Weimar has bequeathed three distinct cautions for the political right of any era about what not to do in comparable situations: join in disseminating a Big Lie; take inadequate action and impose an inadequate penalty after a treasonous uprising; and cement an alliance between traditional conservatives and fascists.
Author: Christopher R. Browning | Source: The Atlantic | Subject: Politics & Public Policy
One of the challenging realities of American politics is that while vast numbers of Americans participate in presidential elections, only small minorities of voters actually stay engaged. And the priorities of the two groups are not the same, far from it.
The majority is focused on the things that directly affect their lives — prices, crime, peace. How much do concerns about democracy matter if people … [ Read more ]
Author: David French | Source: The New York Times | Subjects: America, International, Politics & Public Policy
The Conservative either wants to bully or to be bullied.
Author: D.H. Lawrence | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) | Subject: Politics & Public Policy
The paradox of progress is that because there is no universal utopia — every utopia is built on someone’s back — there can be no universal progress, no absolute measure of it. Its relativism conceals a euphemism for moving the world in the direction of one’s own desires, relativism laced with myriad hypocrisies.
Author: Maria Popova | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) | Subjects: History, Life & Society, Politics & Public Policy
Progress is never permanent, will always be threatened, must be redoubled, restated and reimagined if it is to survive.
Author: Zadie Smith | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) | Subjects: History, Life & Society, Politics & Public Policy
Conspiracy theories have always been useful to extremist movements [because they] work on a very us-versus-them logic. They posit an in-group of people who is among a small, privileged set to know this information, and an out group which is either willfully blind or actively plotting against them. And that structure has been very useful over time to weaponize against marginalized groups that people want … [ Read more ]
Author: Kelly Weill | Source: The Messenger | Subjects: Education | Scholarship, Politics & Public Policy, Psychology | Behavior, Thought | Inquiry
If we want free speech then we want less concentration of market power and business models that allow for that. Advertising does not. Token-based business models do.
Author: Fred Wilson | Subjects: Journalism, Life & Society, Politics & Public Policy
A healthy democracy requires a strong conservative party and a strong liberal party arguing for their views publicly and vigorously.
Author: Jeffrey Goldberg | Source: The Atlantic | Subject: Politics & Public Policy
Here’s the thing, however, about radical change. It is, as our more numerate readers might say, a “high-variance strategy,” meaning that the range of possible outcomes is far wider than what we might expect from more incremental, within-the-system change.
Perhaps we nail the jackpot and manage to hit upon the political choices that really can create something meaningfully better out of a broken system. But … [ Read more ]
Author: Bryan Walsh | Sources: MSN, Vox | Subjects: Change, Concepts, History, Life & Society, Politics & Public Policy
Being president is impossible. […] To “succeed” in the job, a person needs a broader range of skills than any real human being has ever possessed. Public eloquence. Private persuasive power. IQ. EQ. Stamina. Luck. A generous imagination, but also cold-bloodedness. A thousand traits more. The question is not whether any president will “fail.” It is in which particular way, and how the world will … [ Read more ]
Author: James Fallows | Source: The Atlantic | Subjects: America, International, Politics & Public Policy
Our peculiar history of racism has meant that every time it seems we are approaching equality before the law, those determined to prevent that equality have turned people against it by insisting that government protection of equality will cost tax dollars, thus amounting to a redistribution of wealth from those with property to those without. That is, if Black and Brown Americans, and poor people, … [ Read more ]
Author: Heather Cox Richardson | Subjects: America, History, International, Politics & Public Policy, Race Relations
Throughout our history, America has swung between the defense of equality outlined in the Declaration of Independence and the defense of private property outlined in the Constitution.
Author: Heather Cox Richardson | Subjects: America, History, International, Politics & Public Policy
The default setting in world history is authoritarianism. Freedom is a rare appearance on the historical map of the world, and requires extraordinary, extraordinary vigilance and effort to preserve it. And when I see leaders here or elsewhere moving toward authoritarianism, it sets off alarm bells. Because I do read history. The history of the world is strongmen lying to people, gaining power over them … [ Read more ]
Author: Mitt Romney | Source: The Atlantic | Subjects: History, Politics & Public Policy
I don’t like tax increases, but I think we have to be realistic. When we have a $2 trillion deficit, the solution is probably not going to be entirely spending cuts. And we also have to understand that the recent rounds of tax cuts, they didn’t have the benefits that were promised.
And the reason they didn’t have those benefits is because our problem in our … [ Read more ]
Author: Oren Cass | Source: PBS NewsHour | Subjects: America, International, Politics & Public Policy
Democrats understandably have a hard time fathoming why Americans would put our democracy at risk, but we miss the reality that our democracy is part of what angers them. Many voters have come to associate democracy with globalization, corruption, financial capitalism, migration, forever wars and elites (like me) who talk about it as an end in itself rather than a means to redressing inequality, reining … [ Read more ]
Author: Ben Rhodes | Source: The New York Times | Subjects: America, International, Politics & Public Policy, Trump
Democrats walked into the trap of defending the very institutions — the “establishment” — that most Americans distrust. As a party interested in competent technocracy, we lost touch with the anger people feel at government. As a party that prizes data, we seized on indicators of growth and job creation as proof that the economy was booming, even though people felt crushed by rising costs. … [ Read more ]
Author: Ben Rhodes | Source: The New York Times | Subjects: America, International, Politics & Public Policy
The playbook for transforming a democracy into a soft autocracy was clear: Win power with a populist message against elites. Redraw parliamentary districts. Change voting laws. Harass civil society. Pack courts with judges willing to support power grabs. Enrich cronies through corruption. Buy up newspapers and television stations and turn them into right-wing propaganda. Use social media to energize supporters. Wrap it up in an … [ Read more ]
Author: Ben Rhodes | Source: The New York Times | Subject: Politics & Public Policy
From the very beginning, the land of the free has also been about the freedom to make and spend money. America put God on our money, but for many Americans, money is God. This nation put profit over morality through centuries of slavery. Individual expediency in the name of capitalism is as American as the right to bear arms. Around the world, no idea has … [ Read more ]
Author: Xochitl Gonzalez | Source: The Atlantic | Subjects: America, Economics | Economy, International, Life & Society, Material Possessions, Politics & Public Policy
The nature of illusion is that it’s designed to make you feel good. About yourself, about your country, about where you’re going – in that sense it functions like a drug. Those who question that illusion are challenged not so much for the veracity of what they say, but for puncturing those feelings.
Author: Chris Hedges | Subjects: Education | Scholarship, Life & Society, Personal Improvement, Politics & Public Policy, Psychology | Behavior, Thought | Inquiry
The other thing that we must do in order to love the enemy neighbor is this: we must seek at all times to win his friendship and understanding rather than to defeat him or humiliate him. There may come a time when it will be possible for you to humiliate your worst enemy or even to defeat him, but in order to love the enemy … [ Read more ]
Author: Martin Luther King Jr. | Subjects: Life & Society, Personal Improvement, Politics & Public Policy