Understanding how an important process can undermine important legislation, and how to fix it — In the world of legislative politics, there is one term that pops up again and again: stakeholders. …

It’s necessary and it’s possible, but how do we do it? — In the last five years, the left has re-emerged as a force in American electoral politics. From the rise of Bernie Sanders and the Squad to the spate of DSA and WFP victories in state and local elections across the country, progressives and socialists have shown that they can translate…

To understand the capitol insurrection, we don’t have to look all the way to Germany — Ever since the attempted insurrection at the capitol on January 6th, the fascism debate has once again sprung to life. Is Trump fascist, is Trumpism fascism, are Trump supporters fascists themselves? While the debate can be useful in the urgency that it provides, I believe that it’s much more telling…

One of the most powerful ideas that American conservatives have ever created is the that of the Silent Majority. Brought into the popular imagination by Richard Nixon in the 1960s, the Silent Majority is the law-abiding, middle class mass of Americans that pay their taxes, go to church, and just…

Selection on the importance of public control and the common good — William A. Peffer was a publisher and politician that served as the senator of Kansas from 1891 to 1897. He was one of the few Populist Party members that made it to the US Senate, but he only served for one term and was more influential in much of his…

What a Depression-era movement can teach us about responding to economic crises — In 1929, the bottom fell out of the US economy. After a stock market crash and a run on the banks, the economy spiraled deep into depression as the government spun its wheels in desperation. …

The land of the American Dream is becoming the new face of American poverty — America is a suburban nation, and not by accident. Our current geography was built over decades by very intentional government and market action. The Federal Housing Administration made it easier to obtain a mortgage (for some people), the Federal Highway Act made it easier to get in and out of…

A Response to a Bad Op-Ed — As the extent of our climate crisis becomes clearer and the voices for changes become stronger, it is inevitable that the arguments made for the status-quo are going to become craftier. In just the last twenty years, people have gone from “the climate isn’t changing” to “the climate is changing…

How the American Dream rose from the dead, and how it died again — America has always had a unique history. While it was formed as a European colony with European settlers, its development was always distinctly non-European. The old world was weighed down with millennia of history and constantly short on space, but the new world seemed to be opposite: completely new and…