democracy

Who Decides About War? What About the People?

The U.S. occupation of Afghanistan has reached its "sell-by…" date.

A majority of Americans now tell pollsters the mission was a mistake. Ninety-eight members of the House – including liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans – have cosponsored Massachusetts Congressman Jim McGovern's resolution asking the Pentagon to develop an exit strategy.

Posted in democracy, War/Empire

What Have We Done to Democracy?

While we're still arguing about whether there's life after death, can we add another question to the cart? Is there life after democracy? What sort of life will it be? By "democracy" I don't mean democracy as an ideal or an aspiration. I mean the working model: Western liberal democracy, and its variants, such as they are.

So, is there life after democracy?

Posted in democracy

The Commons Exposed

America, America
God mend thine every flaw
Confirm thy soul in self-control
Thy liberty in law.
                   
America the Beautiful, Second Verse

Health Care Tyranny by 13 Obstructionists

For those still clinging to quaint notions of the American ideal, these have been a faith-shaking 10 years. Just as evolutionary science once got in the way of creationists’ catechism, so has politics now undermined patriots’ naive belief that the United States is a functioning democracy.

Does US Lukewarm Response Bolster Honduran Coup?

The military coup that overthrew Honduras's elected president, Manuel Zelaya, brought unanimous international condemnation. But some country's responses have been more reluctant than others, and Washington's ambivalence has begun to raise suspicions about what the US government is really trying to accomplish in this situation.

Partisan Politics and the Accountability Commission

Notwithstanding commanding support in Congress and with the American public, the creation of an Accountability Commission is now being held up by the Obama White House.

Democratic Socialists? Democrats Not Half That Good

The Republican National Committee recently dropped its resolution to brand the moderate pro-corporate Democratic Party “Socialists.” As the late, great Democratic Socialist leader Michael Harrington liked to tell it when he testified before a dying Senator Hubert Humphrey on the Humphrey-Hawkins Work Bill, that would theoretically guarantee every American a right to a job, Humphrey bluntly asked him “Is my bill socialism?” Harrington replied, “Senator, your bill’s not half that good.”

Democratic Socialists? You Bet!

Some in the Republican Party are trying to re-dub the Democratic Party as the Democrat Socialist Party.

Nothing like getting out the old encrusted red paintbrush.

But I hope some Democrats don't run from this label.

Running doesn't get you anywhere.

Democrats have been running from the label "liberal" since the days of Michael Dukakis, and that hasn't helped them.

And for those who, like me, are actually Democratic Socialists, it's time to come out and say so.

Posted in democracy, socialism

The Death and Life of Great American Newspapers

Communities across America are suffering through a crisis that could leave a dramatically diminished version of democracy in its wake. It is not the economic meltdown, although the crisis is related to the broader day of reckoning that appears to have arrived. The crisis of which we speak involves more than mere economics. Journalism is collapsing, and with it comes the most serious threat in our lifetimes to self-government and the rule of law as it has been understood here in the United States.

Newspapers Aren't Dying, Our Democracy Is

A new survey about public attitudes toward newspapers gets it precisely backwards. Supposedly most people don't think civic life would suffer all that much if their local newspaper shut down. But it's not that they don't care about their newspaper - they don't care about civic life.

Posted in democracy, journalism
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