This liberal philosopher predicted Trump’s rise in 1998 – and he has another warning for the left
Author: Sean Illing | Source: Vox (February 12, 2017) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Politics & Public Policy
Twenty years ago, Richard Rorty warned that “a spectatorial, disgusted, mocking Left” would give rise to a populist demagogue. Is it ready now to take his advice?
Author: Conor Friedersdorf | Source: The Atlantic (July 6, 2017) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Politics & Public Policy, Trump
In short, it appears as though educational levels are the critical factor in predicting shifts in the vote between 2012 and 2016. You can come to that conclusion with a relatively simple analysis, like the one I’ve conducted above, or by using fancier methods. In a regression analysis at the county level, for instance, lower-income counties were no more likely to shift to Trump once … [ Read more ]
Author: Nate Silver | Source: FiveThirtyEight (November 22, 2016) | Subjects: Excerpts, Politics & Public Policy, Trump
Lines can bring fairness and order to what might otherwise be a free-for-all. There’s even a science, called queuing theory, that examines the optimal ways to make lines move equitably and efficiently. But they don’t always work that way; sometimes, they can operate to institutionalize unfairness and inequality. That’s why Arlie Russell Hochschild uses lines as a metaphor for the challenges facing contemporary American society … [ Read more ]
Author: Nitin Nohria | Source: The Atlantic (December 2, 2017) | Subjects: Excerpts, Life & Society, Politics & Public Policy, Psychology | Behavior, Sociology | Anthropology
I, like the rest of the world, was shocked when Trump won the election. I had been reading many articles during the long election cycle, but never made note of those. After his victory, I started to think that, while it is impossible to know what will transpire in the future, it seemed like a good bet that his presidency will be a period of … [ Read more ]
Subjects: Politics & Public Policy, Trump
As Barack Obama’s time in office drew to a close, I started seeing articles on the man and his presidency. As the country transitioned from the first black president to what is most likely to be one of the most controversial presidencies in history, I decided to collect articles on each for future reference (see my collection of 2017 Trump articles).
Articles
Subjects: History, Politics & Public Policy
The Obamas are the rare First Family to leave the White House stronger than when they arrived—never victims, even when hatefully victimized. Is it too late for the rest of us to learn how?
Author: Kim McLarin | Source: The Morning News (December 14, 2016) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Life & Society, Politics & Public Policy, Race Relations
“There’s a magical thinking among business executives that something about the profit motive makes everything run better,” noted Raymond Fisman, a professor of economics at Boston University. […] A serious body of economics, not to mention reams of evidence from decades of privatizations around the world, suggests this belief is false.
[…]
Of course, the government can also do a horrible job of running things. And private … [ Read more ]
Author: Eduardo Porter | Source: The New York Times (January 10, 2017) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Economics | Economy, Excerpts, Politics & Public Policy
We humans have a habit of going into phases of mass destruction, generally self imposed to some extent or another.
[…]
At a local level in time people think things are fine, then things rapidly spiral out of control until they become unstoppable, and we wreak massive destruction on ourselves. For the people living in the midst of this it is hard to see happening and hard … [ Read more ]
Author: Tobias Stone | Source: Medium (July 23, 2016) | Subjects: Excerpts, Health & Medicine, International, Military | War | Peace, Politics & Public Policy
The U.S. recently passed the first major tax policy change in years. Over the past months I have been reading and noting articles on the issue and saving the ones I think have something useful to say on the topic, whether I agree or disagree. Here is a list of those articles, by source.
Subjects: Economics | Economy, Politics & Public Policy
It’s now a commonplace that Trump and his underlings tell whoppers. Fact-checkers have never had it so good. But all politicians lie. Bill Clinton could barely go a day without some shading or parsing of the truth. Richard Nixon was famously tricky. But all the traditional political fibbers nonetheless paid some deference to the truth — even as they were dodging it. They acknowledged a … [ Read more ]
Author: Andrew Sullivan | Source: New York Magazine (February 10, 2017) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Politics & Public Policy, Trump
Corporate Democrats have never advanced their interests—and at least Republicans offer a persuasive story about why they are getting screwed.
Author: Kirk Noden | Source: The Nation (November 17, 2016) | Subjects: America, Articles & Links, Economics | Economy, Excerpts, Politics & Public Policy
So he won. The nation takes a deep breath. Raw ego and proud illiteracy have won out and a severely learning-disabled man with a real character problem will be president. We are so exhausted from thinking about this election, millions of people will take up leaf-raking and garage cleaning with intense pleasure.
[…]
The Trumpers never expected their guy to actually win the thing, and that’s their … [ Read more ]
Author: Garrison Keillor | Source: The Washington Post (November 9, 2016) | Subjects: Excerpts, Politics & Public Policy, Trump
Freedom is fragile, and when demagogues speak, and others start following them, it is wise to pay attention.
[…]
The political party system, and parliamentary government more generally, were regarded as corrupt and oligarchic. Such an environment was fertile ground for a “mob mentality,” in which outsiders — Jews, Roma, Slavs, gays, “cosmopolitan intellectuals” — could be scapegoated and a savior could be craved: “The mob always … [ Read more ]
Author: Jeffrey C. Isaac | Source: The Washington Post (December 17, 2016) | Subjects: Excerpts, Politics & Public Policy
The American republic was long safeguarded by settled norms, now shattered by the rise of Donald Trump.
Author: David Frum | Source: The Atlantic (May 31, 2016) | Subjects: Excerpts, Politics & Public Policy, Trump
Theories of international relations
Of the large range of theories that have emerged on how states get along with each other, or not as the case may be, I will draw, in simplified terms, on two leading schools today: liberalism and structural realism.
Author: Michael A. Witt | Source: Insead Knowledge (January 2, 2017) | Subjects: Excerpts, Foreign Policy, History, International, Military | War | Peace, Politics & Public Policy, Sociology | Anthropology
The founders envisioned electors as people who could prevent an irresponsible demagogue from taking office.
Author: Peter Beinart | Source: The Atlantic (November 21, 2016) | Subjects: Excerpts, History, Politics & Public Policy, Trump
When a society has shed its crutches of inequality in a relatively short period — from finally recognizing the dignity of all love with marriage equality to finally taking stock of a generations-old wound with Black Lives Matter — vast swaths of the population are perhaps bound to find the rate of change intolerable, bound to find themselves tossed into a brave new world that … [ Read more ]
Authors: H.L. Mencken, Maria Popova | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) (November 11, 2016) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Life & Society, Perception | Observation, Politics & Public Policy
Here is a small treasury of excerpts from some of the addresses Theodore Roosevelt gave during his lifetime. When you look at anthologies of all his speeches, you find that the themes he hits in these selections were the ones he offered, with only slight alterations, over and over and over again, in every town and city he visited on country-crossing whistle stop tours. You’ll … [ Read more ]
Authors: Brett McKay, Kate McKay, Theodore Roosevelt | Source: The Art of Manliness (November 7, 2016) | Subjects: America, Articles & Links, Excerpts, History, Life & Society, Politics & Public Policy
Some years ago, public intellectual Noam Chomsky warned that the political climate in the U.S. was ripe for the rise of an authoritarian figure. Now, he shares his thoughts on the aftermath of this election, the moribund state of the U.S. political system and why Trump is a real threat to the world and the planet in general.
Authors: C.J. Polychroniou, Noam Chomsky | Source: EcoWatch (November 14, 2016) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Politics & Public Policy, Trump