Stung by the success of Trump’s anti-immigrant, racist campaign themes in 2016, left-of-center advocacy groups — think tanks, unions, progressive academics and Democratic consultants — are developing tools this year to counter the continuing Republican assault on liberal values, based on the optimistic assumption that the reservoir of white animosity […] Read more »
The Audacity of Hate
… The Tea Party changed what it was permissible to debate openly in contemporary politics. Within a few years, it enabled Trump to further erode the norms of political combat and more openly instigate partisan conflict based on racial and ethnic antagonism. Under Trump, coded rhetoric like Reagan’s “welfare queen” […] Read more »
Christian Nationalism Talks Religion, But Walks Fascism
In the past few years, and particularly in the past 6 months, “Christian nationalism” has become a bit of a buzzword. Recent op-eds describing and decrying (or in rarer cases defending) it have included the good, the bad, and the breathtakingly idiotic. A number of important articles have cited various […] Read more »
Why Trump Persists
The failure of the American electorate to rise up in opposition to President Trump — whose outrages are well-documented — suggests that voters are less tolerant, less empathetic and less insistent on integrity than many believe. The election of Trump and his first three years in office have revealed a […] Read more »
‘Nothing Less Than a Civil War’: These White Voters on the Far Right See Doom Without Trump
Great American Pizza & Subs, on a highway about 100 miles southeast of Las Vegas, was busier and Trumpier than usual. On any given day it serves “M.A.G.A. Subs” and “Liberty Bell Lasagna.” The “Second Amendment” pizza comes “loaded” with pepperoni and sausage. The dining room is covered in regalia […] Read more »
The 2010s Were the End of Normal
… Apocalypse is not yet upon our world as the 2010s draw to an end, but there are portents of disorder. The hopes nourished during the opening years of the decade — hopes that America was on a progressive path toward growing equality and freedom, hopes that technology held answers […] Read more »