Essays Archive - Page 80 of 131

Securing the November U.S. Election

The urgent task for all democrats

July 21, 2020 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

“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 ...

Public Health

Understanding the Fear of Vaccines

How to talk about public health in the age of COVID

July 21, 2020 • by Tarun Jose Kattumana

The pandemic has already changed some minds. Many who were previously opposed to vaccinations have softened their stance. However, misinformation from anti-vax groups continues to be far-reaching and influential. Why are anti-vax claims influential despite the immediate threat of the pandemic? What, if anything, can be done to lower the ...

Democracy

Rebirth of a Nation?

There is a dangerous method to Trump’s racist madness

July 20, 2020 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

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. ...

Democracy

Hong Kong: Pandemic, Protests, and Protecting “National” Security

July 20, 2020 • by Mark Frazier

The annual June 4 candlelight vigil in Hong Kong to commemorate those who died in the 1989 suppression of peaceful protests in China was canceled this year, although a few thousand citizens jumped the fences at Victoria Park to hold informal ceremonies. For the first time in three decades, the ...

Hong Kong: Pandemic, Protests, and Protecting “National” Security

Politics

The Disastrous Handling of the Pandemic Is Libertarianism in Action

Will Americans finally say good riddance?

July 20, 2020 • by Thom Hartmann

Back in the years before President Ronald Reagan, a real estate lobbying group called the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) came up with the idea of creating a political party to justify deregulating the real estate and finance industries so they could make more money. The party would give them ideological and ...

The Disastrous Handling of the Pandemic Is Libertarianism in Action

Democracy

Should Governments Have Access to Our Data?

Privacy and democracy in the age of pandemics

July 20, 2020 • by Jo Guldi and Macabe Keliher

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 ...

Should Governments Have Access to Our Data?

Politics

Representative John Lewis, a Hero for Our Time

And what Donald Trump could still learn from him

July 18, 2020 • by Heather Cox Richardson

______________________ 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 ...

Representative John Lewis, a Hero for Our Time

Europe & Central Asia

Poland Slouches On

After a noxious and underhanded campaign, Poland’s incumbent president, representing the country’s illiberal ruling party, has clinched a narrow re-election victory. That gives the government three more years to dismantle the country’s democracy.

July 17, 2020 • by Sławomir Sierakowski

WARSAW -- In the second round of Poland’s presidential election, incumbent Andrzej Duda narrowly defeated Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski. Though he carried just six provinces in eastern Poland, compared to Trzaskowski’s ten, and lost in medium and large cities, Duda’s support in villages and small towns was just enough to push him over the ...

From the Editors

The Worst of Times, the Best of Times

If everything feels weirdly out of joint, it’s because it is

July 16, 2020 • by James Miller

_______________________ In these dog days of summer, in the midst of the world’s worst pandemic in a century, as many of us welcome the largest protest movement in American history, while others fear for their jobs in what already is a devastating economic downturn, everything feels weirdly out of joint. On July ...

Democracy

Why the Harper’s Letter Got It Wrong

The most serious threats to protest and open debate come not from the left or the right but from the state and powerful political institutions

July 16, 2020 • by Nicole Hemmer

So I took a new job in a new city and began again. I have been thinking about my decision to speak up, and its costs, in light of The Letter. You know the one: the open letter in Harper’s magazine that praises the “needed reckoning” of the past few months ...

Why the <em>Harper’s </em>Letter Got It Wrong

Migration

A Victory in an Unnecessary Battle

Expelling international students was not an option

July 16, 2020 • by Dwight A. McBride

Tuesday’s court hearing on the July 6 ICE guidance took all of ten minutes. That was the time it took for the U.S. Government’s counsel to inform the judge that ICE would not be moving forward with a new rule that would have expelled international students from the U.S. this ...

Higher Ed

A Declaration of Independence by a Princeton Professor

Freedom to think for oneself is still a right, not a privilege

July 16, 2020 • by Joshua T. Katz

In Congress, on July 4, 1776, came the “unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America.” Signed by 56 men, many of whom were considered national heroes just a few minutes ago, it opens with a long and elegant sentence whose first words every American child knows, or used ...

Essays

Securing the November U.S. Election

The urgent task for all democrats

Understanding the Fear of Vaccines

How to talk about public health in the age of COVID

Rebirth of a Nation?

There is a dangerous method to Trump’s racist madness

Hong Kong: Pandemic, Protests, and Protecting “National” Security

The Disastrous Handling of the Pandemic Is Libertarianism in Action

Will Americans finally say good riddance?

Should Governments Have Access to Our Data?

Privacy and democracy in the age of pandemics

Poland Slouches On

After a noxious and underhanded campaign, Poland’s incumbent president, representing the country’s illiberal ruling party, has clinched a narrow re-election victory. That gives the government three more years to dismantle the country’s democracy.

The Worst of Times, the Best of Times

If everything feels weirdly out of joint, it’s because it is

Why the Harper’s Letter Got It Wrong

The most serious threats to protest and open debate come not from the left or the right but from the state and powerful political institutions

A Victory in an Unnecessary Battle

Expelling international students was not an option

A Declaration of Independence by a Princeton Professor

Freedom to think for oneself is still a right, not a privilege

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