McCarthyism in the Ivory Tower
Whether the target was communists in the 1950s or pro-Palestine activists today, university administrators have always worked to keep academia in line.
163 Articles by: Corey Robin
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Corey Robin is the author of The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Donald Trump and a contributing editor at Jacobin.
Non-Jews Banning Jewish Texts to Protect Jews
Hunter College’s announced hiring for a Palestinian studies professor led New York governor Kathy Hochul to order the listing’s removal for “hateful rhetoric” like “settler colonialism.” By that logic, Zionist Jewish texts themselves would be banned.
Marx on Trump’s Abuses of Power
Karl Marx saw how presidential systems with strong executives threatened to eclipse the democratic power of the legislature.
Trump and the Very American Personnel Question
In his attempts to reshape the federal workforce, Donald Trump is drawing on the American tradition of treating workers’ employment as completely subject to their bosses’ whims.
Is Donald Trump a William McKinley or an Andrew Jackson?
The Trump presidency is not a pathology of mass politics. It’s a problem of our billionaire political economy.
President Trump Will Not Be as Powerful as He Seems
Donald Trump was a spectacularly weak president during his first term. All signs point to him being spectacularly weak during his second.
Political Repression Isn’t What It Used to Be
Despite the efforts of Donald Trump and the Right to bend the state in a more repressive, less free direction, society seems more and more resistant to these efforts.
Farewell to a Working-Class Hero
Pat Carta was part of a generation of workers and organizers whose immense knowledge about overcoming fear to build class consciousness and worker power will never be found in a book.
Yes, They’re Weird
Appeals to vote against Trump rooted in a fear of authoritarian apocalypse puff up Republicans’ sense of their own power. Just call them what they are: deeply weird people.
Scenes From a New York City Student Walkout for Palestine
Today’s young American student protesters see the destruction of heritage, the obliteration of knowledge, and the assault on institutions of learning in Gaza as connected to assaults on their own education.
Five Essential Texts on Democracy
We asked a leading political theorist for help understanding the meaning of democracy and the elite reaction to it.
Corey Robin: What Trump’s Impeachment Could Mean
Impeachment could, in theory, turn Donald Trump into an even bigger symbol of a rotten political and social order. It could help bury the Reagan order once and for all. But establishment Democrats would never be interested in the type of impeachment that fundamentally challenged the status quo.
When Politics Becomes Professional
All successful movements need leaders, elected officials, and, yes, even bureaucrats. The key is to remember the radical roots of those bureaucracies and leaderships — so they can sustain instead of squelch socialist politics.
The Mueller Report Won’t Bring Down Trump
After months of frenzied speculation and breathless commentary, Robert Mueller has turned in his report. But the political landscape some said it would upend is basically unchanged.
Trump Is About to Declare a State of Emergency. What Does It Mean?
Trump’s pending declaration of a state of emergency isn’t a show of power — it’s a show of desperation.
The Future of the Supreme Court in the Liberal Imagination
With the Right firmly in control of the Supreme Court, elite liberals’ veneration of the undemocratic body might finally be coming to an end.
The Scandal of Democracy: Seven Theses
It’s not just the Supreme Court — we have to take on the undemocratic scandal of the Court, the Senate, and the Electoral College. Only the Left can do it, because Democrats won’t.
Living and Struggling In Moscow
Set in contemporary Russia, Keith Gessen’s new novel captures the cost of modern life.
The Day Zach Galifianakis Saved Obamacare
Liberalism, they said back in the 1930s, was freedom plus groceries. In the Obama era, it was faulty websites plus hip celebrities.
Democracy and the Socialist Revival
At a time when Democrats and Republicans flout even basic democratic standards, it’s socialists who have become democracy’s greatest champions.