Politics Archives - Page 82 of 109

Activism

Write Back Soon

Mass Incarceration and “Writing Intensive” Vulnerability

December 3, 2019 • by Ianna Hawkins Owen

Throughout that typically chilly Bay Area summer, I was turning over in my mind the problem of satisfying the “writing intensive” designation of my new undergraduate seminar, “Black Writing To/From/About Prison.” I struggled to come up with a way to make the course’s mandated four papers, or 20-pages of writing, ...

Activism

Food for Thought

Five Ways New York Is Ready to Increase Organic Recycling

November 27, 2019 • by Justin Wood

The New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY) held a public hearing on November 20th for a newly proposed organic waste recycling rule. It would increase the number of restaurants, stores, and other businesses required to source-separate organic waste for composting or other environmentally acceptable disposal. Compared to cities like San Francisco and Seattle, which ...

Politics

Evo Morales’ Presidency in Bolivia was Imperfect and Contested

His Removal from Power is Still a Coup

November 26, 2019 • by Ian Zuckerman

When the military intervenes to depose a democratically elected leader, it’s a coup. Let’s get that out of the way. Even if that leader’s mandate has never been accepted by segments of the population, even if the leader goes on to alienate some original supporters, even if there are large public protests against the ...

Evo Morales’ Presidency in Bolivia was Imperfect and Contested

Politics

The Prime Minister Versus History

How Boris Johnson misrepresented the United Kingdom’s past to present himself as its political heir

November 25, 2019 • by Alistair Somerville

This is an updated version of an article published at Public Seminar on July 30, 2019. Politicians like to tell stories about themselves. Leaders like to tell stories about their country. The British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, is the first since Winston Churchill with both a prominent personal story and his ...

Politics

The Equal Rights Amendment is BAAACK!

The Democratic House returns to a long-awaited Constitutional fix

November 22, 2019 • by Jo Freeman

First introduced into Congress in 1923, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was intended to do away with the plethora of state laws which restricted women's property rights, disadvantaged them under state family laws, or barred them from holding office or serving on juries. Proposed by the National Woman’s Party, it ...

Democracy

Does academic freedom matter to conservative intellectuals?

Budapest Blues

November 21, 2019 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

It’s a dark time for liberals. The leaders of the world’s three most powerful countries—China’s Xi Jinping, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and the U.S.’s own Donald J. Trump—are all authoritarians of one kind or another. Each, in his own way, wraps himself in the mantle of “the people,” and targets independent ...

Does academic freedom matter to conservative intellectuals?

North America

Brief Midday Thoughts about Sondland and the Impeachment

Only politics can save us!

November 20, 2019 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

Only this can save us, if we can yet be saved. I have long argued that impeachment proceedings are one necessary form of resistance to the Trumpist assault on liberal democracy and that such proceedings ought to be understood primarily as political rather than narrowly legal processes. Everything that is now ...

Activism

Federalist Society Fêtes Kavanaugh

While protestors call for impeachment

November 20, 2019 • by Jo Freeman

Copyright: Jo Freeman Sponsored by the Center for Popular Democracy and Demand Justice, they explained why Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh should be removed from the Supreme Court for lying under oath at his confirmation hearing over a year ago. Copyright: Jo Freeman In the background, the voice of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford could ...

North America

Can Bernie Do It?

An economist takes a hard look at the Sanders platform

November 19, 2019 • by James K. Galbraith

But is he a plausible president? By that, I don't mean in comparison to Donald Trump, as implausible a president as there ever was. Sanders is a lifetime political figure with forty years of elected experience and intimate knowledge of Capitol Hill and of the federal government. But he is ...

Activism

They Took Our Footprint Out of the Ground

An Interview with LaDonna Bravebull Allard

November 19, 2019 • by Nick Estes

This interview was conducted on January 10, 2018. --- Nick Estes: I’m here today with LaDonna Bravebull Allard, who helped found Sacred Stone Camp in April 2016. Can you introduce yourself? LaDonna Bravebull Allard: My name is LaDonna Bravebull Allard. My real name is Tamakawastewin, or “Her Good Earth Woman.” I’m an enrolled ...

North America

A Great Opportunity Missed

The Democrats should’ve exposed Republican Hypocrisy and Cynicism about Corruption

November 14, 2019 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

The lowest point of the Republican questioning came when efforts were made, by Jordan and others, to suggest that Trump’s insistence on Ukrainian investigations into Biden, Bursima, and Crowd Strike was based on his deep and sincere commitment to fighting corruption in a corrupt country. This suggestion is risible. And yet ...

Latin America & Caribbean

Legitimacy and Democracy in Bolivia

Rejecting Simplistic Readings of the Morales Ouster

November 12, 2019 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

It is clear that one important dimension of this polarization was the defection of important elements of the police and the armed forces. The New York Times reported that “Bolivian Military Asks Morales to Resign to Ensure Stability,” quoting General Williams Kaliman, the chief military commander: “"After analyzing the internal conflict situation, ...