Corey Robin Archives - Public Seminar

Feature

How Democracies Die and How They Live

January 29, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

Over the past year a number of writers, myself included, have conducted an ongoing debate about the relationship between Trump, Trumpism, and authoritarianism. The debate has shed some real light on an important topic: the state of and challenges to democracy in the U.S. Yet while some illumination has broken through ...

Why Is Trump’s Authoritarianism So Hard for Some to Recognize?

Responding to Corey Robin

January 16, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

Corey Robin asks, “If authoritarianism is looming in the U.S., how come Trump looks so weak?” He has posed this question many times in the past year, and always to the same effect: Trump looks weak because he is weak, and his weakness proves that “authoritarianism” is not “looming.” Robin likes to ...

Trump is an Authoritarian

In his actions and his words — and words are actions

May 3, 2017 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

In a recent piece in the Guardian, Corey Robin argues that “liberals” exaggerate the danger posed by Donald Trump, and do so because they pay “almost exclusive attention to what Trump says rather than what he does.” He attributes to liberals -- “journalists such as Vox’s Ezra Klein and academics ...