September 2022
American Unjust Justice Problems (1 of 2)
One of the most important elements of fair government, supported by the majority of the governed, is justice. This is so basic that even small children protest when decisions or actions are "not fair." Revolutions often begin because of some very unfair action of governments: for example, when a policeman slapped a street vendor in Tunisia and arbitrarily seized his vegetable stand.
The vendor set himself on fire. The Tunisians had finally had enough of unfair police, corrupt off more...
The vendor set himself on fire. The Tunisians had finally had enough of unfair police, corrupt off more...
The January 6 Congressional Hearings
Often, Congressional bipartisan hearings are painful to watch. Such hearings used to be much less poisonously contentious, such as the famous hearings about President Nixon?s attempt to abuse his authority to guarantee his reelection. Nixon?s own party finally stopped trying to defend him and followed the evidence: Nixon was a criminal.
The Republicans subjected Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to 11 hours of questioning and insults about the terror attack in Benghazi, which pro more...
The Republicans subjected Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to 11 hours of questioning and insults about the terror attack in Benghazi, which pro more...
Critical Race Theory Conspiracy
The Republican "Base," the followers of Donald Trump, are scornful of "elites," by which they mean educated. Elites once included the rich and powerful, but these categories don?t bother the true believers as much as the "intellectuals."
Critical Race Theory (CRT) is the product of scholar-advocates in the 1970s and 1980s at university level, who were interested in exploring how law and other forms of public policy could secure and protect civil rights, yet simultaneously more...
Replacement Theory Conspiracy
The Republican Party has adopted an old chestnut, the fear that demographers have been predicting that the "White Race" will soon lose its status as the majority, and will be replaced by people of color. Yes, "white" people, both in the US and in Europe, are having declining birth rates. Even the most fertile non-white people are beginning to have the same decline in fertility. The decline in birthrates everywhere should be applauded! This means that women are having more autonomy over t more...
Saving America?s Democracy (1 of 2)
Last week, we reviewed America?s dismal performance on the world list of democracies. We do not have a national process for elections, leaving that to the states. Pluralism is certainly missing in our elections now, with one political party in meltdown (Republicans).
Civil liberties are under attack in a number of states. When Florida can punish a private company (Disney) for not supporting Florida?s attack on women, gays, and transgender children, civil liberties are in more...
December 2021
Justice for All? (1 of 2)
Human beings seem programmed to want fairness: justice. We want to know that our leaders are protecting us from those who are violent or taking our property. Most of us want a just world, one that we can count on to keep us safe or remedy abuse.
The system of justice that we have in the United States is largely the replica of the British system. We have judges, juries "of our peers," and prisons that enforce sentences. We also have two opposing lawyers or teams, one defend more...
Build Back Better Part 2
There is a division of opinion on what constitutes "infrastructure." The common definition has to do with the brick and mortar elements that make society possible: roads, bridges, transportation, water systems, and energy. There is no doubt that poor infrastructure of this sort makes for unhappy citizens. Potholes are a nuisance and can harm vehicles. But lead in water from rusting pipes can damage the health and brains of everybody. Neglected railroads can cause massive accidents and death toll more...
Good Character and the Constitution
Until the former presidency of Donald Trump, we made a number of assumptions about the American system: its protections, its norms of political behavior, and its historic evolution to more and more inclusions. We generally trusted in our legal system, particularly the Supreme Court, to protect our Democracy.
We did not pay much attention to how much damage could be done by an individual with a bad character who could corrupt a cadre of fellow bad characters to support him. more...
One Hand Clapping?
We have had few times in our history that one party was so dominant that it governed almost unimpeded. The Republicans after the end of the Civil War had an almost unchallenged role until Woodrow Wilson in 1914. And the Democrats during the Depression and throughout World War II dominated, even granting a president four reelections.
However, we have never had a time in which there was refusal of the minority party to engage in bipartisan legislation. The current Republican party, more...
However, we have never had a time in which there was refusal of the minority party to engage in bipartisan legislation. The current Republican party, more...
Panic in Party?s Demise
We have a model of a party?s death throes in history, when during the 1850s, the Whig Party floundered to find its footing. Whatever issues had been important to the Whigs from its inception: limited government, fiscal responsibility, and aristocratic values (John Quincy Adams was the last of such), by 1850, slavery divided the party and the desperation was visible.
One of the worst decisions made by the Whig-dominated Supreme Court was to sustain the Fugitive Slave act: that any more...
One of the worst decisions made by the Whig-dominated Supreme Court was to sustain the Fugitive Slave act: that any more...
August 2021
Intelligence Divide
A number of times during my many years of writing columns, I have noticed the great gulf in human intelligence. It does not seem genetic, but it does seem cultural. Culture is formed by conscious decisions among groups of people and is subject to change as people have new experiences.
Watching Richard Branson last month, floating in the weightlessness of space on his own spacecraft reminded me of all the intelligence required to perform such a feat. This 70-year-old billi more...
Threats to Democracy
Historians of democracy are becoming alarmed at the possibility of the United States, the oldest continuous participatory government in the world, may be on the verge of losing this system.
We have had close calls in the past. The Civil War threatened to cut this nation in two, but the election of Abraham Lincoln saved us. Even during that dreadful conflict, we held an election in the Union north and Lincoln was reelected to his second term.
The slave-owning Southe more...
We have had close calls in the past. The Civil War threatened to cut this nation in two, but the election of Abraham Lincoln saved us. Even during that dreadful conflict, we held an election in the Union north and Lincoln was reelected to his second term.
The slave-owning Southe more...
American History Culture Wars
The Russians have long been the masters of propaganda, the infiltration of conspiracy theories and big lies in the hope of sowing dissention in democracies. They have used these methods to keep their own populations from critical thinking that might result in revolt or (in a make-believe democracy) vote them out of power.
Their efforts go back to the late 19th century, when they manufactured a notorious lie, "the Protocols of the Elders of Zion," that pretended to be a sec more...
Census Analysis (1 of 2)
A census is the procedure of systematically enumerating, and acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. From the beginning of civilization (towns and cities), governments have needed periodic counts of how many people lived under their rule. They needed these figures to know how many people they could feed and water, how many they could tax, and how many able-bodied men they had to dig irrigation channels and to defend the community when under attack.
more...
Violence Against Women (1 of 2)
One of the greatest historic mysteries to me is the global tradition of violence against women. Why would a man, who had a mother who cared for him, and later a wife and daughters who depended on him to love and protect them, hate women? Why do so many around the world beat and even kill their wives and sometimes their daughters?
This ancient practice has become socially unacceptable in every educated modern society today, supported by laws that protect women from the sti more...
Dumbing Down of America
It is obvious that America has been "dumbed down." When one quarter of us do not have the smarts to believe the reliable information sources trusted by the other three-quarters of us, we are in trouble. Are they too dumb to wonder why the Conspiracy Networks (Fox and QAnon) told them that former President Trump would be inaugurated on March 4, followed by executions of all the "traitors" who did not support him?
All election officials and all law courts (including the more...
Close Call for Democracy
Our democracy had a close call when an organized coup attempt to nullify an election failed. Several historians warned us that a failed coup, with no consequences, is just a dress rehearsal.
We were all horrified by what we saw, with the exception of certain Fox commentators who declared the storming of Congress a "false flag" operation that was really done by Antifa. If it had been Antifa, the anti-fascist largely Black Lives Matter movement, why were there so few Black more...
The Fate of the Republican Party
We are historically a two-party republic, a system that works in a country that is essentially centrist, electing representatives and presidents not far from moderately conservative or moderately liberal. We have found that this arrangement works for us most of the time, and has made us a more stable republic than many with a multi-party Parliamentary system.
However, we have undergone terrible periods in our history when the two major parties had irreconcilable differences. Both more...
However, we have undergone terrible periods in our history when the two major parties had irreconcilable differences. Both more...
Donald Trump?s Legacy
Toward the end of each president?s term of office, he and historians begin to think of a presidential legacy. Presidents leave the White House with portraits of themselves and their spouses, a record of accomplishment, and the accumulation of papers and documents to endow to that president?s library.
None of this accompanies the departure of Donald J. Trump. He leaves in disgrace, increasingly isolated, and with most of the weapons at his disposal revoked: his megaphone of more...
Can Biden Produce another "New Deal?"
Our country is designed to move slowly, a protection that our Founders envisioned to protect us from dictatorship or anarchy. Moving with deliberate care, however, is not the same as gridlock in which emergencies go untreated.
It took almost a century for the blight on our republic, slavery, to become so dire that it threatened to destroy us one country. A devastating civil war and the presidency of a remarkable leader, Abraham Lincoln, saved us and ended chattel slavery. more...
Trump?s Dim Future
We have just witnessed a failed attempt at a coup to overturn a legal and peaceful election. Egged on by President Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and Donald Trump Jr., a ragtag mob of thugs was directed to assault the Capitol building, to disrupt the acceptance of electoral college ballots that would formally acknowledge Joe Biden as president. Trump returned to the White House to relish the chaos he had unleashed, watching it on television.
The mob had been fed lies for many mont more...
Trump?s Dim Future
We have just witnessed a failed attempt at a coup to overturn a legal and peaceful election. Egged on by President Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and Donald Trump Jr., a ragtag mob of thugs was directed to assault the Capitol building, to disrupt the acceptance of electoral college ballots that would formally acknowledge Joe Biden as president. Trump returned to the White House to relish the chaos he had unleashed, watching it on television.
The mob had been fed lies for many mont more...
November 2020
A Country Almost Divided
With Joe Biden winning the election with a popular vote surplus of at least 4.5 million people and a decisive Electoral College win, I, along with millions of my fellow citizens, gave a huge sigh of relief. When I heard that even France rang bells of celebration at the news that America had rejoined the world, I wept. Four years of daily assaults on every American institution, including disregard for truth, had taken a toll on the many of us who watched Trump?s media circuses.
September 2020
Trashing Institutions
We would all do well to read Bret Stevens? wise column in the NYT: "Why Edmund Burke Still Matters." (August 5, 2020)
Edmund Burk was an 18th-century philosopher-stateman, a member of the British Parliament during two earth-shaking events: the French Revolution and the American Revolution. He annoyed most of his colleagues because he refused to be nailed down to a fixed political position. He was what one would call today "The Loyal Opposition," a person in opposition to more...
Trashing Institutions
We would all do well to read Bret Stevens? wise column in the NYT: "Why Edmund Burke Still Matters." (August 5, 2020)
Edmund Burk was an 18th-century philosopher-stateman, a member of the British Parliament during two earth-shaking events: the French Revolution and the American Revolution. He annoyed most of his colleagues because he refused to be nailed down to a fixed political position. He was what one would call today "The Loyal Opposition," a person in opposition to more...
Too Much Democracy
Our country was designed as a republic, meaning representative government, not a democracy. The few democracies in world history never survived for long. Athens, which invented the system of public voting of all eligible citizens, was soon weakened by some very foolish ventures that seemed popular at the time. Renaissance Venice suffered the same fate, as did Renaissance Poland. Too many cooks, it seems, spoil the broth.
Our founders created a limited Republic, requiring the vote more...
Our founders created a limited Republic, requiring the vote more...