7 Oct, 2021
The Thread of Truth
In my college days I was a conservative republican. I voted for Barry Goldwater, and Ronald Reagan. But I gave up on the party during the presidential election of 2008...
4 Oct, 2021
Improve democracy: Close the college
Conventional wisdom tells schoolchildren that the US was the first modern democracy, modeled to some degree after the Greek experiment from a couple thousand years ago...
28 Sep, 2021
Donald J. Trump: Traitor
The Coup Attempt
“There is an unfolding assault taking place in America today,” President Biden said in Philadelphia on July 13. “An attempt to suppress and subvert the right to vote in fair and free elections, an assault on democracy, an assault on liberty, an assault on who we are — who we are as Americans.”...
13 Sep, 2021
Modern Liberalism Born
alues that later grew into liberalism began stirring in the epoch now known as The Enlightenment, starting more than three centuries ago, chiefly in England and France...
1 Aug, 2021
Influence peddling, a threat to both democracy and a humane foreign policy
Modern-day democracy has numerous weaknesses, as we’ve been made well aware: policy differences that cannot be resolved, corruption, manipulation of voting and elections, and the refusal...
29 Jul, 2021
Democracy: Enemy of the powerful
Perhaps the best possible thing we could acknowledge being is a “divided nation.” Failing to do so justifies — or at least avoids noticing — all manner of violent cruelty and repression in the name of so-called democracy, from the jailing of whistleblowers who reveal U.S. war crimes and global criminality, to the lynching of men and women of color . . . to the waging of endless war.
4 Feb, 2021
United We Fail
United We Fail by Mel Gurtov 613 words Published in: Minnesota Spokesman Recorder, LA Progressive, Mel Gurtov Blog, Counterpunch, The...
4 Jan, 2021
The Gang Leader Speaks
Donald Trump’s telephone conversation with Georgia’s secretary of state will go down in history as...
27 Nov, 2020
Restoring Democracy, Strengthening the Right to Vote
As Americans look forward to a new era without Donald Trump, one thing stands out:...
22 Oct, 2020
The anti-racist revolution
The nation has less than two weeks left to live in its comfort zone of platitudes. This is by far the most ominous election buildup of my...
19 Oct, 2020
Trumpism Has Brought Democracy to Its Knees
In what we can only hope is its terminal phase, the Trump administration is doing everything it can to make a mockery of American democracy.
10 Sep, 2020
Standing Up to Trump . . . and Biden
“When I ponder the likelihood of looming electoral chaos — uncounted votes, a defeated president who won’t leave office…” Robert...
6 Aug, 2020
Counter-coup
“Gene Sharp called it a self-coup. Sharp was arguably the most influential theorist in the field of nonviolent social movement...
6 Aug, 2020
Election theft and the reluctant democracy
“As election 2020 draws ever closer, the flawed, easily gamed nature of the American quasi-democracy becomes increasingly visible, thanks, of...
5 Feb, 2020
Voting with food and water
“A bad app in Iowa throws everything into a tizzy. Who won? Come on, the horse race has begun. Let’s...