John Buell
John Buell has a PhD in political science, taught for 10 years at College of the Atlantic, and was an Associate Editor of The Progressive for ten years. He lives in Southwest Harbor, Maine and writes on labor and environmental issues. His most recent book, published by Palgrave in August 2011, is "Politics, Religion, and Culture in an Anxious Age." He may be reached at jbuell@acadia.net
Articles by this author
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Views Thursday, January 10, 2019 Is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Right that Tax Justice is Key to our Democratic Prospect? There is surprisingly widespread support for higher taxes on the rich. Americans have typically felt that one should keep what one earns. Many are also convinced that they will one day become rich, hence the popularity of lotteries, which reflect and help sustain that belief. Dean Baker, co-founder... Read more |
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Views Tuesday, December 11, 2018 The Yellow Vests Rise Up Against the Elites and Neoliberal Austerity While Americans have been preoccupied by the nostalgic reminiscence and burial of a former president, French citizens have been engaged in mass civil disobedience enacted by the gilets juanes or “Yellow Vests,” the roadside safety vests French drivers are required to have. This action reflects and... Read more |
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Views Tuesday, November 20, 2018 Defeating the Fasc-Lican Party After the election I received a provocative letter from my friend and mentor Bill Connolly, Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Political Science at Johns Hopkins and author of Aspirational Fascism: The Struggle for Multifaceted Democracy under Trumpism. Bill has had a long and distinguished career in... Read more |
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Views Friday, October 12, 2018 After Mitch McConnell’s Coup: Democratizing the Court, Democratizing America Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell treats the exercise of the democratic right peacefully to assemble as mob rule. This exercise in democratic liberty that McConnell abhors has been necessitated because our democracy is seriously flawed—thanks in part to the anti-democratic coups McConnell’s... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, September 19, 2018 Men’s Bodies and the Politics of Abortion Regardless of one’s evaluation of his overall performance, Judge Brett Kavanaugh merits an A for his ability to sidestep or evade questions on any controversial issue. I get the impression that he spent hours practicing non-answer answers to a familiar battery of anticipated questions. Whether... Read more |
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Views Tuesday, July 03, 2018 Not Extreme: Sanders’ and Ocasio-Cortez’s Leftism Has Been Core to the Democratic Party One of the most widely stated and often unquestioned pearls of wisdom from the Beltway pundits is the earnest complaint that our politics has become ever more partisan. A strident populism manifested in President Trump opposes the left extremism of Bernie Sanders/Elizabeth Warren. Oh for the days... Read more |
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Views Thursday, June 21, 2018 Look Deeper: Child Detention and the US’s Paramilitary Politics Abroad Attorney General Sessions didn’t lose any sleep over those children forcibly separated from their parents. He maintained most of the asylum seekers will be denied because “many of them . . . like to make more money . . .” Unfortunately, however, when children are used as bargaining chips we may... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, May 02, 2018 Who Is the Real Nuclear Threat? Recently there was an extraordinary moment on corporate television. Earlier this week, CNN 's Chris Cuomo asked Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: "Does Israel have nuclear capabilities and nuclear weapons, yes or no?" Netanyahu responded evasively, claiming: "we've always been the first to... Read more |
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Views Saturday, April 21, 2018 Students as Debt Slaves Periodically the so-called deficit hawks—a club whose membership includes prominent members of both parties—warn us of the dire consequences of burgeoning government debt. Many propose such harsh remedies as balanced budget amendments. Yet while these warnings and draconian responses are... Read more |
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Views Tuesday, March 13, 2018 On False Alarms and Nuclear Realism Sometimes life throws a bouquet our way, a little message that could make our lives better if only we scooped it up. The recent mistaken test of Hawaii’s nuclear warning system—complete with the false admonition that “this is not a drill”-- should be an occasion to examine the prevailing “realism”... Read more |