Democrats Shouldn’t Just Restore American Democracy. They Should Reinvent It.
At long last, it seems like nearly every Democrat in Washington finally agrees on something: impeaching Donald Trump (a second time) and removing him from office. Nancy Pelosi has declared that she is...
View ArticleThe Democrats’ Stark, Historic Choice
Let’s get something straight. The press and many of our leaders have converged upon an implicit consensus that last Wednesday should be understood as the nadir of the Trump era—as a tipping point...
View ArticleThe Democrats Keep Recycling Tired Rhetoric
Over the past 60 years, two inaugural addresses, in particular, have left a lasting impression on Democratic oratory. In 1961, John Kennedy embodied the spirit of Cold War patriotism with his ringing,...
View ArticleDie Laughing at the Capitol
I am trying to cope with anti-democratic social collapse during a pandemic by reading local news stories about the people who stormed the Capitol. There was the remorseful CEO from the Chicago...
View ArticleWhy America Loves the Death Penalty
On the evening of February 16, 1961, 19-year-old Wilbert Rideau found himself at a loose end. He’d missed the bus after finishing work in his hometown of Lake Charles, Louisiana, and couldn’t get a...
View ArticleFeeling Trump’s Pain
“But just remember this: You’re smarter, you’re stronger, you’ve got more going than anybody, and they try and demean everybody having to do with us.”—Donald Trump, January 6, 2021“We need to be the...
View ArticleTrump’s Four-Year Drilling Binge Has Done Irreparable Damage
Last week, amid the chaos of the Capitol riot, the Trump administration proceeded with plans to sell off chunks of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to the gas and oil industry’s highest bidders. The...
View ArticleWhy Are Journalists and Surveillance Researchers Helping the FBI to Catch...
Last week, in the wake of the pro-Trump riot at the U.S. Capitol, The New Yorker’s Ronan Farrow wrote a story about an Air Force pilot turned extremist who was photographed during the maelstrom...
View ArticleStop Comparing the Capitol Riot to Banana Republics. It’s Lazy—and Wrong.
The Trump-incited insurrection at the Capitol on Wednesday was a fitting coda to a presidency that came into this world likening Mexicans to “criminals and rapists” and that has, along the way,...
View ArticlePost-Work Migration and the End of America
People have always moved to live, from early agrarian societies seeking fertile land to the undocumented workforce that currently powers this country’s agricultural sector. More recent, though, are the...
View ArticleMichael Apted Took The Very Long View
When the director Michael Apted died at 79 years old on January 7, social media lit up with remembrances. He had directed many films, including Coal Miner’s Daughter, and more recently, prestige shows...
View ArticleRepublicans Want Impunity, Not Unity
For the past two months, the bulk of the Republican Party and the conservative movement has pushed unhinged conspiracy theories about election fraud. Most of them stood back and stood by while...
View ArticleIndian Country Refuses to Be Corporate America’s Dumping Ground
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a single, massive victory to one of the thousands of communities and tribal nations currently struggling with the toxic waste left behind by profitable...
View ArticleAgainst a Domestic Terrorism Law
On Monday, Opposite Office, an “activistic architecture studio” based in Munich, released design materials for what it called “Capitol Castle,” a plan that would encircle the entire U.S. Capitol with...
View ArticleHow a Democratic Senate Can Ease the Coronavirus Crisis
Last week, only hours before armed but frequently maskless insurrectionists invaded the U.S. Capitol, there was a spot of bright news for Covid-19 relief in Washington. Democrats Reverend Raphael...
View ArticleJPMorgan Chase and Amazon Discover Campaign Finance Reform by Way of Social...
In the last week, Marriott, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and Commerce Bank have each paused donations to congressional supporters of the Capitol riot. So have Amazon, Comcast, and GE. (Flaming a violent...
View ArticleTrump Still Has Cable News
Over the course of a few extraordinary hours on Friday, Donald Trump’s iPhone was rendered almost completely useless—it can, presumably, still make calls and take photos, but that’s it. The president...
View ArticleSheryl Sandberg, Resign
Hours after President Trump falsely claimed victory in November’s election, having claimed for weeks that the election was a fraud and Democrats would try to steal it, a Facebook group was created,...
View ArticleIs Tether Just a Scam to Enrich Bitcoin Investors?
Consumers who invest in cryptoassets “should be prepared to lose all their money,” the U.K’s Financial Conduct Authority warned cryptocurrency investors on Monday. That message came amid an 11 percent...
View ArticleFossil Fuel Companies Are No Friend to Democracy
In the past week, a number of oil and gas companies have issued statements of concern about the January 6 attack on the Capitol. BP, ConocoPhillips, Marathon Petroleum Corporation, and the Independent...
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