“Today our system is in crisis,” warns the new Declaration for American Democracy. “Together we must build a democracy where everyone participates, every vote is counted, voting rights are fully…
“Today our system is in crisis,” warns the new Declaration for American Democracy. “Together we must build a democracy where everyone participates, every vote is counted, voting rights are fully…
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 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’s Complicated: Why Some Afro-Brazilians Are Willing to Vote for a Racist Presidential Candidate Who’s Calling for More Police Violence. Kiratiana Freelon, The Root — Last week, Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s white, hard-right presidential candidate, received an unexpected American endorsement. “He sounds like us,” said David Duke, an unabashed white supremacist and former Grand Duke Wizard of the Louisiana Ku Klux Klan. “He is a total European descendant, he looks like any…
By Astead W. Herndon, The New York Times — An air of solemnity hangs over Lucy McBath’s bid for Congress. It is present in her campaign stump speech, when she recounts the 2012 murder of her son, Jordan Davis, a black teenager who was shot and killed by a white man at a gas station when the 17-year-old refused to lower the volume of the rap music playing in his…
By Michael Fox, Truthout — Giovani Baffo is a poet and a street artist in Sao Paulo’s trendy Vila Madalena neighborhood. With a thick, unkempt beard and a red Nike…
By Aaron Mack, Slate — On Thursday, Republican Rep. French Hill of Arkansas condemned a racist radio ad running in support of his campaign for re-election. The ad features two women, clearly intended…
By Katrina Vanden Heuvel — If Democrats flip the House, the Congressional Progressive Caucus will have the leaders, agenda, and institutional muscle to drive the debate. “Only in the darkness can you see the stars,” the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. taught us. Now, even in the bleak night of Brett M. Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court, there are stars that offer hope. If Democrats take back the House…
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…
The frontrunner in the presidential election is finding support from the country’s bankers. By John Paul Rathbone and Joe Leahy, OZY — The dramatic surge in Brazilian markets is not…
New candidates will create opportunities for Democrats across the country—if the establishment is willing to back them. By Steve Phillips, The Nation — Old wineskins must make room for new wine.” During the Rainbow Coalition days of the 1980s, Jesse Jackson used that biblical reference to press the Democratic Party to make structural and strategic changes in order to seize the opportunities presented by the country’s demographic revolution. Today, this…
Image: Dr. Christine Blasey Ford Vantage Point Articles and Essays by Dr. Ron Daniels — We must never forget the humble, dignified and courageous testimony of a Dr. Christine Blasey…