Departments

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democracy

  • 2/21/2021

    Don't Defend Democracy With Half-Truths About the Past

    by Brook Thomas

    Although the Capitol riots raised deep concern about the rule of law, there is a deeper challenge ahead of the nation: to understand and change the undemocratic aspects of our foundational law and refuse half-measures in the name of unity.

  • SOURCE: The Atlantic
    2/15/2021

    The Founders Were Wrong About Democracy

    by David Frum

    The conservative commentator writes that the framers' concern with broad populist movements shouldn't overshadowing the greater damage done to democracy by a minority faction that controls key institutions and follows its own fickle self-interest.

  • 2/14/2021

    History, Evidence and the Ethics of Belief

    by Guy Lancaster

    Untrammelled freedom of belief has been enshrined as an American civic virtue. The nation, democracy, and possibly the planet are imperiled without a collective commitment to respect belief only to the extent available evidence supports it. 

  • SOURCE: New York Review of Books
    2/3/2021

    The Case for a Third Reconstruction

    by Manisha Sinha

    During their brief hold on power, so-called "Radical Republicans" used their power to build multiracial democracy in the South and punish white supremacist terrorism. We face the same challenges today and must learn from and complete the work begun in Reconstruction and renewed by the modern Civil Rights movement.

  • SOURCE: New York Magazine
    1/31/2021

    All the Lies They Told Us About the Filibuster

    Columnist Jonathan Chait considers the politics of the Senate filibuster and Adam Jentleson's new book "Kill Switch," concluding that much of the mythology of the filibuster as a check on knee-jerk legislation is bogus. 

  • SOURCE: Africa Is A Country
    1/20/2021

    Reflections On An Imploding Empire

    by Russell Rickford

    Progressive dissidents must meet the moment of Biden's inauguration by not settling for what liberal politicians offer on economic justice, human rights, environment, labor, and health. 

  • SOURCE: Slate
    1/11/2021

    The Only Way to Save American Democracy Now

    by Richard R. Hasen

    "We need bold changes to deal with the threat to democracy from an authoritarian wing of the Republican Party that appeared ready to abet Trump’s stealing of the election, as well as the separate problem that the Republican Party can continue to consistently win elections with minority support thanks to backward American election rules we have in place."

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    1/8/2021

    How to Ensure This Never Happens Again

    by Beverly Gage and Emily Bazelon

    A menu of democratic reform initiatives ranging from strictly defining the electoral vote process to abolishing the electoral college: reforms needed to stop the temptation to undemocratic rule and authoritarianism.

  • SOURCE: The Atlantic
    1/7/2020

    What Trump and His Mob Taught the World About America

    by Anne Applebaum

    "The images from Washington that are going out around the world are far more damaging to America’s reputation as a stable democracy than the images of young people protesting the Vietnam War several decades ago, and they are far more disturbing to outsiders than the riots and protests of last summer."

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    12/13/2020

    Why Getting the Most Votes Matters

    Times Editor Jesse Wegman examines the unique absence of majoritarian principle in the election of the American president and argues it goes against the most basic understanding of political fairness. 

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    11/29/2020

    Trump Looms Large Now, but Maybe Not Forever

    by Steve Inskeep

    NPR's Steve Inskeep reflects on the prospect that historical distance will make Trump and Trumpism smaller (and not all-consuming) parts of a story about American society struggling with bigger questions of political, economic and social equality that became increasingly contentious during the Obama era. 

  • SOURCE: The Nation
    11/17/2020

    American Democracy Was Never Supposed to Work

    by Richard Kreitner

    "Merely ousting Trump is not enough without addressing more fundamental weaknesses in our political system, especially an outdated Constitution that continues to serve a minority of wealthy and white citizens and to curb any movements that might threaten their wealth and power."

  • SOURCE: Boston Review
    11/19/2020

    Against Returning to Normal

    by David Walsh

    Liberal pleas to return to a "normal" defined by bipartisan consensus ignore the long legacy of ideological conflict and the pursuit of division as a political strategy by the conservative movement. 

  • SOURCE: The Yale Review
    11/15/2020

    The Wondrous Banality of Democracy

    by John Witt

    A professor of law and legal history volunteered as a ballot counting observer in Pennsylvania and offers a reflection on the unspectacular nature of democracy in action.