Why I Won’t Vote for Joe Donnelly

Or the ethical and strategic limits of red-baiting

Over the past two years I have written over sixty pieces arguing that Trumpism poses a clear and present danger to liberal democracy; that an effective opposition to Trumpism must involve resistance but also the deepening of democracy; and that given the nature of the US political system, this means ...
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Why I Won’t Vote for Joe Donnelly

The Rise of Neo-Conservative Think Tanks in Israel

The brief history of a peculiar context

It was 2009, and the Institute for Zionist Strategies (IZS) had a problem. Over the previous two decades Israel’s judiciary had grown increasingly, and to the IZS unacceptably, liberal and activist. Taking note of a number of rulings that had promoted greater formal equality among citizens, the IZS began considering how it might prevent the Israeli Supreme ...
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The Rise of Neo-Conservative Think Tanks in Israel

The Democrats’ Dilemma

Looking ahead to 2020

Although the crucial mid-term elections are a mere two weeks away, it never takes long before most political conversations turn to the question of the 2020 Democratic nominee. So while the outcome of 2018’s contests is still very much up in the air, let’s focus on an election still two ...
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The Democrats’ Dilemma

This Fight Would Take Place Someday

An impassioned appeal for resoluteness in the face of right wing reaction

This text is for those who weep for what is about to come. It was written for those who perceive the darkest of nights arriving with its violence, its scorn and its appetite for vengeance. Because in these moments only two alternatives seem possible: escape and melancholy. We know the ...
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This Fight Would Take Place Someday

What is the Crisis a Crisis of?

To characterize our republic’s predicament as one of democracy is an authoritarian fantasy

Reading Hannah Arendt’s Crises of the Republic in the Age of Trump: A Symposium Hannah Arendt’s Crises of the Republic is not so much a book as a collection, published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich in 1972, of three essays and an interview that first appeared, individually, in the years between 1969 and 1971. Three of ...
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What is the Crisis a Crisis of?

Civil Disobedience in the Age of Trump

Hannah Arendt on why civil disobedience is not just justifiable but politically imperative

This symposium contains essays by Mary Dietz, William E. Scheuerman, Christian Volk, Seyla Benhabib, and Jeffrey C. Isaac that engage with the obvious and meaningful resonances between Crises of the Republic and the present. They were originally presented in August at the American Political Science Association’s annual meeting in Boston, in a ...
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Lying as Politics in the Age of Trump

What Hannah Arendt does, and does not, anticipate under a deeply vicious presidency

Reading Hannah Arendt’s Crises of the Republic in the Age of Trump: A Symposium Hannah Arendt’s Crises of the Republic is not so much a book as a collection, published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich in 1972, of three essays and an interview that first appeared, individually, in the years between 1969 and 1971. Three of ...
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Lying as Politics in the Age of Trump

Dodging Inequality and Winning Elections

How politicians profit off the dying American Dream

The United States is one of the most economically unequal nations in the West. According to some estimates, the current levels of inequality in the U.S. are at their highest since the onset of the Great Depression. Yet although they were predicted to be a key topic in the 2016 ...
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Dodging Inequality and Winning Elections

Why I Play the Blues

A Very Brief Reflection on the Meaning of Politics and its Limits

The “Blue Monday” column began as a way of integrating the two passions of my life: politics and music and especially jazz. Readers will have noted that lately I have strayed from this purpose, and my columns have become political commentaries pure and simple. My obsession with politics is in part an ...
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Why I Play the Blues

The Big Chill

How Trump’s ‘public charge’ rule would harm New York children

The Trump Administration is on the brink of putting a cruel price tag on permission to be in this country. Unless an immediate public outcry stops a new policy from becoming effective, many immigrants will be separated from their homes, employers will lose their employees, and most wrenching of all, ...
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The Big Chill

The Bodies that Matter

Saudi Arabia, Western journalism, and Human Rights

Do you know who Israa al-Ghomgham is? What about Jamal Khashoggi? If last week you didn’t, you probably do now. In the past few days Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi national who wrote for the Washington Post since he fled his home country in 2017, has become a household name because he was ...
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The Bodies that Matter

Is Elizabeth Warren Native American?

What the DNA controversy reveals about race, identity politics, and the Native American present

It’s Monday morning. I open up my Twitter feed and see the video Elizabeth Warren made to answer charges made by Donald Trump, taken up by Trump enthusiasts everywhere, that she has pretended to be a Native American. I thought: this video is pretty good. If you haven’t seen it, you ...
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Is Elizabeth Warren Native American?