The DNC is the four-yearly apotheosis of the Democratic Party's love of progressive symbolism and empty rhetoric in place of real political vision. This year, it's not even committing to that.
In both his campaigns, Trump has run ads aimed at killing black voters’ enthusiasm for the Democratic nominee and lowering their turnout. The strategy is craven, but the ads exploit real disillusionment. Without a sharp break from their history of failing black constituents, Democrats will remain vulnerable to such opportunistic gambits in the future.
On October 28, Rio de Janeiro’s police besieged the Penha favela for 15 hours, killing at least 121 people in the city’s worst massacre. Brazil’s right is hailing it as an anti-crime victory while overlooking their own links to violent gangs.
Andrew Cuomo has appointed himself as the savior of New York City in the race for mayor. But many of the city’s problems are the direct result of his decade of underfunding our critical services, and he’s far from a corruption-free candidate himself.
After his post–Citizen Kane slump, Orson Welles teamed up with Universal for a big Hollywood comeback about corrupt police on the US-Mexico border. The executives balked at his vision — but today Touch of Evil is regarded as Welles’s final masterpiece.
I worry that the racial discourse on COVID-19 could help pave the way for a eugenics-state that will ultimately do damage to poor black and brown people.
Julian Assange’s prosecution is being used as a test case to unravel First Amendment protections that the press has long taken for granted. Yet some important left-wing elected officials aren’t fighting back.
In response to radical demands to defund and disband the police, liberal reformers are pushing the “Camden model.” Don’t fall for it. Camden relies on mass surveillance to pacify its population — all to benefit business interests.
When Lula and the Workers’ Party took power in Brazil, they had a plan to take on crime and the power of the police. Their failure helped undermine their entire program.
Many Democrats continue to believe that the racism of average Americans — many of whom voted for Barack Obama twice — explains why Donald Trump won. This moralism suits party elites who would rather demonize the public than address growing inequality.
In a society ravaged by crime, radical "law-and-order" forces end up being at the root of the problem.
Kamala Harris appears likely to be the Democratic presidential nominee. A look back at her political career reveals a politician who matched every progressive achievement with a conservative one.
Mass protests across the country have beat back police repression and won public support for scaling back police power. The Democrats who built the overpolicing and mass incarceration regime now feel left out and want to channel that energy back into familiar territory: getting them reelected.
Mauricio Macri claims that expanding the Argentine military's power will fight drug trafficking. But it's more likely to repress social movements and threaten democratic rights.
Movies about class and inequality are back in the mainstream. Ramin Bahrani’s The White Tiger is a powerful interrogation of the injustices of class and caste society.
How did we end up with millions behind bars and police armed like soldiers?
The Mexican journalist turned novelist Fernanda Melchor’s This Is Not Miami looks unsentimentally at crime and violence. Unable to address its structural causes, Melchor’s characters create mythical explanations of human cruelty.
The Kennedys, the Mob, and the FBI — the Rat Pack’s legendary 1962 residency at the Villa Venice brought the secret power structure of postwar America under one roof.
Behind the heartwarming photo ops, USAID's projects in El Salvador are stealthily advancing the interests of the Salvadoran corporate class.
The investigation into the murder of Marielle Franco keeps bumping up against the most powerful people in Brazil — like President Jair Bolsonaro. They don’t want us to find out the truth.