From the Left
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How to root out Trumpism
So many of you have asked me how one of the most loathsome people in America was just reelected president that I thought you might find it helpful if I shared with you some personal history. This may also suggest how to root out Trumpism.
In the fall of 2015, I visited Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Missouri, and North ...Read more
Will Democrats Learn From a Humiliating Loss?
In the aftermath of Vice President Kamala Harris' decisive electoral loss to former President Donald Trump, my mind has kept going back to a memorable and widely repeated gaffe by a man who was not on the ballot.
That man was Joe Biden, and the unfortunate utterance in question happened more than four years ago when he was a former vice ...Read more
Stein Wins!
The world of politics, as well as the globe writ large, was shaken to its neoliberal foundations this week by the surprise victory of Green Party candidate Jill Stein, who did not qualify for debates and was accorded little media coverage, in the campaign for American president. Stein, a 74-year-old physician, will mark a trifecta of history as ...Read more
Meet Jack D. Ripper, the New Health Czar
Over the few days since Donald Trump's election victory, America has gotten a foretaste of the wreckage likely to ensue when he returns to the White House. His promise to endow Robert F. Kennedy Jr. with plenary authority over health and food regulation -- and to let him "go wild" -- shows once more how little Trump really cares about anyone ...Read more
Be the Light That Trump's Hate Is Forced To Face
Too many American voters thought Donald Trump was the better choice for president. By doing so, voters put their name on their values and showed the world what this country really stands for. And why not? It's about time we dragged all of that American ugliness and fear out of the darkness and into the light so we can see it for what it really ...Read more
Remembering Democracy
Someday, someone's going to have to remember.
If it's not too many years, it might not be that hard to remember, but if it's longer, it's going to be harder.
Someone will have to remember the old words, the words of The Constitution and Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. and all those old rusty amendments that let people vote.
And ...Read more
Americans Vote to Destroy America
The late, great Senator John McCain, who knew his share of tragedy, once famously quipped: “It’s always darkest – before it turns pitch black.” Which is how most of us felt Tuesday night. Just when we thought it couldn’t get any worse, it did.
It was hard to process the pain of watching Donald Trump win – after the most negative, ...Read more
Democrats Must Free Party from Liberal Media
It shouldn't have been hard for Kamala Harris. Not against the absurdly toxic politics of Donald Trump. An older Democratic Party, less beholden to the big megaphones on the fringes, would have had an easier time of it.
Kamala Harris did her best to move her politics to the center, but she was weighed down by those left-wing purity tests she ...Read more
The Blame Game
And now it begins. America has elected a very flawed candidate. An aging, raging bully. Not the first choice of many Republican leaders. Not an acceptable alternative. Not a moderate by any standard. Not presidential by any definition.
So, who's to blame? I was on Black radio last night, and Tavis Smiley asked me if it was white women who ...Read more
Can Our Elections Be Made Even More Vapid? Some Are Banking On It
Many people feel that America's political campaigns have become vapid PR hustles with little connection to the real-life concerns of workaday people. Luckily, Adam Swart says he has the fix for such voter malaise: Just add a more professional level of vapidity to the process, he says, and you can reduce the need for having actual voters ...Read more
A Long Time Comin': On History's Clock
Keep the faith, my friends and fellow Americans. The election shall deliver a verdict soon on the national soul-searching that could change our lives -- and the laws we live by.
All know it. Everything is on the line. History's clock falls back if we fail.
Women and children would be first overboard, to have their freedom and future darkened...Read more
Ignore No More: Iran's Regime Is Too Bad To Succeed
The Oct. 7, 2023 invasion of Israel by some 6,000 Hamas gunmen has changed America's political conversation in multiple respects. Who knew, for example, that there actually exists a pro-slaughter constituency on the far left and college campuses, at least when it comes to Jews, spawning chants by professed progressives of "We are Hamas! We are ...Read more
What Moved Us From the Land of Plenty to Unease?
During a visit to one of our supermarkets, a French friend looked over a long shelf of apples. Seeing several varieties piled halfway to heaven, she remarked, "This is truly the land of plenty." It truly is, but how, for so many of us, did it become the "land of discontent"?
Of course, our political battles require challengers to go on and on...Read more
We're Fighting for Our Freedoms -- No Matter Who Is President
As we near Election Day, the ACLU is in conversation with state and local activists about how to prepare for, and respond to, the election outcome. Many people we spoke with are grappling with how they can best protect their communities and fight back against unprecedented attempts to restrict our rights. Right now, there's real concern about ...Read more
We the People Will Succeed
These are the most stressful and nerve-racking days I can recall. I vacillate between optimism and fear, hope and dread.
You?
I don’t recall an election in which the two candidates represent such opposite poles of the American character.
Harris is the rule of law; Trump, lawlessness. Harris, inclusion; Trump, exclusion. Harris, decency; ...Read more
Campaign Season Ends on Cruel Notes
It seems to me that Tony Hinchcliffe, the podcast host and alleged "roast comedian" who warmed up the crowd at Donald Trump's recent campaign rally at Madison Square Garden in New York, could have found a less gratuitously cruel way to get laughs than to call Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.“
Call me old-fashioned, but I long for ...Read more
What Do You Hear?
Will angry young men who are attracted by Donald Trump's sexist machismo and utter lack of a filter actually turn out to vote? Will latent sexism rear its ugly head, as it did in 2016, leading Trump to perform better than his poll numbers predict?
Will young women, who have every reason to be angry about losing their rights, and every reason ...Read more
Why Can't Kamala Talk Dude?
One of the most persistent challenges faced by Kamala Harris' abbreviated presidential campaign is a vexingly wide gender gap. Men just aren't that into her.
Democrats have deployed several approaches to convince male voters to feel the joy.
Divide and conquer: Harris' policies divvy up guys by race. Her "Opportunity Agenda for Black Men" ...Read more
The Grift That May Cost Trump the Election
If Kamala Harris and Tim Walz win the White House on Nov. 5, the Democrats may owe their triumph to the notorious character flaw that plagues the Republican Party of Donald Trump: an irresistible urge to grift.
In an election likely to be determined by a very narrow proportion of votes in a few states, the difference between winning and ...Read more
Tequila and America
I used to drink tequila.
I drank it when I was a lot younger. I only drank it seriously for about six months, then I stopped, which is one of the reasons I got to be a lot older.
It had some romance, tequila did.
I drank it straight, out of a shot glass, with the salt and the lemon in the non-shot glass hand.
Drinking tequila that way, in ...Read more