How Latinos are America’s Greatest Hope for Economic Growth and Renewal

If the nearly 60 million Latinos in the US were a country, they’d be the world’s 7th largest.

But as I will demonstrate, in 2019 it is ridiculous to divide Americans by ethnicity. We all need each other to thrive. Without the 40% of the Texas population that are Latinos, the state’s economy would collapse over time. Of course I am making these points because of the gut-wrenching atrocity ...
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Baltimore, Marianne Williamson, and a National Service Requirement

Past Present Episode 191

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: Last week, President Trump unleashed a barrage of insults against Baltimore and its member of Congress, Elijah Cummings. Natalia referred to this POLITICO article about how New York City gave us Trump. Niki referred to journalist Jonathan Weisman’s tweets about the “real” nature of regions.Self-help guru Marianne Williamson is ...
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Lessons for Radicalizing Democracy

How the emancipatory project of popular sovereignty can invigorate the Left

Popular sovereignty is an emancipatory project to link the democratizing impulses of social movements to institutional politics. Drawing on examples from Latin America, the book provides a set of coordinates for activists to navigate the complications of engaging with formal institutions and political parties. It ultimately seeks to democratize leftist ...
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Reimagining Progressive Politics

An interview with Gianpaolo Baiocchi

Popular sovereignty is an emancipatory project to link the democratizing impulses of social movements to institutional politics. Drawing on examples from Latin America, the book provides a set of coordinates for activists to navigate the complications of engaging with formal institutions and political parties. It ultimately seeks to democratize leftist ...
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The Unplanned Heroes of Białystok Pride

Anti-LGBT violence displays the homophobic political and religious rhetoric in Poland — but it didn’t crush the parade.

Police officers, almost as many in number as the Pride crowd, used teargas to separate the parade from the anti-LGBT protesters. After Pride ended, some of the marchers were chased and beaten by the latter, mostly young men. The police say over three dozen violent offenders were detained. The reports, images, and ...
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What Are Iranians Dreaming about Today?

Reflections on the Islamic Revolution at 40

Introduction Almost 20 years ago, I published an article under the title “Political Decentralization and the Creation of Local Government in Iran: Consolidation or Transformation of the Theocratic State?” (Tajbakhsh 2000). The establishment of an elected local government in every city and village in Iran was the most significant institutional innovation ...
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White Women are Not My People

“White women” is a demographic category — not a political group

I recently got asked to sign a public letter in which I was supposed to pledge “as a white woman” that now that I had watched Ava DuVernay’s film series “When They See Us,” I would object to Linda Fairstein (who oversaw the prosecution of the Central Park Five as ...
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For Democracy / Against Cynicism

On Trump, McConnell, Pelosi and Company

“I believe the single most pressing challenge facing American society today is widespread public cynicism.” With these words, I opened my book The Cynical Society, published in 1991. I was deeply concerned by the interaction between the cynicism of politicians, on the one hand, and the cynicism of the media ...
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Law’s Relation to Political Power in China: A Backward Transition

China’s continuing struggle over the rule of law is far from over.

Attempting to assess the state of law and government in any nation is hazardous, since reality is usually messy and contradictory, and surely this is the situation in contemporary China. We must be fully aware that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) -- an increasingly oppressive Marxist-Leninist dictatorship -- denies ...
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The New Prime Minister Versus History

How Boris Johnson misrepresented the United Kingdom’s past to present himself as its political heir

What do Johnson’s methods of storytelling and the content of his tales tell us about the man and the prospects for his premiership? To many on this side of the Atlantic, he is simply an enigmatic buffoon — little more than a jumped up Trump mini-me with a plummier accent. ...
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Why They Marched

A walk through suffrage history

For far too long, the history of how American women won the right to vote has been told as the tale of a few iconic leaders, all white and native-born. In Why They Marched: Untold Stories of the Women Who Fought for the Right to Vote Susan Ware uncovered a much broader ...
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