Eminem vs. Trump

The political importance of the artist

I was in Chicago with my son, visiting colleges, and he was listening to the new Eminem album while he was working out in the hotel gym. He told me that he thought the album was great, but that he was not sure if he agreed with Eminem using his ...
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Eminem vs. Trump

I Love Compromise, But…

Compromise as a Democratic Necessity or as Democracy’s Corruption?

Yet, I also know that there is a second meaning to the word compromise, that compromise can be understood as the abandonment of principle, often insuring the continuation of a pressing problem, even making matters worse. Think of the compromises about slavery leading up to the American Civil War. Compromise ...
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I Love Compromise, But…

Neoliberalism’s Populist Bastards

A new political divide between national economies

This year, attendees at the World Economic Forum might have breathed a sigh of relief, believing that immediate threats to their existence had passed. Yet members of the so-called populist right in Germany and Austria entered parliament after big wins in elections at the end of last year. Their victories ...
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Neoliberalism’s Populist Bastards

The Speaker’s Grovel

The constitutional role of the Speaker of the House

We may not know how the ultimate budget impasse of 2018 will be resolved (the next shutdown deadline having been delayed six weeks). Nor do we know the resolution of the increasingly tense DACA dilemma – unnecessarily created by President Trump’s decision to rescind the broadly supported program. But as ...
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The Speaker’s Grovel

Solidarity is Not a Liberal Value

Feminism and collective struggle

On January 20, 2018, at the end of the Pioneer Valley’s Women’s March in Northampton, Massachusetts hundreds stood gathered in front of the imposing, castle-like City Hall. We were children, women, and men, trans and non-gender conforming people. We were black, white, and brown, gay and straight. We were rich and poor ...
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Solidarity is Not a Liberal Value

On Religion and Backlash

Theda Skocpol on Popular and Elite Roots of Republican Extremism in the U.S.

The Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life presents the Populism and Religion lecture series from Theda Skocpol (Professor of Government and Sociology at Harvard University). Note from Jean Cohen, project organizer: Everyone seems to be writing on populism these days, which is unsurprising given the global rise of populist movements, parties, ...
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On Religion and Backlash

Top 5 Cities Where Older Workers’ Wages Fell and Younger Workers’ Wages Soared

January 2018 Unemployment Report for Workers Over 55

President Trump in his State of the Union address highlighted the country's falling unemployment and rising wages. This morning's Bureau of Labor Statistics' report of an unemployment rate of 3.0% for workers age 55 and older for the month of January, a decrease of 0.3 percentage points from December, does not contradict ...
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Top 5 Cities Where Older Workers’ Wages Fell and Younger Workers’ Wages Soared

A Post on Friendship, Love and Power

On the Power of the Powerless in Dark Times

“There are a great many things which cannot withstand the implacable, bright light of the constant presence of others on the public scene; there, only what is considered to be relevant, worthy of being seen and heard, can be tolerated…there are very relevant matters which can survive only in the ...
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Social Organicism in the Service of Power

The sinister side of unity discourse

Socialists, social democrats, Jeremy Corbyn, Bernie Sanders, and even liberals like Barack Obama, have been condemned for promoting “class warfare.” However, condemning those who combat oppression and injustice for “dividing society” is to participate in the defense of the social order as it currently exists. Such condemnations of attempts at ...
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Social Organicism in the Service of Power

How Democracies Die and How They Live

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 ...
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How Democracies Die and How They Live