Politics Archives - Page 80 of 112

Politics

We Still Need the ERA

How Activists Can Learn From History to Win It This Time

January 29, 2020 • by Katherine Turk

To many older feminists, the ERA remains the unfinished business of the 1970s. Today’s gender justice activists should expect to battle the same coalition of corporations and social conservatives that defeated their predecessors in 1982. But to win this time, they must learn from their own history. The ERA is not ...

Politics

Another Media Regime is Possible

From the liberal public sphere to the information commons

January 29, 2020 • by Dan Hind

‘Media regimes’ can be described as distinct historical combinations of technology, regulation and professional norms that have come to seem natural but are the result of an intensely political and fiercely contested process. (1) Until recently, English-language media regimes were characterized by a mixture of regulated broadcasters and privately owned ...

Politics

Can the Internet Be Governed By Its Users?

A response to Dan Hind

January 29, 2020 • by Micah L. Sifry

Consider Wikipedia, the global encyclopedia that is open to anyone to edit, which is the only nonprofit website that ranks in the top ten most visited in the world -- let alone the top 100. It is all the things that Hind wants: a public platform, transparent in its operations ...

Can the Internet Be Governed By Its Users?

North America

Impeachment as National Renewal

Can non-democratic institutions be repurposed for democracy?

January 28, 2020 • by Ian Zuckerman and Daniel Kato

All of these authors recognize that these comparisons have limitations. The 1868 impeachment of Johnson failed to remove him from office -- just as, in all likelihood, Trump will remain president after his impeachment. But the deeper problem is that these celebrations of the political potential of impeachment elide its ...

North America

John Bolton Speaks

Avoiding new evidence of Trump’s crimes, the President’s lawyers continue to hammer the Bidens

January 28, 2020 • by Heather Cox Richardson

Republicans have insisted that there is no direct evidence that Trump himself ordered the hold, and that, therefore, there is no evidence that the president had abused his power, as the first article of impeachment charges. The leaks from Bolton’s book, cheekily named The Room Where It Happened (this is ...

North America

Making the Truth Matter

Justice in the impeachment proceedings may require Democrats to play the long game

January 24, 2020 • by Heather Cox Richardson

So ended Impeachment manager Adam Schiff’s closing argument yesterday in the Senate trial of Donald Trump. Within minutes, #RightMatters was trending on Twitter. Schiff (D-CA) leads a group of Democratic House managers who are shining in this moment as they weave televised testimony before the House, available documents, and public television interviews into ...

North America

Yesterday’s Impeachment News? Fact versus Fox

In the absence of evidence or an argument, the GOP floods the zone

January 22, 2020 • by Heather Cox Richardson

But for Trump and his enablers, this trial is not about the truth; it never has been. It is about dominance and power. Forcing someone to accept what they know to be untrue reinforces the dominance of the person telling the lies. Perpetrators will start with small, seemingly unimportant lies and ...

Yesterday’s Impeachment News? Fact versus Fox

Activism

The Women’s March 2020

Rain, sleet and snow did not dampen enthusiasm

January 21, 2020 • by Jo Freeman

Roughly 20,000 people marched in Washington DC for the fourth time. Despite the poor weather forecast, they came from hundred’s of miles away. Others planned to come, but changed their minds when the roads became icy. In DC, nothing happened as planned. At a press conference held in Freedom Plaza the ...

Activism

I Was Called, Too

The life and work of Coretta Scott King

January 20, 2020 • by Kristopher Burrell

This year, in honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy, I thought it both appropriate—and overdue—to discuss the significance of Coretta Scott King. And not just as the wife, and eventual widow, of Martin Luther King; but as an important activist and shaper of Dr. King’s ideas. Mrs. King was a significant figure in ...

North America

All the President’s Lawyers

Mitch McConnell’s desire to reign in the impeachment spectacle clashes with Donald Trump’s love for a political circus

January 18, 2020 • by Heather Cox Richardson

Ever since it became clear that the House would vote to impeach Donald Trump, the White House and Senate Republican leaders have struggled over the Senate trial. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell did not want the Senate to devolve into the circus that the House did. There, GOP representatives worked ...