Donald Trump Is a Terrible Person. But He Won’t Be Beaten on That Basis Alone.
Even Donald Trump’s supporters know he is a terrible person. To ensure his resounding defeat, Democrats need to focus on bread-and-butter economic issues.
19098 Articles by: Ryan Switzer
Ryan Switzer is a PhD candidate in sociology at Stockholm University. He researches right-wing politics in welfare states.
Public Power in a Green City
The fight for renewable energy cannot hinge simply on a shift from fossil fuels to solar and wind power. In cities like New York, the fight for democratized clean energy has begun.
The Irish Economic Model Is Built on Rotten Foundations — Now Its People Want an Alternative
Held up as a eurozone poster boy after the 2008 crash, the Irish economy still isn’t delivering for the majority of its people, especially the young. A second global recession in just over a decade will sharpen popular discontent and the desire for a new model.
Amy Coney Barrett Has Close Ties To the Fossil Fuel Industry
Amy Coney Barrett’s father helped lead the American Petroleum Institute for 20 years — the same lobbying group that is right now pushing Supreme Court justices to limit states’ power to stop fossil fuel projects.
Chileans Can’t Draw on Their Retirement Money Forever
This summer, in a COVID-19–driven economic crisis, Chile’s opposition forced the right-wing government to allow desperate citizens to draw on their privatized pension funds. But in a constitutional referendum tomorrow, Chileans may go a step further and vote to scrap these widely hated pension funds altogether.
Capitalism Can’t Give Us Meaningful Work
The failure to provide meaningful work to the vast majority of the population is a powerful indictment of our economic system — one more promise capitalism makes but can’t keep.
Bolivia Has Provided Us a Radical Vision of Hope
Bolivia’s MAS party will confront numerous challenges when returning to power. But its resounding victory against the authoritarian right and its roots as a party of social movements represent a radical vision of hope at a time when we need it most.
Rose Pastor Stokes Was More Than a Celebrity — She Was a Working-Class Hero
Early-twentieth-century American socialist Rose Pastor Stokes became a media celebrity after she married a wealthy heir. But her political life was much more interesting: she was one of the Socialist Party’s most effective speakers, inspiring the era’s striking workers with rousing orations.
What Should Bolivia Do Now With Its Coup Plotters?
The victory of Evo Morales’s Movimiento al Socialismo party in Bolivia is a triumph for democracy and a rebuke to the right-wing coup plotters. But Bolivia now faces some serious questions: How will the country engage with these recent atrocities perpetrated by the Right? And what will happen to those who committed them?
A “Red-Red-Green” Coalition in Germany: A Nice Idea, But Not Very Likely
With the announcement that Olaf Scholz will lead Germany’s SPD into the 2021 elections, chances for a revival of social democracy in the heart of Europe appear grim. But prospects for the radical-left Die Linke aren’t looking much better, either — stalling hopes of a break with Christian Democratic dominance.
New York State Is Lagging Far Behind on Its Climate Commitments
New York has a long history of setting climate goals to great fanfare — and then missing them. A new climate law makes more promises, but will Governor Andrew Cuomo deliver?
Chileans Finally Have a Chance to Scrap Pinochet’s Constitution
A year after mass protests erupted in Chile last October, a historic referendum on the Pinochet dictatorship’s 1980 constitution will take place on Sunday. Three decades after the transition to democracy, Chileans now have an opportunity to break with the legacy of violence and dispossession that the constitution has upheld.
A Decent Health Care System Was the Big Loser in Last Night’s Debate
Americans want a universal public health plan, but the idea has no champion in this presidential election. Instead, we have Donald Trump’s scorched-earth campaign against the ACA, and Joe Biden moving further and further away from even a universally available public option.
Talking About Auto Work — Or Any Work Under Capitalism — Means Talking About Constant, Brutal Violence
Auto work is typically remembered as one of the best industrial jobs a worker could get in postwar America. Less remembered, however, is how absolutely brutal and violent life on the auto factory floor was — and still is.
GOP Senators Are Trying To Pull a Bait and Switch on Preexisting Conditions
Vulnerable Republican senators say their proposed health care bill would protect people with preexisting conditions. But their legislation would actually hurt protections for such people — unsurprisingly, since those senators raked in more than $2.5 million from insurance industry donors.
Aaron Sorkin’s Chicago 7 Are Shockingly Sympathetic, but Lacking Radical Substance
The Trial of the Chicago 7 is surprisingly good for an Aaron Sorkin production. But the artistic liberties he takes with the historical facts, particularly around downplaying or leaving vague the protagonists’ radical politics, tell you a lot about Sorkin’s own blind spots.
At the Debate Last Night, Biden Finally Distanced Himself From the GOP’s Austerity Talking Points
After pushback, at the presidential debate last night, Biden thankfully dropped his deficit hawkery and made a strong statement in favor of public investment. Will he be held to his new position if he wins?
How Australia’s Rich Tried (and Failed) to Cancel Football
To drum up support for World War I, Australia’s ruling class tried to cancel the 1915–17 seasons of the Victorian Football League, labeling fans “truculent shirkers” and “hoodlums.” This did not go over well with the game’s working-class fans.
Trump Has Been Quietly Setting the Stage for an Authoritarian Second Term
Since Donald Trump’s election, hyperbolic warnings about a descent into fascism have been constant background noise, even as he has repeatedly shown his weakness. But that noise has made it harder to hear the alarming signals of the past several months, as the White House has prepared the ground for a major power grab in a second Trump term.
Neoliberal Education Reformers Have Found a New Way to Scapegoat Teachers
Liberal writers sympathetic to the corporate education reform movement are beating the drum about reopening schools, claiming to stand up for low-income students. But attacking teachers and their unions does nothing for poor and working-class students — it simply scapegoats the people who have dedicated their lives to actually helping those students.