneath contempt and unworthy of recognition. In setting them side-by-side I risk tarnishing Tapper’s good name, but it’s worth it to make a point about the press corps’ ...

Joe Biden Faces Down the Fascist Donald Trump

Democracy

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Past Present Podcast, Episode 248

September 30, 2020 • by Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela and Neil J. Young

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: At age 87, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died earlier this month. Natalia referred to historian Jeffrey Melnick’s Twitter thread on the appropriative nature of the term “Notorious RBG” and to the book by the same title. Niki recommended ...

Capitalism

QAnon as a Byproduct of a Broken America

Alienation, anxiety, and religion

September 28, 2020 • by Martin Shuster

QAnon is a conspiracy theory alleging that the current president of the United States, Donald Trump, is battling an organized and criminal deep state—which also happens to be a Satan-worshipping cabal of pedophiles engaged in sex-trafficking—and that this battle is moving towards an apocalyptic showdown in which our president will ...

QAnon as a Byproduct of a Broken America

Democracy

Restoring vs. Packing the Court

Metaphors Matter

September 25, 2020 • by Robert Ivie

With the death of Ruth Bader Ginsberg and the likelihood of her quick replacement by yet another Trump nominee, talk of packing the Supreme Court has intensified. Of course, all such talk is rendered politically impracticable if Democrats fail to sweep the 2020 election. Even if Democrats should win control of ...

Democracy

The GOP Reshaped America to Hold Onto Power—Can the Dems Do the Same Thing to Save It?

Mitch McConnell understands holding minority power requires ruthless brutality

September 24, 2020 • by Thom Hartmann

In the power grab to fill the Supreme Court seat announced the same evening as the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Mitch McConnell didn’t do anything new. The GOP has a long history of playing hardball power politics. In the late nineteenth century, Republicans added four states (Nevada, Colorado, North ...

The GOP Reshaped America to Hold Onto Power—Can the Dems Do the Same Thing to Save It?

Columnists

Joe Biden’s Campaign Moving to Solid Ground as the Trump Team Distracts

Let’s take a closer look at what the Republicans are distracting us from, shall we?

September 22, 2020 • by Heather Cox Richardson

The idea of defunding cities is vague and it is also odd, considering how many Americans actually live in cities. The U.S. Conference of Mayors wrote to Trump on September 7 to ask him to rescind his memorandum, noting that “attacks on America’s cities are attacks on America itself. America’s ...

Joe Biden’s Campaign Moving to Solid Ground as the Trump Team Distracts

Democracy

Digital Authoritarianism and Trolling in Turkey

September 22, 2020 • by Funda Başaran

In 2007, Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) had its second election victory, increasing its vote share to 47,8 and consolidating power. In the same year, it imposed important regulations to ‘clean’ the Internet of undesirable content. Law 5651, On Regulation of Publications on the Internet and Combating Crimes committed ...

Digital Authoritarianism and Trolling in Turkey

Democracy

Feminist Legal Pioneer Ruth Bader Ginsburg Dies at 87

Progressives mourn a SCOTUS legend, famous for potent dissents, who saw gender equity as a path to civil rights for all

September 19, 2020 • by Heather Cox Richardson

----------- Today, flowers are strewn on the steps of the Supreme Court, where “Equal Justice Under Law” is carved in stone. More than a thousand people gathered there tonight to mourn the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died last night from cancer at age 87. Justice Ginsburg was born in ...

Feminist Legal Pioneer Ruth Bader Ginsburg Dies at 87

Democracy

While Trump Flails, Biden Quietly Moves Forward

Re-election initiatives increasingly look like spaghetti thrown against the wall — and it isn’t sticking

September 18, 2020 • by Heather Cox Richardson

————— It feels like power is slipping away from Trump and his administration, and they are trying desperately to claw it back. Meanwhile, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his team are trying to criticize the president without getting sucked into his orbit, so they can focus on moving the country ...