Democracy

Istanbul (Special to Informed Comment) – Major protests over the arrest of Ekrem İmamoğlu, the Mayor of Istanbul and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s main political rival, have entered their sixth day. Demonstrations have erupted in at least 55 out of Türkiye’s 81 provinces, according to AFP, which marks one of the most widespread waves of […]

Democracy

Trump rages to snuff out Democracy’s Candle: Will we Rage against the Dying of its Light?

Rebecca Gordon

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Allow me to stipulate that I do not wish to die. In fact, had anyone consulted me about the construction of the universe, I would have made my views on the subject quite clear: mortality is a terrible idea. I’m opposed to it in general. (In wiser moments, I know that […]

Democracy

What the US can learn from South Koreans who stopped an Authoritarian Power-Grab

Waging Nonviolence

Jungmin Choi As Elon Musk and his DOGE team set about dismantling government agencies, many Americans expected a strong response from Congressional Democrats. Instead, party leaders offered weak statements and little resistance to being refused entry to the very agencies they are tasked with overseeing. This lack of urgency amid what’s being called an administrative […]

Democracy

What I Learned after the End of History

Andrew J. Bacevich

( Tomdispatch.com ) – “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” So declared Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Ah, if only it had proved to be so. Although my respect for MLK is enduring, when it comes to that upward-trending curve connecting past to present, his view of human […]

Democracy

Post-Election Beatitude: Beating the Blues

H. Patricia Hynes

Greenfield, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Whatever postures our country has projected to the world – shining city on a hill; leader of the free world; model of democracy; the indispensable nation; a rules-based order–all have crumbled like a house of cards. Our country’s failures, however, are deeper and older than the recent […]

Democracy

No Extermination without Representation: Election 2024

Farhang Jahanpour

Oxford (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – On Tuesday, the American people go to the polls in one of the most consequential elections for the United States and the world. Normally, outsiders should not interfere in other countries’ elections, although the United States has a habit of interfering in other countries’ elections, often overtly and […]

Democracy

Pennsylvania’s Undecideds: The 2024 Election Will Likely Turn on the Democrats’ Ground Game

Bob Dreyfuss

( Tomdispatch.com ) – If you’re like many of my friends, I know what you’re thinking: OMG, how is it even possible that half the country is going to vote for that guy? And there’s a slightly less common corollary to that: I mean, really, who are these people who say that they’re undecided? Who […]

Democracy

What’s at Stake in our Political Storm?

Andrea Mazzarino

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Images of homes that collapsed under mudslides or falling trees, waterlogged farms, and debris-filled roads drove home (yes, home!) to me recently the impact of Hurricane Helene on rural areas in the southeastern United States. That hurricane and the no-less-devastating Hurricane Milton that followed it only exacerbated already existing underlying problems […]

Donald Trump

Just how Traumatizing will Election 2024 Be?

Karen J. Greenberg

( Tomdispatch.com) – Imagine my surprise when, nearly eight months ago, commenting on the state of the country as it approached the 2024 presidential election, New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg noted that “Biden has set himself the task of trying to jolt the country out of its learned helplessness in the face of Trump’s […]