Essays Archive - Page 68 of 131

How to Suppress the Vote

One of the Constitution’s original provisions, delegating elections to the states, haunts us today

November 2, 2020 • by Jo Freeman

There has been a lot of talk in the last few months about vote suppression. Both Democrats and Republicans are accusing the other of an action that, we can all agree, is reprehensible. But vote suppression is nothing new. It has a long and (dis)honorable tradition reaching back to the founding ...

History

Why the U.S. Should Convene a 2021 Commission on Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation

Lessons from the 1871 congressional Ku Klux Klan hearings

November 2, 2020 • by Andrew Wainer

“The truth of history may be utterly distorted and contradicted and changed to any convenient fairy tale that the master of men wish.” W.E.B. DuBois, Black Reconstruction in America, 1935 In 1871, in the midst of escalating racial violence that killed up to 30,000 in the post-Civil War South, Congress launched one ...

Why the U.S. Should Convene a 2021 Commission on Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation

Politics

My Trump-Voting Brother and Me

The silences and anger that seeped into our families in 2016 are not going to end after the election

October 29, 2020 • by William Collins Donahue

We grew up in a family of six kids, and he is the one closest to me--in age, and in other ways, too. As I write this, he looks out at me from his official high school Senior photograph that hangs on my study wall. It is one of the ...

Psyche

Psychoanalysis and Post-Truth

A discussion of the evolution of politics and truth in our contemporary world

October 29, 2020 • by Jordan Osserman, Aimée Lê and Foivos Dousos

On November 1st and 8th, the Freud Museum, London will be hosting a digital conference on “Psychoanalysis and ‘Post-Truth’,” organized with Jordan Osserman and Foivos Dousos in partnership with the Ministry of Post-Truth and Waiting Times. The event takes place during the weekends before and after the US election, offering critical ...

Democracy

The Showdown Between Democracy and Autocracy

Why the broad anti-Trump coalition must prepare for a post-election crisis

October 29, 2020 • by Claudia Koonz

Could democracy in the United States die? A number of troubling signs, such as Donald Trump’s refusal to endorse a peaceful transfer of power and his refusal to condemn white supremacists, lead many to worry about what has, until recently, been unthinkable. As a historian of Nazi Germany, I share this ...

The Showdown Between Democracy and Autocracy

History

What Julius Caesar and His Debts Can Teach Us About Donald Trump

The money Julius Caesar owed changed world history

October 29, 2020 • by Kenneth Pringle

Julius Caesar was said to be so far in debt that, on the morning of the 63 BCE election for chief pontiff, in which he was a candidate, he told his mother as she kissed him goodbye “that if he did not return to her as chief pontiff he would ...

What Julius Caesar and His Debts Can Teach Us About Donald Trump

Democracy

Five Lessons for Democracy From the Covid-19 Pandemic

An international evaluation of democracy in crisis

October 29, 2020 • by Jean-Paul Gagnon, Rikki J. Dean, Afsoun Afsahi, Emily Beausoleil and Selen A. Ercan

Who could have guessed, even one year ago, that America’s postal service would be central to the US Presidential Election? That political party conventions would become online events? Or that protests could be suppressed in the name of biosecurity and protesters could be fined for not wearing face masks? The COVID-19 ...

Five Lessons for Democracy From the Covid-19 Pandemic

Corporations

Fall Fashion

Could the collapse of consumption point to a better future for the fashion industry?

October 28, 2020 • by Otto von Busch

----- Outside the window, it should have been autumn season. With the arrival of more crisp weather, a section of the wardrobe opens for the new possibilities, colors, and textures: jackets and closed shoes, knits and tweed. And layers. Layers force the wearer to think in more complex combinations. With a ...

Politics

The Silver Lining of the 2020 Census

The White House, by cutting short a key step in the census process, has inadvertently helped publicize that this census, like all those that preceded it, has errors – and that the Bureau is adept at finding and fixing them

October 27, 2020 • by Kenneth Prewitt

Every census produces not just one data product, but various products that serve different purposes and are delivered to different audiences over a period of months. The first polished data product the census produces is both its simplest – and most consequential. The “reapportionment data file” is normally supplied toward the ...

Democracy

The Thin Blue Line

The Trump campaign weaves evangelicals and the alt-right more tightly into the president’s increasingly fragile base

October 26, 2020 • by Heather Cox Richardson

------ Recognizing that he is losing the demographics he needs to win reelection, Trump has clearly decided that his best bet is to spur his base to turn out in vast numbers and vote. To that end, he has given up any pretense of appealing to voters outside his base. At ...

North America

After Trump

Towards democracy and social justice

October 23, 2020 • by Jeffrey C. Goldfarb

That, of course, is the problem. And the problem is grave. In 2016, we were worried about what Trump’s victory might mean. Now we know that things have become much worse than most of us ever imagined, and not only for us in the United States. Trump has been a revolutionary—he ...

Migration

Universalizing Racism in Public Schools in 2020

October 23, 2020 • by A middle school teacher in Baltimore

I wonder if the fact that we are completely virtual (at least for now) helps students to listen to each other respectfully and to open to each other as they broadcast into the classroom from a familiar, private space. Of course, e-learning is not the same as in-person learning and has enormous ...

Essays

How to Suppress the Vote

One of the Constitution’s original provisions, delegating elections to the states, haunts us today

Why the U.S. Should Convene a 2021 Commission on Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation

Lessons from the 1871 congressional Ku Klux Klan hearings

My Trump-Voting Brother and Me

The silences and anger that seeped into our families in 2016 are not going to end after the election

The Showdown Between Democracy and Autocracy

Why the broad anti-Trump coalition must prepare for a post-election crisis

What Julius Caesar and His Debts Can Teach Us About Donald Trump

The money Julius Caesar owed changed world history

Five Lessons for Democracy From the Covid-19 Pandemic

An international evaluation of democracy in crisis

Fall Fashion

Could the collapse of consumption point to a better future for the fashion industry?

The Silver Lining of the 2020 Census

The White House, by cutting short a key step in the census process, has inadvertently helped publicize that this census, like all those that preceded it, has errors – and that the Bureau is adept at finding and fixing them

The Thin Blue Line

The Trump campaign weaves evangelicals and the alt-right more tightly into the president’s increasingly fragile base

After Trump

Towards democracy and social justice

Universalizing Racism in Public Schools in 2020

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