It might not be the barrier you want, it might not be the best barrier, but it’s the barrier we have against a Trumpist resurgence in 2024.
This realization rankles the libertarian sentiments in me, and I’m sure it will instantly turn off a lot of people who read it, but that doesn’t make it untrue: The quickest, most surefire way to elect another Trump as president (and thus the greatest threat to democracy in the U.S.) is ineffectual government mired in gridlock.
So much of the discussion in anti-Trump circles about what led to Trump’s rise has boiled down to two main camps: Trump rose to power because of extreme economic anxiety or Trump rose to power because of vast racism. While both of these causes…
An Examination of the Disease Rotting a Religion & Threatening a Democracy
Because I know that this is an intersection of contentious topics (religion, politics, and Trump — the three anti-dinner table topics) I want to start with a few disclaimers to try and avoid misunderstandings up front.
First, I know that not all American Christians are supporters of Trump or the GOP. Of course it’s never “all white evangelicals,” or “all American Christians”. But according to the polls, around 85% of white evangelicals are supporters of Trump (or at least have the honesty to admit to it), and many in the remaining 15% are enablers. …
While the dangerous ideology of Christian Nationalism is most often (correctly) associated with the right, its liberal variant must be confronted as well.
I have written and spoken extensively about the extremely real dangers of the right-wing Christian Nationalism ideology that we saw on full display throughout the Trump presidency and especially during the January 6 coup attempt. I think it’s a serious and entirely-malevolent movement that needs to be confronted and eradicated, especially by Christians.
But this right-wing Christian Nationalism has a liberal cousin, a liberal form of Christian Nationalism. I’m not trying to pull a “both sides!” whataboutism, and I’m certainly not going to draw a moral equivalency between the two forms — the right-wing form is more evil and dangerous…
Biden can (and should) use executive action to combat climate change. But that’s not enough; we need robust policies that foster a popular base for climate action and result in tangible improvements in people’s lives.
As I write this, Texas is in the midst of an unnatural winter disaster. I say unnatural, because I am convinced that humankind’s manipulation of the climate and destruction of the environment played a key role in this storm’s intensity, and the reliance on fossil fuel is playing a key role in why the suffering is so much worse than it needed to be. Less than a month ago, terrible mudslides induced by unnaturally severe winter rains ravaged highways and homes in central California. …
An Attempt to Accurately Define and Critically Examine the System of Capitalism
Bernie Sanders’ dual presidential campaigns and the virality of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have made left ideologies more popular in the United States than they’ve been in decades; I think it’s fair to say that millennials and Gen Zers calling themselves “socialist” is pretty common now. You really wouldn’t even be that hard-pressed to find a self-identifying communist, most likely.
Of course, this resurgence of leftist, anti-capitalist ideas has brought with it a resurgence of criticism towards these same ideas. …
Three takeaways from a recent poll that might end up being critically important for Biden’s agenda in the coming months
Results from a recent poll conducted by Change Research were released this week. There are tons of fascinating data points in this data (full results are available here), but there are three big takeaways that really stood out to me.
- Framing concepts in a way that connects them to tangible issues is very important.
- Because of that takeaway, support for ending the filibuster is probably significantly higher than it may appear (which means a tremendous amount in-and-of itself).
- The Democratic Party has a window to reclaim a portion of Trump’s working class supporters.
Obviously, this is just one poll, so…
Four Reasons to Support the National Popular Vote
In my first piece in this series on the Electoral College, I did my best to refute (or at least address and dismiss) the most common arguments that I normally see used to defend the Electoral College. In this piece, I hope to lay out the benefits of replacing the Electoral College with a national popular vote (and by default, lay out the weaknesses of that institution). In a future third piece of this series, I will further explore the actual structural, political, and institutional reforms that would be needed to best replace the Electoral College. …
The Right must admit defeat and accept their guilt before any true healing can begin
Over the next few weeks, you’re going to hear a lot of talk about forgiveness and healing and moving forward as a united country. This talk is gonna come from two main groups. The first group is centrists, the “moderate” (i.e., mushy) middle. This group consists of conservatives, liberals, and libertarians; I think they have the best of intentions. They’re fantastically wrong, but I don’t believe they’re malevolent.
The second group that we will all see promoting healing and forgiveness though does not share those good intentions. This second group is the snakes and rats who have enabled, encouraged, and…
The “Moderate Middle” is not the path forward, it’s the path of appeasement
Over and over again, the mushy middle, the moderates, the “reasonable” centrists have been the useful idiots for right-wing extremists. Their passivity, their foolish insistence that there is a moral equivalency between the right and the left, their condescending attempts to appear above the fray — all any of that has done is enable and embolden Trump, the GOP, and their right-wing cult.
Tell me, libertarian appeasers: what has trying to appeal to the MAGA crowd got you? Has it made your sorry excuse for a party any more relevant? Has it made you any less the punchline of American…
Unedited, raw, rough draft thoughts on the meaning of Trump’s attempted coup
There’s definitely a point to be made that the anti-democratic violence we all saw yesterday in D.C. is extremely mild compared to the coups, invasions, and regime changes that the U.S. government has exported all over the world. And there’s certainly a level of hypocrisy on display watching so many of the people behind these evil exports pontificate about how atrocious Trump’s attempted coup was.
Both of those points are correct, and this whole fiasco should 100% cause us to learn about and reassess our country’s violent and anti-democratic foreign policies of the past forever. …
