Tom Gallagher

Tom Gallagher

Tom Gallagher is a former Massachusetts State Representative and the author of 'The Primary Route: How the 99% Take On the Military Industrial Complex.' He lives in San Francisco. He can be reached at TGTGTGTGTG@aol.com.

Articles by this author

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, speaks to supporters at an Immigration Town Hall in San Ysidro, California on December 20, 2019. (Photo: Sandy Huffaker/AFP via Getty Images) Views
Thursday, March 26, 2020
Bernie Sanders in the Age of Coronavirus: We Need Him Now More Than Ever
Bernie Sanders threw his hat in the 2016 Democratic presidential ring in order to wage a campaign highlighting the need for a universal national health insurance system and, more broadly, a government run in the interest of the common person, rather than the melange of billionaires, mega-...
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If successful, Biden would be the third Senator who voted for George Bush's Iraq War to win the Democratic presidential nomination, following the unsuccessful candidacies of John Kerry and Hillary Clinton. (Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images) Views
Friday, March 20, 2020
Foreign Policy—the Primary Debate’s Final Frontier
I went out for a beer the other night with a guy who was critical of Bernie Sanders for, among other reasons, his involvement with the Democratic Party. Understanding that I, like Sanders, was prepared to - reluctantly and with great reservation - support Biden should he win the nomination, he...
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"I like Sanders myself, but (other) people just won’t vote for a socialist." (Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images) Views
Tuesday, March 10, 2020
Boomer, Hold Thy Tongue
Fellow baby boomers - would it be too much to ask you to stop hurting the chances of the presidential candidate you say you agree with? The candidate I’m talking about is, of course, Bernie Sanders. And the particular boomers I speak of are the ones who opposed the Iraq War, who want to reverse the...
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Krugman is correct enough in saying that the Sanders point of view often goes by the name social democratic. (Photo: Sally Prevost/flickr/cc) Views
Wednesday, February 19, 2020
Paul Krugman on This Bernie Sanders and Socialism Thing
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman believes “Bernie Sanders isn’t actually a socialist in any normal sense of the term,” ( Bernie Sanders Isn’t a Socialist ) and frets that “his misleading self-description will be a gift to the Trump campaign,” should Sanders win the Democratic presidential...
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Anti-war demonstrators protest against the announcement of a US troop increase for Afghanistan, at a rally outside the Federal Building in Los Angeles on December 2, 2009. (Photo: MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images) Views
Tuesday, October 22, 2019
A Modest Goal: #usoutofafghanistan
Run for office and you know you're going to have to do some things you'd rather not. High on my list of things I'd rather not has been Twitter, the 280 character pop-off being an art form I'd just as soon leave to Donald Trump. But, as we know, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez does make some pretty good...
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Absent all the hardware bearing Made in America stickers sitting in Turkish military bases, we would probably not be fretting about what Turkey’s government was doing to the Syrian Democratic Forces. (Photo: Delil Souleiman/AFP/Getty Images) Views
Friday, October 11, 2019
Turkey, the Kurds, and Lots and Lots of US Weapons
Turkey, a U.S. ally in Syria, attacks another U.S. ally in Syria, the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-led group of militias whose very existence is anathema to the Turkish government—and the Trump Administration does nothing to prevent it. Trump’s indifference is appropriately denounced by the...
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A Honduran immigrant entertains a fellow immigrant's child in front a map of Mexico showing train routes leading north at a shelter for undocumented Central American immigrants on September 14, 2014 in Tenosique, Mexico. The shelter, called La 72, is run by Fransiscan friars and is the first stop for thousands of Central American immigrants crossing north through Mexico to reach the United States. Many risk riding atop "La Bestia" or The Beast, a freight train which passes through Tenosique in Mexico's sou Views
Tuesday, July 23, 2019
The US Needs a Marshall Plan for Central America
Imagine we’re no longer battling Trump Administration abuse of asylum-seekers on our southern border and we have a chance to “do the right thing.” What would we do? How about a Marshall Plan for Central America? The original Marshall Plan (named for U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall) spent...
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Far from the first time that the Committee—the Democratic Party’s official voice in San Francisco—has been at odds with Pelosi. (Photo: Zach Gibson/Getty Images) Views
Tuesday, March 12, 2019
San Francisco Democrats Adopt Venezuela Stance Diametrically Opposed to Pelosi’s
At its most recent monthly meeting, San Francisco’s Democratic County Central Committee adopted a resolution on Venezuela diametrically opposed to the stance taken by the city’s top Democrat, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who represents the lion’s share of the city’s voters. The resolution...
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Ever since Pelosi entered the congressional leadership of her party, the nature of the representation she offers has been an ambiguous thing. (Photo: Zach Gibson/Getty Images) Views
Friday, December 21, 2018
Nancy Pelosi Represents House Democrats, but San Francisco? Not So Much
Who does Nancy Pelosi represent? The Democratic members of the House of Representatives or the people of San Francisco? New York Congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently voiced the opinion that Pelosi appeared to be the most progressive choice available to lead House Democrats in the...
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Willie Brown's attack on democratic socialists was prompted by the race for State Assembly in California's District 15, which includes Richmond, Berkeley, Piedmont and parts of Oakland where Jovanka Beckles, endorsed by Our Revolution and the Democratic Socialists of America, is running against Buffy Wicks, a Barack Obama-type Democrat. (Photo: @JovankaBeckles) Views
Wednesday, October 24, 2018
Sorry Willie Brown, the Democratic Socialists Aren’t Leaving "Your" Party
In the October 20 “Willie’s World,” Willie Brown’s often surprisingly informative and entertaining San Francisco Chronicle column, the former San Francisco mayor and California Assembly speaker tells us that, “Democratic socialists are not Democrats. They run under the Democratic banner, but they...
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