Vantage Point Articles and Essays by Dr. Ron Daniels — With the attempted assassination of a series of Democratic leaders and the savage murder of 11 worshipers in the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh in the past week, the American people are witnessing one of the most horrific seasons of hate and terror in recent memory. And, while there is debate about the link between rhetoric and the actions…
By Dan Sisken, Occupy — In the mid 1990s, scholars of politics in the Arab world published a book titled “Democracy without Democrats?” It appeared in the midst of a…
The president’s speech to African American millennial supporters was rambling and toe-curling. But he and his audience loved it. David Smith, The Guardian — Put a 72-year-old man with…
Talk of tax reform always seems to be in the air. By Anthony C. Infanti, The Conversation — Last fall, Republicans in Congress hastily pushed through the Tax Cuts and Jobs…
By Earl Ofari Hutchinson, The Hutchinson Report — Trump talked about peace, harmony and all sides coming together but did not once mention the two words that if ever applied…
The president’s closing argument in the midterm elections lays bare the logic of his appeal. By Adam Serwer, The Atlantic — After Democrats lost the 2016 presidential election, a certain conventional wisdom congealed within the pundit class: Donald Trump’s success was owed to the Democratic abandonment of the white working class and the party’s emphasis on identity politics. By failing to emphasize a strong economic message, the thinking went, the party had…
It is important that everyone understand how dangerous what Trump said is. By Juan Cole, Common Dreams — Trump proudly says he is a “nationalist.” He is, of course, saying this to shore up support among white nationalists. The Nazi sites on the web were all having wet dreams in the aftermath. From the 1990s, polling has found that about 10% of Americans support far right militias. These are the…
The conversation is happening. Will you be a part of it? By Nick Fouriezos, OZY — What happens when you get a room of 100 Black men from Baltimore discussing…
‘Close to the point of no return’: Historian explains how Trump uses authoritarian tools more powerful than Hitler’s secret police. By Chauncey Devega, Salon — History can teach us many lessons…
Hint: It has to do with race. By Zack Beauchamp, Vox — One of the most puzzling elements of the 2016 election, at least for a lot of Americans, was the millions of voters who switched from voting for Barack Obama in 2012 to Donald Trump in 2016. Somewhere between 6.7 million and 9.2 million Americans switched this way; given that the 2016 election was decided by 40,000 votes, it’s fair to…
Yale professor Jason Stanley enters a growing literary field with a sober examination of an inflammatory political concept. By Tom McCarthy, The Guardian — One of the insidious ironies of fascist politics, the philosopher Jason Stanley writes in his arresting new book, is that talk of fascism itself becomes more difficult because it is made to seem outlandish. The normalization of the fascist myth “makes us able to tolerate what was once…
By Abdi Latif Dahir, Quartz Africa — Melania Trump has just concluded her trip to Africa, her first major solo international swing as US first lady. In her choice of nations to visit—Ghana, Malawi, Kenya, and Egypt—she followed in the footsteps of not just former first ladies but also American presidents. Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first US president to set foot in Africa, landing in Bathurst in British Gambia in…