Peter Certo
Peter Certo is the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) editorial manager.
Articles by this author
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Views Thursday, January 31, 2019 People Who Care About Democracy Don’t Plot Coups Abroad For some months now, Venezuela’s socialist government has lurched through a series of escalating crises — hyperinflation, mass protests, political violence — while both the government and its opposition have flirted with authoritarianism. It isn’t pretty — and to hear the right wing tell it, it’s... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, January 30, 2019 Does the Super Bowl Feel Too Political? Thank Militarism Super Bowl season is like the holidays — a celebration shared by people more accustomed to arguing than sitting down together. As one of the few transpartisan, mass media events left to our tribal culture, the biggest TV night of the year can’t help but channel the political tensions most of us... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, January 09, 2019 Not One Network Should Have Aired Trump’s Immigration Speech Way back in 2014 — a century ago, it feels like — President Barack Obama requested time on major networks for an Oval Office address on immigration reform. Fearing the subject was too “political,” the broadcast networks declined, plying viewers instead with The Big Bang Theory and Bones. Few... Read more |
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Views Friday, December 21, 2018 Paul Ryan Was a Villain And No One Will Miss Him Each New Year’s, my wife and I indulge one of our favorite traditions: the household purge. We scour our closets for stuff that’s just taking up space, quietly draining our home’s energy, and move it along. I can’t recommend it enough. This year, America’s doing the same thing — and putting House... Read more |
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Views Thursday, December 06, 2018 It’s Good to Argue About Dead Presidents Our death rituals for public figures are evolving. For a moment, obituaries favored the late President George H. W. Bush with the banal pleasantries usually afforded to deceased presidents. Well-wishers from both sides of the aisle hailed Bush’s patriotism, service, decency, and other traits we... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, November 07, 2018 Midterm Takeaway: We Need a Lot More Democracy I can’t be the only one who spent the night of the midterms tossing and turning. Though I managed to shut off the coverage and try to sleep, spasms of anxiety woke me repeatedly throughout the dreary hours. Ultimately, Republicans picked off several red-state Senate seats while Democrats won back... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, September 12, 2018 Nobody in the White House is Part of ‘The Resistance’ This week, the White House continues its furious hunt for the anonymous official who proclaimed themselves part of “The Resistance” in a New York Times op-ed . Unsurprisingly, the president is “obsessed” with it, CNN reports . What really set Trump off — perhaps understandably — was the suggestion... Read more |
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Views Tuesday, August 28, 2018 The Iraq War Should Be a Much Bigger Part of McCain’s Legacy Than His ‘Civility’ In the last days of his life, an old video of John McCain surfaced on the internet. It’s 2008. He’s running for president and fielding questions from voters in Minnesota. A middle-aged woman takes the microphone. “I can’t trust Obama,” she complains of McCain’s Democratic opponent. “He’s an Arab.”... Read more |
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Views Friday, August 17, 2018 Trump Snubbed McCain. The Media Snubbed the Rest of Us. On an otherwise sleepy August day, President Trump signed the John McCain National Defense Authorization Act. Named for the dying Arizona senator who’s championed military budgets for his entire career, the bill increases U.S. military spending to an astonishing $717 billion. According to my... Read more |
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Views Thursday, June 28, 2018 The Supreme Court Is a Slurring, Undemocratic Mess The Supreme Court is a real piece of work. Over the last few days it’s been popping off far-right proclamations like a drunk uncle at Thanksgiving. Except this uncle gets to make the rules in your house, and he can stay there until he dies. Over about 48 hours, the nation’s highest court gutted the... Read more |