Elements of the Acropolis are thought to have been provided for through the public service of liturgy. / Photo by Francesco Bandarin/UNESCO By Dominic Frisby / 06.02.2017 Imagine a progressive tax – in other words, a tax that falls on those most able to pay; a tax that results in the rich paying – quite[…]
Simone de Beauvoir in Paris in 1949. / Photo from Elliot Erwitt, Magnum By Dr. Skye C. Cleary / 03.10.2017 Lecturer Columbia University, City College of New York Simone de Beauvoir is rightly best known for declaring: ‘One is not born, but rather becomes, woman.’ A less well-known facet of her philosophy, particularly relevant today, is[…]
The SLECO (Socialism, Liberalism, Conservatism and Ecology) chart is a proposed alternative to the Nolan Chart and the Hans Slomp projection of the European political spectrum. It should be able to capture more political schools. / Ben Burgers, Wikimedia Commons By Dr. T.M. Sell / 11.30.2014 Pacific Northwest Political Science Association Introduction People sometimes develop[…]
A handout photo made available by the Russian Foreign Ministry on May 10, 2017, shows U.S. President Donald J. Trump (C) speaking with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (L) and Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergei Kislyak during a meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C. (HO / AFP/Getty Images) Senate Minority Leader Chuck[…]
By Shaun Mullen / 05.12.2017 Hey, who’s that guy hiding behind a hedge on the White House grounds? Why it’s press secretary Sean Spicer, who became so flummoxed over the “unexpected” blowback from the summary execution of FBI Director James Comey that he hid from reporters the other night rather than answer their questions, eventually[…]
“By even considering this discriminatory order he has broken his promise to be a president for all Americans,” says Human Rights Campaign. (Photo: @HRC) ‘Nothing could be more un-American’ than order protecting those with a religious objection to same-sex marriage, transgender people, and reproductive rights. By Deirdre Fulton / 05.03.2017 Rights groups protested outside the[…]
Why do so many state constitutions have provisions precluding funding for religious schools? Phil Roeder, CC BY By Dr. Frank S. Ravitch / 05.02.2017 Professor of Law and Walter H. Stowers Chair of Law and Religion Michigan State University The United States Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments in a case from Missouri that could[…]
By Dr. Timothy O. Lenz and Dr. Mirya Holman / 08.16.2013 Lenz: Professor of Political Science Holman: Assistant Professor of Political Science Florida Atlantic University The Constitution and Constitutional Government We are under a Constitution but the Constitution is what the Court says it is. – Charles Evans Hughes For as in absolute governments[…]
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions cheers on the crowd during a rally for then President-elect Trump in Mobile, Alabama, in December of 2016. (Photo: Brynn Anderson/AP) Jeff Sessions offers to recuse himself from investigations into Russian election meddling after damning Washington Post report By Lauren McCauley / 03.02.2017 Democratic leaders are calling for the resignation[…]
Photo by Mic Smith / AP By Dr. C.J. Atkins / 02.17.2017 People’s World Opinion Editor “Enemies of the people.” That’s how President Donald Trump describes journalists who offer anything but Breitbart-style fawning coverage of him and his administration. He first tweeted out the epithet a couple of weeks ago, adding it to his stockpile[…]
By Michael Gerson / 02.19.2017 Washington Post Columnist In early January, Speaker Paul Ryan met on the issue of tax reform with a delegation from the president-elect. Attending were future chief strategist and senior counselor Stephen Bannon, future Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, future senior adviser Jared Kushner, future counselor Kellyanne Conway and future[…]
White House / U.S. National Archives and Records Administration By Louisa Hotson / 08.09.2016 PhD Candidate in Political Science London School of Economics and Political Science University of Oxford Just like cigarettes and air travel, the social sciences were much more glamorous in the 1960s than they are today. In the 1960s social science faculties[…]
Cagle Cartoons By Dick Polman / 02.17.2017 Writer in Residence, Political Columnist University of Pennsylvania To best understand the Republican mentality on Capitol Hill – specifically, their disgraceful refusal to probe the Trump-Russia national security scandal with even a scintilla of the energy they devoted to Benghazi – you need only read what Senator Rand[…]
The New Thought movement left behind an important legacy. Wesley Nitsckie By Dr. Christopher H. Evans / 02.15.2017 Professor of the History of Christianity Boston University President Donald Trump embraces several political stances important to his conservative evangelical base. This includes support for “religious liberty” legislation and exempting evangelicals from laws upholding lesbian, gay, transgender[…]
A protest in New York’s Washington Square Park days after Donald Trump’s election. Muhammed Muheisen/AP By Dr. Roxanne Donovan / 02.13.2017 Professor of Psychology and Interdisciplinary Studies Kennesaw State University “This can’t be happening.” “I feel like throwing up.” “I don’t want to get out of bed in the morning.” “Life is going to get[…]
By Wendy Gittleson / 02.10.2017 Donald Trump has no real platform other than be afraid, be very afraid. In Trump’s imaginary world, we are all about to be wiped out by terrorists, but not the gun toting right-wing Trump follower type. No, we’re all about to be killed by green card holding people from countries[…]
Sarah Palin “represents the descent of politics,” wrote the Ottawa Citizen‘s Andrew Cohen. “We see today a direct line from Palin to Trump. Politically, Trump is Palin’s child.” (Photo: AP) ‘If the Captain of Chaos wants to disrupt everything—including resetting relations with little ol’ Canada—Palin would be the one to break the china’ By Lauren[…]
When one undertakes to administer justice, it must be with an even hand, and by rule; what is done for one, must be done for everyone in equal degree. Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, 1803 Edited by Matthew A. McIntosh / 02.06.2017 Brewminate Editor-in-Chief Ruby Bridges, 1960. Gelatin silver print. New York World-Telegram and Sun[…]
Protesters march down Market Street in Philadelphia to speak out against Vice President Mike Pence, who made a noon speech in Philadelphia on Saturday, Feb. 4, 2017. Similar anti-Trump demonstrations are taking place this weekend in cities and communities around the country and the globe. (Photo: Margo Reed / Philadelphia Inquirer) From New York City[…]
Image by Mark Bryan By Shaun Mullen / 02.03.2017 All things being equal, which they rarely are in the land of the yawning gap between rich and poor, the Washington establishment can go to hell. Allowing that there are some lawmakers, officials and careerist bureaucrats who are admirable people trying to do a good job,[…]
A 2016 poll found two-thirds of Americans say churches and other houses of worship should not come out in favor of one candidate over another during political elections—but President Donald Trump wants to “destroy” the amendment that keeps it that way. (Photo: Peter Miller/flickr/cc) Draft executive order ‘reads like the administration was challenged to see[…]
President Donald Trump and chief strategist Steve Bannon. (Photo: Getty) “If you’re still trying to convince yourself that a 21st century coup is not underway, please, please snap out of it,” says Michael Moore By Deirdre Fulton / 01.31.2017 President Donald Trump, chief strategist Steve Bannon, senior policy adviser Stephen Miller, and a select few[…]
A Soviet-era stamp depicts a scene from Leo Tolstoy’s ‘War and Peace.’ / Wikimedia Commons By Dr. Ani Kokobobo / 08.22.2016 Assistant Professor of Russian Literature University of Kansas As a professor of Russian literature, I couldn’t help but notice that comedian Aziz Ansari was inadvertently channeling novelist Leo Tolstoy when he claimed that “change[…]
The memorandum gives Bannon, former executive chair of the rightwing website Breitbart News, a regular seat at some of the most sensitive meetings at the highest levels of government, along with other NSC meetings. (Photo: Reuters) ‘To reiterate, the Joint Chiefs of Staff have been removed from the National Security Council and replaced with a[…]
President Abraham Lincoln / Wikimedia Commons By Patricia Smith / 01.27.2017 History does not repeat itself although sometimes it seems that way. However similar events of the past and events of the present may appear, the people and times are different. But sometimes history gives us prophetic voices with words that reach beyond the the[…]
Photo by AP News By Dr. Henry F. Carey / 01.20.2017 Associate Professor of Political Science Georgia State University Family is important to Donald Trump. The president-elect has appointed his son-in-law Jared Kushner as a senior White House adviser. For the duration of the presidency, the real estate mogul has handed over the reins of[…]
By Dr. T.M. Sell / 11.30.2014 Pacific Northwest Political Science Association “The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual[…]
Oil painting portrait of John Locke / Wikimedia Commons Lecture by Dr. Iván Szelényi / 09.10.2008 Professor Emeritus of Sociology Yale University Locke in a Historical Context Left: Charles II, by John Michael Wright c.1660–1665 / National Portrait Gallery, London Right: A 1656 Samuel Cooper portrait of Oliver Cromwell / National Portrait Gallery, London[…]
Jaroslaw Kaczynski in Warsaw, Poland on Jan. 11, 2017. AP Photo/Alik Keplicz By Dr. Brian Porter-Szücs / 01.18.2017 Professor of History University of Michigan When comparing Europe and America, we frequently overlook differences that hide inside similarities. There is no doubt that President-elect Donald Trump is surfing the same wave as European authoritarian nationalists like[…]
Shutterstock By Dr. Luis Hestres / 01.15.2017 Assistant Professor of Digital Communication The University of Texas at San Antonio As the shock of Donald Trump’s election victory is giving way to analysis about how his presidency will affect Americans’ lives, our digital freedom of speech deserves special consideration. The ability to express ourselves freely is[…]