Failure Is an Option
Haunted by the specter of democracy, the Constitution’s framers blundered into a historic miscalculation. We’re still living with the consequences.
19079 Articles by: Zola Carr
Zola Carr is a doctoral candidate at Columbia University, working on a dissertation on the development of experimental brain implants for psychiatric disorder.
Down and Out in Pittsburgh and Las Vegas
A slice of life from a country in crisis.
The General Who Brought Down the American Empire
In 2002, the Pentagon staged a $250 million war game known as the “Millennium Challenge.” It was supposed to be a fixed fight — until a retired Marine lieutenant general, playing the role of a Middle Eastern country, brought the US military to its knees.
Message in a Bottle
In the United States of 2020, millions are desperate for help, and they’re forced to compete for scraps from Twitter philanthropists.
Where’s Our Gorbachev?
The United States today isn’t on the verge of a Soviet-style disintegration — but neither is there any force at the top willing and able to reform our political system.
The New American Exceptionalism
Effective states can enforce discipline on elites. The United States is not one of them.
Blue Order
In an increasingly unstable country, what if a “deep police state” threatens to undermine our electoral gains?
How Abraham Lincoln Fought the Supreme Court
It is not enough to question the decisions, the justices, or even the structure of the current court — we need to challenge, as Abraham Lincoln did, the foundation of its power to determine the law.
Socialists Should Be Republicans
The first generation of the GOP tried — and failed — to build a modern republic. Socialists today won’t get very far unless we finish their work.
Celebrating Ten Years of Jacobin
And our decades to come.
America’s Railroad to Nowhere
We know the US rail network is no match for trains in France or Japan. But Barack Obama’s plan for high-speed rail couldn’t even match that of Morocco or Uzbekistan.
Ending Federalism as We Know It
A new book shows how the fragmented American state arrests democracy. What we need is nothing short of a reconstruction.
A Very British Dystopia
A Very British Coup embraced the intrigues of class war, but its sequel falls prey to the mundanities of culture war.
Mapping the Decline
How the neoliberal project’s very own fifty-state strategy left poverty and low wages in its wake.
On Being a Mother in America
Within ten days of giving birth, a quarter of us are forced to return to work. If liberals truly want to support parents’ choices, they need to back the subsidies and employment legislation that are vital to child-rearing.
Your Quarterly Horoscope
Real left strategy isn’t found in socialist magazines. It’s found in the stars.
America the Laggard
By virtually any measure, people in the United States are worse off than those in other rich countries. There’s no disputing the impact of our weak entitlements and paltry labor protections.
The Great Divergence
It used to be better to be a low-wage worker in the United States than in France. That hasn’t been the case for a long while.
Don’t Blame Polarization
A discussion on American partisanship, political dysfunction, and why it’s not our passions that are the problem — it’s the Constitution itself.
It’s Going to Take More Than Antitrust Law to Rein in Big Tech
The federal government’s landmark lawsuit against Google has been hailed as a bold step to rein in Big Tech. But we’ll need much more than US antitrust law to match the economic power of a global juggernaut like Google.