Issue 40: Letters + Internet Speaks
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19582 Articles by: Tanner Howard
Tanner Howard is a freelance journalist and In These Times editorial intern. They’re also a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.
A Left That Matters
Our still small but growing socialist movement now has a chance to make a real impact.
Where Boomers Party Till They Drop — Dead
Welcome to The Villages, where not even the coronavirus can keep retirees from their steady diet of sex, drugs, rock ‘n’ roll, and Donald Trump.
The 2020 Presidential Election and Working-Class Voters
Our findings suggest that the 2020 presidential election represented a continued shift in the base of the Democratic Party from one rooted in working-class voters to a coalition that’s highly concentrated in high-income suburbs.
Trump’s Surprising Working-Class Success
In November, the Right continued to lose wealthy suburbs but made inroads in working-class counties.
Bob Dylan’s American Apocalypse
Dylan’s latest album, Rough and Rowdy Ways, is a fitting capstone for our end times.
The Biden Doctrine
As president, Donald Trump launched broadsides against the liberal international order. Will Joe Biden be able to put America “back at the head of the table” once in office?
When Biden Met Hillarycare
Records from the Clinton presidential archive give a revealing — and unflattering — look at the triangulating politics of Senator Joe Biden.
How the Right Won a Postwar Counterrevolution in Economics
The Great Depression thoroughly discredited laissez-faire economics. But over the postwar decades, with the help of generous business funding and political connections, figures like Milton Friedman led a remarkable revival of nineteenth-century economic ideas. They did it by adopting a pseudo-populist rhetoric that celebrated individual choice and autonomy.
Further Means Testing of the Stimulus Will Be Disastrous for Suffering Americans
If Democrats subject the next round of survival checks to more means testing, Americans battered by the economic crisis will find it even more difficult to make ends meet.
You Have to Watch Chadwick Boseman in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Chadwick Boseman’s final performance in playwright August Wilson’s new Netflix adaptation of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is a haunting but appropriate farewell.
Anti-Asian Racism Is on the Rise in Australia — and It’s Coming From the Top Down
This past year saw a wave of anti-Asian racism, egged on by a club of conservative “anti-anti-racist” commentators who brand opponents of bigotry as stooges for the Chinese Communist Party. It’s long past time to challenge their sly dog whistles and disingenuous smears.
New Polling Shows That Millions of Americans Really Hate Wall Street
The GameStop saga was more than a simple tale of upstart traders taking on big business. But it highlighted again how disconnected Wall Street is from ordinary workers — and new polling finds that even more Americans now resent Wall Street.
To Defeat the Radical Right, End American Empire
The American military has long been fertile ground for the far right. To weaken the radical right’s power, we need to dismantle the warfare state — and build in its place a humane welfare state that provides for all.
Keeping George Orwell on the Left
The term “Orwellian” has long been a vacuous cliché, and now even allies of Trump are making use of it to deride their opponents. But George Orwell, a self-described democratic socialist, always belonged on the Left.
The Left Can Take Back Power in Ecuador
From 2007 to 2017, Ecuador was a beacon of hope on the Latin American left, but the last four years have seen a neoliberal regime imposing IMF-driven austerity. The front-runner in polls for today’s presidential election, left-winger Andrés Arauz, told Jacobin how he’ll continue the Citizen Revolution — and build on his ally Rafael Correa’s legacy.
Canada’s Largest Meatpacking Facility Is on Trial for Endangering Its Workers During the Pandemic
Cargill runs Canada’s biggest meatpacking facility and obliged its workers to come in despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Now the company is facing a criminal investigation — the first of its kind — after the sadly predictable deaths of workers and their family members.
The Global South Needs Power and Resources, Not Empty Representation
Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is rumored to be the next president of the World Trade Organization. But placing an African woman at the top of the powerful institution will do little if it continues to push neoliberal policies that harm workers and farmers across the Global South.
On the Picket Line at Hunts Point
We should all cheer on strikes like the recently ended Hunts Point Teamsters walk off in the Bronx. But there’s no substitute for socialists actually showing up on the picket lines to provide tangible material support and engage with striking workers.
Why Cable News Hates Medicare for All
From last year’s Democratic primaries to this year’s Biden agenda, TV news coverage of the health care debate is outrageously skewed against single-payer reform. To understand why, we need look no further than their business model.