Far Right

After the GOP Insurrection: The Democrats only have 18 Months to Save Democracy with a Transformative Agenda

Chicago (Special to Informed Comment) – The shocking Democratic sweep of Georgia’s double-barrel Senate runoffs, and the promise of unified Democratic control in D.C. for the first time in decade, should instantly reinvigorate an intra-party debate that had been shelved since the relatively disappointing results of the November 3rd general election: to escalate or not […]

Congress

Cairo on the Potomac: The siege on US Capitol was the election violence of a fragile democracy

The Conversation

By Clayton Besaw and Matthew Frank | – Did the United States just have a coup attempt? Supporters of President Donald Trump, following his encouragement, stormed the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, disrupting the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory. Waving Trump banners, hundreds of people broke through barricades and smashed windows to enter […]

Authoritarianism

Democracy’s Night of the Living Dead: Trump’s GOP Zombies Lost by a Landslide, but they’re back to eat our Brains

Dan Dinello

By Dan Dinello | – Like a political remake of Night of the Living Dead, the Republican Party — put to death by the Lame Duck’s poisonous presidency — has reanimated as the Zombie Party. This hollowed out duplicate looks the same, but has been implanted with the traitorous delusions of the demented ex-President. Denying […]

Authoritarianism

Tragedies, Farces and Trump’s Coup d’état: The History of an Idea

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Amy Gardner at the Washington Post got the scoop. In an hour-long telephone call to Georgia officials, including the the secretary of state, Trump browbeat them and hinted around that he could arrange jail time for them or foment unrest or spoil the January 5 senatorial run-off unless they found […]

Donald Trump

Trump sent Feds to Portland, but will coddle White Supremacist militias who invaded Oregon State House

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Far right brown shirts, some armed with firearms or bear mace, invaded the Oregon state house in Salem on Monday. Most of them maskless and posing a pandemic danger to the state senators, they sought by threats of force to make the legislature lift covid-related restrictions. Journalists were assaulted, with […]

Climate Crisis

How America’s Denialism– Elections, COVID, Climate — is Leading to its Downfall

John Feffer

( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – The refusal of tens of millions of Americans to recognize the election results is part of a much larger denialism — of COVID-19, of climate change, and U.S. decline. The presidential election wasn’t close. Joe Biden won the popular vote by more than 7 million votes, which translates […]

Donald Trump

America already had Fascism in Jim Crow; is the Trumpie Dream a Totalitarian Amerika?

Leif E. Vaage

Toronto (Special to Informed Comment) – It is widely recognized that the Nazis learned from the example of the United States of America about politics in a racist key. It is important to recall that before the Nazis came to power, there was already the long-standing example of Jim Crow in the Deep South. The […]

al Qaeda in the Arabian Penisula

From the KKK to Europe’s new “Jihadis”: The Hidden Logic of seemingly Random Acts of Terror

Glenn E. Robinson

By Glenn E. Robinson | – Prior to his November 2 shooting rampage in Vienna, Kujtim Fejzullai’s affinity for ISIS was known to Austrian police, given his earlier unsuccessful attempt to cross Turkey’s border to join the ‘caliphate.’ But as far as is known, Fejzullai never actually made contact with ISIS before he swore his […]

Bill of Rights

Presidents are Paid Public Servants, Not Aristocrats above the Law: Lessons from Rousseau, Jefferson and Tang China

Martin Powers

Ann Arbor (Special to Informed Comment) – “Let the constitution of a government be what it will, if there is but one man in it exempt from the laws, all the other members must necessarily be at his discretion.” Perhaps we should thank Donald Trump for demonstrating the truth of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s insight. No sooner […]