American Right
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The End of the Experiment? (Updated)
The tragedy of the Trump movement is that one set of struggling people has been pitted against other groups of struggling people by someone who has known little struggle, at least in the material sense, and hence seems to have little empathy for anyone struggling, and even to consider struggling a symptom of weakness…. From
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Constructive vs. Futile Protest
There have been street protests in the streets of the capitals of cosmopolitan America. The people protesting are understandably upset that a thug like Trump has been elected. I'm glad this kind of spontaneous resistance is arising, but these protests are futile and will aggravate the problem if they continue to be simply the expression
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Morally Outraged Americans Elect Mr. Potter to Clean Up Pottersville
At the end of the piece I posted Sunday I said, "If by some horrific turn of events Trump manages to win on Tuesday, then we get a head start on Scenario 1." What do I mean by Scenario 1? I assumed that Clinton would win and that we would have four more years of gridlock
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The GOP’s Path to Self-Immolation
Fascism/ˈfæʃɪzəm/ is a form of radical authoritarian nationalism. . . . Fascists believe that liberal democracy is obsolete, and they regard the complete mobilization of society under a totalitarian one-party state as necessary to prepare a nation for armed conflict and to respond effectively to economic difficulties. Such a state is led by a strong leader—such as a dictator and a martial government composed of the members of the
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Understanding Tea Party Anger
From Nathaniel Rich's review of Arlie Hochschild's Inside the Sacrifice Zone in the NYRB Hochschild is also unpersuaded by Colin Woodard’s argument for regionalism as the main factor in shaping political views, and Alec McGillis’s argument that those in red states who most need government services vote at a much lower rate than wealthier conservatives.
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Realigning the Colors
What these figures suggest is that the 2016 election will represent a complete inversion of the New Deal order among white voters. From the 1930s into the 1980s and early 1990s, majorities of downscale whites voted Democratic and upscale whites voted Republican. Now, looking at combined male and female vote totals, the opposite is true.
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Dying Traditions in New York: The Baymen and Farmers of Long Island before WWII
The other day, I reposted Dying Traditions, which I suggest you read before this post because it provides a context for what I want to say here. I was reminded of it during my current reading of Robert Caro's The Power Broker, which is a biography of Robert Moses. But it is not your run-of-the-mill biography. It is striking for its ambition
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Trump and the Koch Money Party
From Chapter 12 of Mayer's Dark Money, "Mother of All Wars, the 2012 Setback": While amassing one of the most lucrative fortunes in the world, the Kochs had also created an ideological assembly line justifying it. Now they had added a powerful political machine to protect it. They had hired top-level operatives, financed their own
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Mayer’s Dark Money
I'm three or four chapters into reading Jane Mayer's Dark Money. Mayer is the Ida Tarbell of our generation, and to her we owe a huge debt of gratitude. If Tarbell exposed how the trusts work at the turn of the previous century, Mayer is now exposing how enormous amounts stealth money are working to bring