You know the refrain by now: cease and desist from calling Trump ‘fans’ or ‘voters’ ‘stupid racists.’ We must not think of them as ‘ignorant’ They are, instead, ‘economically disempowered’; they constitute a distinct cultural class, one which must now be listened to and studied with all due care and respect; we must understand andContinue reading “Thanks Joan Williams, But I ‘Get The US Working Class’ Just Fine”
Tag Archives: 2016 elections
The 2010 Midterms And The 2016 Presidentials: The Lessons Not Learned
In the 2008 presidential election, Barack Obama won 365 electoral college votes. He pulled this political feat off thanks to the Obama Coalition–a motley crew of Democratic faithful, independents, fired up progressives, disillusioned Republicans. Obama talked a good talk on the campaign trail; he spoke of moving on from the Bush legacy; he spoke ofContinue reading “The 2010 Midterms And The 2016 Presidentials: The Lessons Not Learned”
The Normalization Of Donald Trump
Before the elections of 2016 we were informed at every step of the way that Donald Trump was a fascist, one to be stopped by any means necessary; we were urged to stop this greatest danger to the American republic ever by throwing our bodies into the breach, by manning the barricades, by storming them.Continue reading “The Normalization Of Donald Trump”
The 2016 Elections: Chronicles Of A Disaster Foretold
In October 2008, I went door-knocking in Wilkes-Barre, PA–for the Barack Obama campaign. (Earlier, I had donated a total of $100 to the Obama campaign, making two contributions of $50 each.) I was assigned a map of a neighborhood, along with names and addresses and an indicator of whether earlier in the election season, theContinue reading “The 2016 Elections: Chronicles Of A Disaster Foretold”
Robert Caruso, Clinton Campaign Fellow, Advocates War Crimes (Before Denying He Did So)
Hillary Clinton’s reputation as a warmongering hawk is a well-established one. As the New York Times reported back in April in an essay titled “How Hillary Clinton Became a Hawk,” she could talk the hawk talk, and walk the hawk talk too: Bruce Riedel, a former intelligence analyst who conducted Obama’s initial review on theContinue reading “Robert Caruso, Clinton Campaign Fellow, Advocates War Crimes (Before Denying He Did So)”
The 2016 Elections, The ‘Bernie Revolution,’ And A Familiar Pattern
In The Age of Revolution: Europe 1789-1848 Eric Hobsbawm writes: In brief, the main shape of…all subsequent bourgeois revolutionary politics were by now clearly visible. This dramatic dialectical dance was to dominate the future generations. Time and again we shall see moderate middle class reformers mobilizing the masses against die-hard resistance or counter-revolution. We shall see the masses pushingContinue reading “The 2016 Elections, The ‘Bernie Revolution,’ And A Familiar Pattern”
Peter Thiel Should Attempt the Anatomically Impossible
A few years ago, I made note of Peter Thiel’s showboating program to give young folks a cool hundred grand if they dropped out of college to pursue their dreams. This scheme, cooked up by a Stanford graduate, a venture capitalist and hedge-fund manager, was in transparent alignment with various neoliberal schemes cooked up to denigrateContinue reading “Peter Thiel Should Attempt the Anatomically Impossible”
Jon Meacham On Misunderstanding Darwin And The George Bush ‘Legacy’
During the 1988 election season’s presidential debates, George H. W. Bush described his opponent, Michael Dukakis, as ‘a card-carrying member of the ACLU.’ This was supposed to be a zinger, a devastating put-down line that would show up his opponent as a radical, a wanna-be hippie, an out-of-touch member of the East Coast elite, anContinue reading “Jon Meacham On Misunderstanding Darwin And The George Bush ‘Legacy’”
Donald Trump’s ‘Hot-Mic’ And Men Talking About Sex
A friend offers the following reaction to the latest ‘sensational’ disclosures about Donald Trump’s misogyny: To all the guys on my feed posting their shock and outrage over Trump’s hot-mic comments about women: give me a break. “How could America possibly elect someone who talks like this about women??” you ask. Do you honestly thinkContinue reading “Donald Trump’s ‘Hot-Mic’ And Men Talking About Sex”
Donald Trump Is An American Hero For Not Paying Taxes
That loud sound you heard last night was not your usual, run-of-the-mill thing that goes bump in the night. That was The New York Times dropping the explosive–just explosive!–scoop on the American citizenry that Donald Trump’s tax returns, a copy of which the Times managed to obtain courtesy an anonymous benefactor, reveal that he mightContinue reading “Donald Trump Is An American Hero For Not Paying Taxes”
Samir Chopra 