In tumultuous sociopolitical struggles, a frequent pattern is visible: Conservatives often fight to preserve their own wealth or privileges, but liberals battle for causes that don’t enrich or benefit themselves personally. This fact is clear in the long crusade to abolish slavery, and in never-ending attempts to aid the poor. Liberals are less driven by […]
In Difficult times, Let’s remember all the Progressive Victories, and keep Bending the Arc of History
(Charleston, W.V.) – Enormous human betterment has occurred since The Enlightenment, chiefly because crusading liberals overcame conservative resistance, time after time. Modern democracy arose because America’s radical founders renounced the divine right of kings and took up arms against England and George III. They created government of the people, with no aristocracy. Slavery ended because […]
90 Years of Secular Progress: As Fundamentalism Weakened, I saw America grow Strong and Diverse
Charleston, WV (Special to Informed Comment) – I’ll be 90 on my next birthday. My long life is sinking, shrinking, slip-sliding away. My wife is worse: bedfast, under Hospice care. Soon, our world will end, not with a bang but a whimper. Looking back over nine decades, I’m proud and pleased because secular humanism – […]
Right Wing Laws to “protect religious freedom” Enable Fundamentalists to Discriminate
Charleston, W.Va. (Informed Comment) – Across America, right-wing politicians pass “religious freedom” laws that have a single purpose: to let narrow-minded believers discriminate against gays — an intolerance that is illegal for other people under human rights laws. In other words, only born-again Christians are allowed to express prejudice and hostility, while other Americans live […]
How did Washington State get sensible Sex Education Passed? The Religious Right is Collapsing
Here’s a dramatic example of the growing power of Americans who say their religion is “none”: Last spring, progressives in the Washington state legislature, backed by Planned Parenthood, mandated that all public schools must teach sensible, practical sex education. The goal: to prevent teen pregnancy, reduce sexual disease, save girls from “date rape,” caution grade-schoolers […]
Is America Flowing Demographically to the Left? Why Trump’s White Evangelicals aren’t the Force they were under Reagan or Bush
Charleston, W.V. (Special to Informed Comment) – Maybe 2020 is a turning point – one that won’t be clearly visible until the future. Maybe it marks the end of the four-decade epoch when the white evangelical “religious right” had enough power to tip American elections to the GOP. White evangelicals fought fiercely for Republicans this […]
In this Election, make no Mistake: White Evangelicals Lost, as “Nones” and Religious Liberals saved the Day
Charleston , W. V. (Special to Informed Comment) – Donald Trump taught America a great lesson. He showed that this nation has a huge number of racist, sexist, jingoist, gay-hating, Muslim-hating, Hispanic-hating bigots – those Hillary Clinton called a “basket of deplorables.” Trump attracted them by millions through his endless attacks on blacks and other […]
Are the Days when White Evangelicals can Swing the Election Passing?
Charleston, W.V. (Special to Informed Comment) – In the classic movie “Citizen Kane,” a ruthless newspaper tycoon runs for high political office. In advance, his publishing chain prepares two possible alternative headlines for the morning after the election. One crows: “Kane Wins.” But if that won’t work, the other says: “Fraud at the Polls.” Well, […]
Is the Rising Generation of Unchurched Secularists pointing to a post-Trump Progressive America?
Someday, the coronavirus tragedy will be gone, wiped out by scientific vaccines. And Donald Trump will be just an unpleasant memory, an absurd reminder of what can happen when bigotry contaminates democracy. This part of the 21st century will be remembered chiefly, I predict, as the era when supernatural religion died among intelligent western people. […]
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