Hunter Biden Was Pardoned Because Laws Are for Little People
It’s obscene for President Biden to withhold pardons for far more deserving people while helping his own son.
249 Articles by: Ben Burgis
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Ben Burgis is a Jacobin columnist, an adjunct philosophy professor at Rutgers University, and the host of the YouTube show and podcast Give Them An Argument. He’s the author of several books, most recently Christopher Hitchens: What He Got Right, How He Went Wrong, and Why He Still Matters.
Calling a Football Riot a Pogrom Insults Historical Memory
Israeli ultraright football hooligans rampaged through Amsterdam, and regular fans were targeted with violence in turn. The whole episode was atrocious, but calling it a pogrom is historically ignorant and trivializes genuine horrors.
The Election We Could Have Had
No law of history dictated that a right-wing billionaire would win over vast swaths of the working class in this year’s election. It simply didn’t have to be like this.
On Joe Rogan’s Show, Trump Had Nothing to Offer Young Men
Donald Trump went on The Joe Rogan Experience to connect with young men and demonstrate he has solutions to their concerns. Instead, the conversation showed the hollowness of his brand of fake populism.
There’s No Pride in a Dick Cheney Endorsement
Kamala Harris and her surrogates keep bragging about Dick Cheney’s endorsement. It’s deeply obscene: Dick Cheney is a depraved war criminal whose image should not be rehabilitated.
The Strangely Empty Politics of Kamala Harris
With Kamala Harris’s campaign struggling to extinguish the possibility of another Trump presidency, she seems willing to try everything — except for a clear political vision that folds together broad antiwar sentiment and economic populism.
One Year After 10/7, Israel’s Eye-for-an-Eye Logic Must End
One year ago, Hamas killed hundreds of Israeli civilians. Israel has since killed tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians, justifying it as righteous revenge. The only way out of the entire region spiraling into war is to slam the brakes on retribution.
At the VP Debate, Neither Candidate Spoke Up for Peace
At last night’s vice presidential debate, Tim Walz spoke eloquently and passionately on abortion rights. But on Israel, Palestine, and Iran, he might as well have been J. D. Vance.
Trump Wants to Purge the Deep State So He Can Weaponize It
How bad could a second Donald Trump term get? That depends on how serious he is about replacing the career bureaucrats who staff the security state with MAGA loyalists ready to carry out his most demented policies.
Two Demands: Free Gaza, Free Speech
College administrators have been trying to preemptively shut down the eruption of new protests against the genocide in Gaza. The movement needs to emphasize the urgent importance of protecting free speech.
This Can’t Be It
In last night’s debate, Kamala Harris rightly insisted that much of the country is exhausted by and ready to move on from Trump. But we deserve to move on to something better and more substantive than what Harris had to offer.
Shawn Fain Has Been a Light in the Darkness
UAW president Shawn Fain’s speech was the best part of the DNC. It featured a direct focus on workers otherwise absent from party rhetoric, and sidestepped the culture wars to identify the “one true enemy” of corporate power.
Let a Palestinian Speak at the DNC
The Democratic Party has refused the request of “uncommitted” delegates to let a Palestinian American speak at the DNC. Remember this moment if Kamala Harris loses Michigan this fall.
Obama’s DNC Speech Was the Same Old Technocratic Liberalism
Obama’s speech last night at the DNC showcased his rhetorical talent. But it was also a reminder of his incrementalist brand of liberalism, which failed to meaningfully address the profound issues facing the working-class majority.
AIPAC Bought Cori Bush’s Seat
Wealthy pro-Israel donors drove Congresswoman Cori Bush out of office because she thinks Palestinians’ lives matter.
J. D. Vance Got His Faux Populism From Internet Weirdos
Vance’s political rebrand as a self-styled right-populist wasn’t an organic reaction to what he saw in deindustrialized Appalachia. He was radicalized by online discourse goblins.
Bernie Sanders Should Be Kamala Harris’s Vice President
If Kamala Harris really wants to show she is ready to turn a new page in the campaign against Donald Trump, it’s obvious who her choice as running mate should be: Bernie Sanders.
Joe Biden’s Replacement Must Embrace Economic Populism
Joe Biden is out of the race, and a second Trump term would be a nightmare. To avoid it, Democrats need more than a candidate who can complete sentences. That candidate must put pro-worker policies at the heart of their campaign.
So Much for a Newly Reborn Republican Party
People keep saying that economic populism and an antiwar, anti-interventionist spirit have swept the GOP. But there wasn’t much substantive evidence of that at the RNC.
On Stochastic Terrorism and Speech as Violence
The theory of stochastic terrorism dangerously undermines free speech norms by blurring the line between speech and violence.