Social media have changed the equation in American politics.  From fake Facebook stories planted by Russian trolls to influence the 2016 election in favor of Donald Trump, to Roseanne Barr’s deeply racist Twitter message this past week–to say nothing of
the President’s constant barrage of self-serving, denigrating and false tweets–social media have made our national political dynamics more divisive, ill-informed and counterproductive. The premium these media place on bite-sized bursts of no-need-to-explain-or-defend assertions has only exacerbated this process. Continue reading “Social Media, Politics and Us”
Do Conspiracy Theories Have a Conservative Bias?
There is a not-so-old saw that facts have a liberal bias. Here I am flipping this political aphorism to ask the related question: whether conservative thought is especially attracted to outlandish conspiracy theories.
First, let’s clear out some ideological underbrush. Neither left nor right in American politics has a monopoly on the truth. Nor is either immune to the attraction of far-fetched theories that appear to explain noxious or threatening political developments.  Continue reading “Do Conspiracy Theories Have a Conservative Bias?”
State of the Union: Freeing Slaves, Liberating Corporations? A Short Story
In his first State of the Union address, in January 2010, President Obama broke decorum and delivered a most unusual rebuke to the Supreme Court, six of whose members were sitting only feet from his podium.  He was objecting to the Court’s decision only a few days earlier in which it extended corporations’ First Amendment rights to free speech to allow companies to fund their own advertisements for or against political candidates (Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission). In his address the president asserted that, ‘I don’t think American elections should be bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests.’
The Court’s narrow, 5-4 decision overturned its own precedent in a 1990 case, in which it had ruled against such corporate political ads because of ‘the corrosive and distorting effects of immense aggregations of wealth’ on our political processes.
Most careful observers will conclude that the Court got things right the first time. As it turns out, the Citizens United decision was built on both a historical irony and a Supreme Court error that dates back more than 130 years. Continue reading “State of the Union: Freeing Slaves, Liberating Corporations? A Short Story”
Are We a Nation of Cheaters?
For the past year the nation’s klieg lights have focused on Donald Trump’s dismantling of the norms of civility and integrity, and for good reason. Most Americans, including many who support him politically, reject his constant assault on empathy and reason, and on our basic democratic institutions.
Still, the question arises: Is Trump sui generis, a true moral outlier randomly imposed by the fates on a virtuous society? Or does he represent a sort of avatar of an ethically troubled culture, a natural outgrowth of a morally suspect country?  Continue reading “Are We a Nation of Cheaters?”
Language Habits (A Series of Occasional Rants)
Words, and the ways people use them, have always held a special fascination for me. Words express, inform, engage, motivate, heal and harm. They can dismantle selves as well as they can inspire movements. They enrich with metaphor and catch us up with irony. They can equally be constructed into forms of art and be debased by misuse. Here I offer a few ideas about the latter dichotomy, with a bit of a rant about some of the more annoying uses of language today. Continue reading “Language Habits (A Series of Occasional Rants)”
On Entitlements
Time to set the political language straight. The word ‘entitlement’ has been turned inside-out as to its meaning. Many seem to think it is an epithet. I gather this is a mistake made largely on the right, but also by some on the left. Continue reading “On Entitlements”
The Trouble with the Trublicans
In 2016 the punditry class told us of the takeover, even the hijacking, of the Republican Party by Donald Trump. As Trump progressively dropped his competitors in the GOP primaries, won the party’s nomination, and defeated Hillary Clinton in the general election, his presumptive takeover became complete. The party was now his, for worse or worse yet.
This story had considerable street cred. After all, his GOP primary opponents
and the traditional Republican Party “establishment” sharply denounced Trump for almost everything: his (lack of) credentials, his extravagant lying, his crudeness (if less so his misogyny), his violation of longstanding political norms. No one, they asserted, was less prepared or less fit for the presidency. The party’s most recent standard-bearer, Mitt Romney, urged during the 2016 primaries that “Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud. His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University.” Continue reading “The Trouble with the Trublicans”
