The events of Charlottesville have me thinking about my role as an historian and teacher. This was reinforced by these comments by James Alex Fields Jr.’s high school history teacher. I don’t think any one teacher can be responsible for the ideas of a single student. But perhaps if I teach more broadly I can… Continue Reading
An old division is rearing it’s head again in the Democratic Party. It’s gone public in the disruption of Bernie Sanders’s speeches by #blacklivesmatter protesters, first at Netroots Nation in July and then again in Seattle on Saturday (see here). For those who consider themselves left, liberal, or sympathetic to these movements in general, such disruptions can… Continue Reading
In honor the 4th of July weekend, I’m sharing this post I wrote last year at this time: I recently had the opportunity to sing “American the Beautiful.” The lines that most hit me are in the third verse: Oh, beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife, Who more than self their country loved, And… Continue Reading
For me, blog posts like this are only interesting if I make a solid prediction, backed by the evidence I see, that can then be verified in the future to show whether I’m brilliant and insightful or ignorant and contemptible. Here’s today’s prediction: there is essentially no way that Jeb Bush can become president of… Continue Reading
Two pieces, one by David Brooks and one by Ta-Nehisi Coates, have been bouncing off one another in my head. Taken together, they suggest a two-prong path forward on police reform. In “The Lost Language of Privacy,” Brooks makes the argument for what we’ll sacrifice with police body-cams. I think he’s right, that we’ll be sacrificing… Continue Reading
Suppose you think everyone should have access to higher education in this country. How would you do it? Lately, student debt forgiveness has become the default approach of reformers. It was the means for President Obama’s proposal for free community college (really debt forgiveness for graduates) and it was the foundation of Gov. Cuomo’s suggestion of free state school tuition for… Continue Reading
What would my new Voting Rights Amendment* mean for the nation? Automatic registration, state-issued IDs, felon voting, consolidated elections, a national voting holiday (and state versions), and higher turnout. Those are all positive outcomes. As a reminder, my basic premise is this: All citizens should get to choose their government, not the other way around.… Continue Reading
“If the officer had been wearing a body cam than Scott would still be alive today.” Those were the closing words of Mark O’Mara, George Zimmerman’s attorney, during a panel on CNN two days ago. Like with so many pieces on news programs today the setup seemed intent on getting a fight rather than a… Continue Reading
If you want to know what political panic looks like, check out the fight for religious freedom. Let’s trace the steps: 1) Not long ago (2008, for instance), religious conservatives were taking a no compromise approach to same-sex marriage, declaring that theirs was a principled stance and that the future of the nation hung in… Continue Reading
The historic pattern for one seeking to become the president of the United States has been to run your primary election campaign away from the political center, towards the activist base of your party. You then swing back towards the center, once you’ve secured your party’s nomination, so you can catch the necessary chunk of… Continue Reading
When a pundit wants to highlight a candidate’s nuttiness or “extremism,” the go-to comparison is Barry Goldwater. Now Goldwater’s failed 1964 campaign is the analogy du jour for Ted Cruz. But such comparisons get Goldwater terribly wrong. Goldwater’s positions were radically for his day. He was a dyed-in-the-wool, no-holds-barred, small government, Cold War hawk who was ideologically… Continue Reading
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