Democracy Archives - Page 33 of 97

Feature

It’s The Real Economy, Stupid

Wealthy political pundits are living in an alternate reality

March 21, 2019 • by Neil Kraus

Bill Gates caused quite a stir when he recently tweeted a graphic produced by Our World in Data (a Gates Foundation-funded organization) indicating how much progress the world has made in combating poverty over the last two centuries. Critics rightly seized on Gates’s observation as well as the data and analysis, quickly dismantling the ...

Democracy

Neither Debs Nor Brandeis, Or Why it is a Mistake Now to Exaggerate Differences on the Left

Defeating Trump Politically Part 8

March 18, 2019 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

In his recent Jacobin piece, “You Can Have Brandeis or You Can Have Debs,” Shawn Gude insists that it is important to be clear about who is a socialist and who is not. He maintains that Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders “draw their lineage from distinct political traditions,” and that “Warren’s ...

Neither Debs Nor Brandeis, Or Why it is a Mistake Now to Exaggerate Differences on the Left

Democracy

On Socialism / Against Ideology

Goodbye Gray Friday, joining Democracy Seminar 2.0

March 15, 2019 • by Jeffrey C. Goldfarb

It’s frustrating. I see this clearly. I want you to see it. But you just can’t, or is it you won’t? I know my judgment goes against the grain of the prevailing social science and popular opinion. It requires a specific understanding of ideology that comes out of bitter experience, ...

Blue Monday

We Must Stop Using Hyperbole that Foments Needless Anger and Division Among Progressives

Defeating Trump Politically Part 7

March 11, 2019 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

The tag line on Facebook poses the question: “Is Diane Feinstein a Bigger Climate Threat Than Trump?” The headline of the actual article in The New Republic is less curious: “Diane Feinstein is a Bigger Climate Threat Than Trump.” The actual article, and the author who wrote it, is done a great injustice ...

We Must Stop Using Hyperbole that Foments Needless Anger and Division Among Progressives

Feature

More Denunciation of Omar, More Bullshit: Enough!

March 9, 2019 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

It’s all over the news. Ilhan Omar has done it again. This time it’s not “the Jews” she’s attacking. It is “Obama.” This headline, viral on Facebook, says it all: “Ilhan Omar Goes After Obama, Suggests He Was a Pretty Face’ Who Got Away with Murder.’” The source: a long piece at ...

Feature

DNC Winter Meeting

Democratic National Committee held their winter meeting in Washington DC February 14-16

March 6, 2019 • by Jo Freeman

Members of the Democratic National Committee held their winter meeting in Washington DC February 14-16. The DNC has 447 members, including the Chairs and Vice Chairs of the 50 states plus 7 other entities. Most DNC members are elected from their states based on population. Members must be evenly divided ...

Blue Monday

In Defense of Ilhan Omar, Again

Did the House pass such a full-throated Resolution about anti-Semitism after Charlottesville, or after the recent Pittsburgh synagogue massacre?

March 5, 2019 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

Ilhan Omar is again at the center of controversy, this time for remarks she made last week at a panel discussion at Busboys and Poets, a Washington, D.C. bookstore and restaurant. Omar’s “offending” comment was a reference to “the political influence in this country that says that it’s ok for ...

Europe & Central Asia

Democracy in Hungary?

The Orbán regime is clearly not democratic

March 5, 2019 • by Zoltán Gábor Szűcs

There is no democracy in Hungary anymore. If you have a hegemonic party that has gained a constitution-making majority in the parliament three times in a row, in increasingly rigged elections, one does not have a democracy. If the power of all major independent institutions is curtailed, or they are led ...

Blue Monday

Socialism and American Politics

A Brief Recollection (2009)

March 4, 2019 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

Note: I recently found the piece below on an old hard drive. It was written on March 2, 2009, exactly ten years ago this weekend. It was written for the brand-new blog that Dissent Magazine was then starting. It was never published. I’m publishing it now for three reasons: (1) ...

Feature

Two Cheers for Ageism

Ten notes on the political, cultural and personal blessings and burdens of mortality, inspired by the greatest lecture I have ever heard

March 1, 2019 • by Jeffrey C. Goldfarb

The lecture is Hans Jonas, “The Blessings and Burdens of Mortality”. 1. I don’t want Bernie Sanders to be President of the United States, and I also don’t want Joe Biden. I abhor Donald Trump, and I am not excited about a possible President Elizabeth Warren either. They’re all too old. 2. I ...

Blue Monday

Why AOC is Such a Terrific Member of Congress

Defeating Trump Politically, Part 5

February 28, 2019 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has taken Washington, D.C by storm. She successfully ran an insurgent, grass-roots Congressional campaign. She is exceptionally bright. She is incredibly media savvy. She is hugely charismatic, because she is telegenic and photogenic, but also because she consistently seems to be a sincere, authentic, and truly nice and caring ...

Why AOC is Such a Terrific Member of Congress

Democracy

Democracy in Israel/Palestine Today

Ethnic Democracy or Ethnocracy?

February 27, 2019 • by Shaul Magid and Yehuda Magid

During a roundtable debate on Israeli television in the last election cycle, the major candidates, excluding the two major parties Likud and Labor (as is the custom), offered final word after a vigorous exchange of ideas. Centrist Yair Lapid of the Yesh Atid (“There is a Future”) party began his ...