Essays Archive - Page 64 of 131

The Models We Need

Forty years ago this week, four U.S. women were killed in El Salvador. It’s taken this long to understand the meaning of their deaths — and their lives

December 3, 2020 • by Eileen Markey

This week in the mountains of El Salvador people who survived that nation's civil war and its violent aftermath walked solemnly into the plaza of the town of San Antonio Los Ranchos, carrying aloft portraits of four Catholic missionaries who were killed 40 years ago. The women are remembered in ...

Democracy

Yes, Democracy Can Survive Trump

When conservative officeholders and judges had to choose between party and country, some chose our country

December 3, 2020 • by Claire Potter

The day after Thanksgiving, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals pulled yet another rug out from under Donald Trump’s serial attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. Judge Stephanos Bibas rejected the claims made in the campaign’s brief as specious and excoriated ongoing attempts to exclude legitimate votes from ...

Democracy

How to Head Off the Coming Neo-Trumpian Movement

Focus on defending democracy, not trying to appeal to racist and sexist Republican voters

December 3, 2020 • by Sidney Tarrow

“As the count currently stands, nearly 80 million Americans voted for Joe Biden,” Senator Bernie Sanders recently remarked: “With this vote against the authoritarian bigotry of Donald Trump, the world can breathe a collective sigh of relief.” But how did Trump’s bigotry triumph in the first place? Sanders has an answer similar ...

How to Head Off the Coming Neo-Trumpian Movement

Uncategorized

Mourning Maradona

Football, populism and Argentina’s civic religion

December 3, 2020 • by Mitchell Abidor

Diego Armando Maradona, the controversial and brilliant Argentine football star, died on Wednesday, November 25, 2020 in a Buenos Aires hospital. One of the defining figures in international soccer during the 1980s, Maradona is the stuff of legend. In his performance against England in the 1986 World Cup, he invoked ...

Columnists

Joe Biden’s Masculinity Is Anything But Toxic

How republican virtue is part of manliness

December 3, 2020 • by John Stoehr

“Virtue-signaling” is the idea that people say they believe something but don’t really believe it. They’re saying it to seem impressive to people they desire to impress. Everyone does this to some degree, and everyone deserves some degree of takedown. But if anyone has a corner on the market of ...

Joe Biden’s Masculinity Is Anything But Toxic

Democracy

None Dare Call It Treason

Is calling for a military coup Michael Flynn’s payback for his pardon?

December 3, 2020 • by Heather Cox Richardson

On the evening of December 2, Trump’s disgraced former National Security Advisor, retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn-- whom Trump recently pardoned after he pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with then-Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak before Trump took office-- retweeted a news release from ...

North America

Democrats Have a Religion Problem

2020 confirms a trend of religious voters moving away from the Democrats, with a few notable exceptions

December 2, 2020 • by Musa al-Gharbi

_____ In a previous essay I demonstrated that Democrats have been consistently losing ground with both people of color and people of faith in virtually every midterm and general election cycle after 2008. Republicans, meanwhile, have seen consistent gains with many constituencies. What occurred in 2016, therefore, was not an aberration – but the culmination ...

Democracy

What Hobbes Can Teach Us About Trump’s Lawless Reign

Or, how the rich are really different from the rest of us

December 1, 2020 • by David Lay Williams

As the losing Trump campaign team extends this election season beyond its typical limits, by continuing to claim that the president has, in fact, won the 2020 election, one cannot help but notice how his conduct in office has threatened long-established and respected democratic norms. Perhaps the most prominent recent account ...

What Hobbes Can Teach Us About Trump’s Lawless Reign

History

The AIDS Capital of the World

As a pandemic escalated in 1984, one South Florida town predicted the calamity AIDS would become

December 1, 2020 • by Dan Royles

In 1985 researchers and reporters alike focused their attention on the city with the highest rate of AIDS diagnoses anywhere, a city that had become colloquially known as the “AIDS Capital of the World.” This city was neither New York City nor San Francisco, nor was it to be found ...

Capitalism

How Taxpayers are Picking Up the Bill for the Destruction of Local Restaurants

Ghost Kitchens are a trend that are as spooky and scary as they sound

November 30, 2020 • by Pat Garofalo

This past summer, Kroger, one of the nation’s largest grocery store chains, received a 15-year, 75 percent sales tax exemption for setting up two new data centers in Ohio. This is the definition of unnecessary. Kroger is not exactly poverty struck – it accrued profits of more than $2 billion last year. ...

How Taxpayers are Picking Up the Bill for the Destruction of Local Restaurants

Uncategorized

Dancing is my Amazing Grace

How art taken up as a child has shaped the rhythm of my life

November 25, 2020 • by Katherine Huggins

Dance is my catharsis: when I dance, the rest of the world fades away. I could not be more grateful for my dance education—it has propelled me to unimaginable heights and unexpected friendships. I’ve traveled the country to better my dancing, and in the process I’ve befriended people from all over ...

Columnists

Can the Republican Party Move Forward After the Inauguration?

As Biden creates a cabinet that looks like America, Trump is determined to keep hold of a party that has courted White Supremacists for decades

November 25, 2020 • by Heather Cox Richardson

At about 6:00 on Monday, Emily Murphy, the Trump appointee at the head of General Services Administration who has been holding up the transition to a Biden administration, notified President-Elect Joe Biden that she recognizes his status and will release the money set aside for the transition. This should launch ...

Essays

The Models We Need

Forty years ago this week, four U.S. women were killed in El Salvador. It’s taken this long to understand the meaning of their deaths — and their lives

Yes, Democracy Can Survive Trump

When conservative officeholders and judges had to choose between party and country, some chose our country

How to Head Off the Coming Neo-Trumpian Movement

Focus on defending democracy, not trying to appeal to racist and sexist Republican voters

Mourning Maradona

Football, populism and Argentina’s civic religion

Joe Biden’s Masculinity Is Anything But Toxic

How republican virtue is part of manliness

None Dare Call It Treason

Is calling for a military coup Michael Flynn’s payback for his pardon?

Democrats Have a Religion Problem

2020 confirms a trend of religious voters moving away from the Democrats, with a few notable exceptions

What Hobbes Can Teach Us About Trump’s Lawless Reign

Or, how the rich are really different from the rest of us

The AIDS Capital of the World

As a pandemic escalated in 1984, one South Florida town predicted the calamity AIDS would become

How Taxpayers are Picking Up the Bill for the Destruction of Local Restaurants

Ghost Kitchens are a trend that are as spooky and scary as they sound

Dancing is my Amazing Grace

How art taken up as a child has shaped the rhythm of my life

Can the Republican Party Move Forward After the Inauguration?

As Biden creates a cabinet that looks like America, Trump is determined to keep hold of a party that has courted White Supremacists for decades

Newsletter

Connect With Us