Are Americans Rethinking Who They Are?

“Consumers” and “taxpayers” can’t save a republic

This is bad policy and bad politics, as my friend Marty Longman wrote last week. Two hundred bucks weekly is better than a payroll tax cut. No one would see that (especially if they’re unemployed). But people would see less money coming in amid a pandemic, recession, and housing crisis just ...
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Are Americans Rethinking Who They Are?

A Year of Boris Johnson

Only a handful of people would be mad enough to covet being prime minister at this particular point in British history, and one of them now inhabits Downing Street

Thursday saw the United Kingdom pass an important milestone: one year of life under the leadership of Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson. What was supposed to be a fascinating year of unpredictable political events has been rendered utterly dystopian through the COVID-19 crisis. Still, it’s worth looking back on what ...
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A Year of Boris Johnson

Mike Pompeo’s Originalist Foreign Policy

The Commission’s report gives ammunition to partisans who aim to weaken core constitutional protections within the United States

This justification is a pretext. While pretending to strengthen protection for human rights abroad, the Commission’s report gives ammunition to partisans who aim to weaken core constitutional protections within the United States. Pompeo and the Commission’s report embrace an “originalist” vision of America’s founding. Originalism is a doctrine in constitutional law ...
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Mike Pompeo’s Originalist Foreign Policy

Trojan Horse

Misusing Greek mythology on a college campus sneaks white supremacy in the back door

These cultural forms act as “Trojan horses,” sneaking offensive, even racist and sexist ideas into the fabric of the university where they lie in wait to do harm. In our case, one has to begin, of course, with the hyper-masculine bronze statue of Tommy Trojan (erected in 1930) at the center ...
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Trojan Horse

On Our Revolutionary Moment

Putting today’s revolt against institutional racism into historical context

Protestors, who had been staging increasingly violent strikes, had assailed City College, CUNY’s flagship school, located in the middle of Harlem, as a racist institution that used academic standards to deny admission to all but a handful of Black and Puerto Rican students. They demanded that CUNY abandon those standards ...
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On Our Revolutionary Moment

Securing the November U.S. Election

The urgent task for all democrats

“To support the Ins when things are going well; to support the Outs when they seem to be going badly, this, in spite of all that has been said about tweedledum and tweedledee, is the essence of popular government. Even the most intelligent large public of which we have any ...
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Securing the November U.S. Election

Rebirth of a Nation?

There is a dangerous method to Trump’s racist madness

Donald Trump is doubling down on his racism and xenophobia. This is widely acknowledged, and condemned, by many commentators. It is viewed, correctly in my judgment, as both a resort to the rhetoric with which Trump is most comfortable, racist and xenophobe that he is, and as a campaign strategy. ...
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Rebirth of a Nation?

Should Governments Have Access to Our Data?

Privacy and democracy in the age of pandemics

Americans are scared about encroachments on their data privacy, and rightly so. Prior to 9/11, most advocated limiting the government’s ability to gather and access data in the name of civil liberties. Faced with the threat of terror, however, citizens resigned themselves to encroachments on privacy made in the name ...
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Should Governments Have Access to Our Data?

Representative John Lewis, a Hero for Our Time

And what Donald Trump could still learn from him

______________________ Last night, just before midnight, we heard the news that 80-year-old Georgia Representative John Lewis has passed away from pancreatic cancer. As a young adult, Lewis was a “troublemaker,” breaking the laws of his state: he broke the laws upholding racial segregation. He organized voting registration drives and in 1960 was ...
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Representative John Lewis, a Hero for Our Time