Politics Archives - Page 50 of 113

Politics

When Politics is Music to Your Ears

A political composer sets the reconstruction amendments to music

February 23, 2021 • by Neely Bruce

_____ In an interview on NPR, shortly before the inauguration, Amanda Gorman said: “Everything is political. Especially art.” How true. In graduate school the same idea was drilled into my brain by Herbert Brün, brilliant composer, computer music pioneer, and one of my professors at the University of Illinois. I grew up ...

The Right

Stop calling the GOP ‘conservative’

That’s the lesson today from Texas.

February 18, 2021 • by John Stoehr

"As the late Rush Limbaugh said, if conservatism animated the Republican Party, there would be no President Donald Trump."...

Democracy

The United States Is in Recovery

What Texas, white supremacy and coronavirus can teach us about American history

February 18, 2021 • by Heather Cox Richardson

"In the exchange, Americans saw a president who cared, and a government that finally, after its previous leaders had told them to get out of a terrible catastrophe on their own, responded to their needs."...

Democracy

“Carl Schmitt’s Comeback?”

Understanding Trump and global authoritarianism

February 17, 2021 • by William E. Scheuerman

As the saying goes: “that was then, but this is now.” I had little inkling that Schmitt would soon become pertinent to present-day political developments. With the dramatic worldwide emergence of authoritarian populism, Schmitt’s thinking seems disturbingly relevant. As the Cambridge jurist Lars Vinx has correctly noted, Schmitt’s significance today ...

Politics

Nevada Gambles on a Tech Hub in the Desert

It’s not too late to stop it

February 17, 2021 • by Pat Garofalo

_____ As a general rule, anytime a lawmaker rolls out some hot new economic policy idea with the word “zone” in it, I start to get nervous. We all should. It’s usually less a way of helping struggling areas than an efficient plan for transitioning state resources to wealthy investors. But Nevada’s Democratic ...

Nevada Gambles on a Tech Hub in the Desert

Activism

Black Swans No More!

When Things Fall Apart, a New Role for Community-Engaged Scholars

February 15, 2021 • by Trebor Scholz

As the pandemic has worn on, I have found myself devoting more and more of my time to conversations with researchers who have one foot in the world of alternative economies. I talked with dozens of Ph.D. students who self-identify as scholar-activists; they don’t want to stop at an analysis ...

Democracy

The Future of a Delusion

Why Trump’s followers still have faith in him

February 15, 2021 • by John Ehrenreich

Noon on January 20 was a “ding-dong the witch is dead” moment for many. Defeated in the election, discredited by the invasion of the Capitol, and impeached for a second time, Donald Trump disappeared into his Mar-a-Lago mansion. His hold on the Republican Party and the nation seemed over. But though ...

Europe & Central Asia

How the Most Powerful Frenchman in the World Embraced the Philosophy of Sade – and Lost All of His Power

Libertinage isn’t liberating, it’s a form of fascism

February 11, 2021 • by Mitchell Abidor

_____Recently, I’ve been watching Jalil Lespert’s Netflix miniseries Room 2806: The Accusation. This four-episode docu-drama recounts the rise and fall of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, at the time the President of the International Monetary Fund and a leading candidate for the French presidency. Strauss-Kahn (familiarly known as DSK) was arrested in New York ...

How the Most Powerful Frenchman in the World Embraced the Philosophy of Sade – and Lost All of His Power

Columnists

Don’t Believe the Republicans. The Fix is In

The only authority they respect is theirs

February 11, 2021 • by John Stoehr

I know what Mitch McConnell said, but I’m not a fool. Neither are you. He continues to leak information about “his thinking” to reporters who in turn tell us the Senate minority leader believes a vote for Donald Trump’s guilt or innocence is a matter of conscience in his party, ...

Don’t Believe the Republicans. The Fix is In

Columnists

The Case for Impeachment

As Donald Trump’s second trial begins, Representative Raskin warns the Senate that to not convict is to invite future presidents to do whatever they need to do to hold on to power

February 11, 2021 • by Heather Cox Richardson

The second impeachment trial for former president Donald J. Trump began on February 9, this time for incitement of insurrection against the American government. Still, the people who are really on trial are the 50 Republican senators judging Trump’s guilt. The impeachment trial, this time around, covered whether it is constitutional to ...

Politics

Will a Truth Commission Open the Door to Unity, Reconciliation, and Healing in the United States?

Some Americans say yes, but in South Africa and Rwanda they have produced mixed results

February 11, 2021 • by Ereshnee Naidu-Silverman

_____ Following a tumultuous and divisive four years under the Trump administration that culminated in white extremist groups storming the U.S. Capitol, Joe Biden’s inaugural speech as the 46th president of the United States focused on rebuilding, healing and restoring the nation. Since Biden gave that speech on January 20, the ...

Will a Truth Commission Open the Door to Unity, Reconciliation, and Healing in the United States?

Politics

The Confederate Flag as a Symbol of White Supremacy – and How Black Americans Have Defied It

Besides tearing it down and burning it, Black artists have also used it to craft spectacular counter-images

February 11, 2021 • by Matthew Pratt Guterl

_____ Kevin Seefried, a goateed white man dressed in jeans, a dark hoodie, and a brown outdoor vest, casually strolled through the atrium of the Capitol building on January 6, 2021. Over his shoulder was slung an oversized, six-foot-long version of the so-called “Stars and Bars,” the battle flag of the ...