Category: Politics
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This post is not about the last 20 years in Afghanistan and all the wrong policies that have been implemented. Nor is it about the fact that the Taliban wanted to surrender after several months of American bombing in 2001, but the Bush administration said that the U.S. does not negotiate surrender. That is, the…
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The filibuster’s purpose used to be to achieve an important government objective – foster bipartisan compromise and thus have measures pass with support from both parties. Filibusters today have a totally different purpose – to prevent the majority from moving forward with its agenda with absolutely no intention of compromise and support. Understandably, therefore, talk is…
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Over the next few months, Facebook’s Oversight Board of thinkers from around the world will decide whether Facebook’s ban on Trump should stand or whether he should be let back on. Academic free speech advocates are already suggesting that the Board may well be more responsive to free speech concerns and reinstate Trump. And they are clearly…
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One of Trump’s last acts as President was releasing the report of his 1776 Commission, members of which included no professional historians but did include right-wing conservative activists and “thinkers.” It’s no surprise therefore that just as Trump legitimized his fake news, his alternative facts, by calling the authentic mainstream news fake news, this report…
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When Congressmen take the oath of office, they swear that they will “support and defend” the Constitution. A central part of the Constitution concerns our electoral process. It is a core element of our democracy and the peaceful transfer of power. If there were indeed evidence of fraud, and the courts for some reason refused…
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For weeks, Trump has been absorbed in his own reality – that he won by a landslide but that it was stolen from him by fraud; that the election was rigged. And his allies have mostly stood behind him and either supported his efforts to overturn the results of the election or actively encouraged…
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What can one say to the news that twelve Republican Senators now plan to contest the electoral college vote in various states? Unfortunately, the only realistic thing is to face the facts and say that there is little hope of our country returning to any semblance of political normalcy in the coming years. Despite all the…
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During the election, there were times when I shuddered in fear. I read of roving gangs, for that’s what they were, of Trump supporters in cars and trucks stopping traffic on the Garden State Parkway, the Mario Cuomo bridge over the Hudson, various highways crisscrossing the New York City region, and trying to force a Biden-Harris…
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If Vice President Pence and the Cabinet were men and not puppets, if they had any ethics or commitment to American democracy, they would invoke the 25th Amendment, Section 4, and free our country from President Trump. Trump clearly is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” The peaceful transfer of power being one…
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This has always been a country that harbored and accommodated a large diversity of thought, But while there were many fringe elements, the core of the populace, even those who had ample reason to be distrustful of people with power, believed in our democracy and the basic sanctity of the process. There was respect. That…
