Politics
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State of the Race 2
After last night's debate I feel more optimistic about Warren. Her mistake earlier was to compete with Bernie to own the progressive wing of the party. Bernie clearly had a stronger stake there, and Warren failed. But in her attempt to do so, especially in the debate where she came across as a Bernie wannabe
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State of the Race 1
Bernie Sanders' position in this cycle is a lot like Trump's in the last one. He has a solid, impassioned base of support that is dwarfed by the majority which is split among the rest of the field. Trump won because the opposition to him could not unify around another candidate to oppose him. This
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Thoughts on the Kavanagh Affair
When he was first nominated, I saw Kavanagh much as I saw Gorsuch: an establishment figure who leans conservative, and thought that's what you're going to get because clueless establishment Democrats allowed Donald Trump to win the election. But better someone like him than someone like Harriet Myers or Clarence Thomas, or someone else who's
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Hannah Arendt on Why Political Lying Works
A mixture of gullibility and cynicism had been an outstanding characteristic of mob mentality before it became an everyday phenomenon of masses. In an ever-changing, incomprehensible world the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, that everything was possible and that nothing was true. The mixture in itself
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Destruction of Norms = Destruction of Normal Politics
Trump's election has confirmed my worst fears that too many Americans are either ignorant of or contemptuous of what is required for a Democracy to work in a complex, pluralistic society. But the destruction of norms in our political sphere didn't just start with Trump, and that's why he should not be looked at as an aberration. He is
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What Kind of America Does Steve Bannon Want?
I cannot take Trump seriously as someone who will take governing seriously. He will see the presidency as his own reality show, and will care mainly about his ratings. So one has to wonder which faction among his advisors he will see as more likely to deliver the higher ratings–the Priebus/GOP establishment faction or the Bannon/Alt-Right faction. It's
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Diversity Includes Everybody or Why Hillary Lost (Updated)
Last Spring during the primaries, when I argued with people who liked Bernie but thought he couldn't win, I would say that Hillary was going to be the Martha Coakley of 2016. I think the comparison holds. Liberals who think the country rejected her because she was a woman don't get it. Had Elizabeth Warren run, I guarantee you
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Draining the Swamp
For those who were naive enough to take Trump at his word, this piece by Jane Mayer should disabuse them of their wishful thinking: During the Presidential primaries, Donald Trump mocked his Republican rivals as “puppets” for flocking to a secretive fund-raising session sponsored by Charles and David Koch, the billionaire co-owners of the energy conglomerate
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Why Trump Won
The reasons are complex, and Elizabeth Drew in her NYRB piece about the election covers most of them, but I think it comes down to this part of her article where she quotes J.D. Vance: In an important change from four years ago, only 26 percent of rural voters went for Clinton, in contrast with the
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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