Elections

( Tomdispatch.com) – Last week, I was in Washington, D.C.’s Union Station. The weather had turned cold and I couldn’t help noticing what an inhospitable place it had become for the city’s homeless and dispossessed. Once upon a time, anyone was allowed to be in the train station at any hour. Now, there were signs […]

Authoritarianism

Why Istanbul’s mayor was sentenced to jail – and what it means for Turkey’s 2023 presidential race

The Conversation

By Ahmet T. Kuru, San Diego State University | – A Turkish court’s decision on Dec. 14, 2022, to jail Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu for two years and seven months for insulting public officials hung on comments he made three years ago. But its impact will be felt on an event taking place in a […]

Democracy

Living Politics, Embedding with Workers, Standing up to the Lies of the Rich

Rebecca Gordon

( Tomdispatch.com ) – “Welcome back!” read my friend Allan’s email. “So happy to have you back and seeing that hard work paid off. Thank you for all that you do. Please don’t cook this evening. I am bringing you a Honduran dinner — tacos hondureños and baleadas, plus a bottle of wine.” The tacos […]

Democracy

The Economy Looms Large in the Midterms, but Abortion, Ukraine and the State of Democracy are also Key Voter Issues

The Conversation

By Stella Rouse, University of Maryland and Shibley Telhami, University of Maryland | – The 2022 midterm elections, perhaps more than most in recent American history, present voters with a multitude of pressing issues to consider as they prepare to vote. These issues range from abortion to rising inflation, energy costs to the state of […]

Authoritarianism

Roots of White Rage

Peter G. Prontzos

Vancouver (Special to Informed Comment) Recent development show just how divided the United States of America really is. The latest polling shows that 72% of Americans believe that democracy is in serious danger. Even more strikingly, 43% said civil war was at least somewhat likely in the next 10 years. Robert Reich, a former US […]

Bill of Rights

Biden comes out Swinging against Trumpian, MAGA GOP as Authoritarian, Violent

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – President Joe Biden came out swinging in Philadelphia in a rare Thursday evening prime time address, denouncing the “MAGA Republican Party” of Donald Trump while praising what he termed “mainstream” conservative Republicans. MAGA is the acronym for “Make America Great Again,” the fascist slogan that disgraced former president Donald Trump […]

Elections

Anti-Abortion Extremism Is Scaring Voters. It Should

OtherWords

By Mitchell Zimmerman | – ( Otherwords.org) – Our country may be divided on the issue of abortion. But when it comes down to it, most Americans believe that it’s a pregnant person’s right to decide for themselves whether to continue a pregnancy. That’s not only a blue-state attitude — it’s just as true in […]

Democracy

The fall of the House of Arslan: How a Lebanese political Newcomer ousted a Dynasty

Global Voices

By Omar Boutine | – ( Globalvoices.org ) – On May 15, 2022, Lebanese voters cast their ballots in the first parliamentary elections to be held in the country since the Beirut blast leveled the eastern half of the capital in August of 2020. Since then, a nation mired in an economic crisis the World […]

Authoritarianism

Elections: a Global Ranking rates US Weakest among Liberal Democracies

The Conversation

By Toby James, University of East Anglia; and Holly Ann Garnett, Royal Military College of Canada | – Defending democracy has suddenly become one of the central challenges of our age. The land war in Ukraine is widely considered a front line between autocratic rule and democratic freedom. The United States continues to absorb the […]