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Author Archives: politicaloptic
How Bad is Corruption under Trump?
How bad is corruption under Trump? To help us answer the question, it’s useful to consider first what the major types of corruption are and secondly what the extent of corruption was in past American administrations before we get to … Continue reading
Red States Face Political Rumblings in Wake of Teacher Strikes
This spring, Republican governors and legislatures across the country faced major backlash from teachers protesting the neglect and defunding of public education. Work stoppages, teacher marches, and other demonstrations of populist anger appeared in the reddest of red states, notably … Continue reading
Posted in education, political strategy, populism, progressivism
Tagged 2018 mid-term elections, 2018 primaries, Amy McGrath, Arizona, Doug Ducey, Jonathan Shell, Kentucky, left-wing populism, Oklahoma, red states, Republicans, Richard Ojeda, Robert Karnes, teacher strikes, West Virginia
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How Democracies Die
How Democracies Die (2018), a book by two Harvard political scientists, is a sober view of liberal democracy’s vulnerability in today’s world. The book has achieved attention for focusing on the troubling political forces now at work in the United … Continue reading
Plutocrats Climb onto the Trump Train
The Koch brothers and their network of donors, gathering at Charles Koch’s exclusive California retreat this January, declared 2017 to be their “most productive year yet.” The event came several weeks after the passing of Trump’s tax-cut legislation, viewed by … Continue reading
Addressing the Confusion (and Lies) About Sanctuary Cities
On January 25, 2017, days after stepping into office, President Trump issued an executive order entitled “Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States,” which threatened to withhold federal grants from any “sanctuary jurisdictions” in the U.S. The … Continue reading
The Trump-Republican Tax Cut: What Were They Thinking?
As a mental exercise, let’s ask the following question: what if Trump and the Republicans, instead of tilting their tax-cut legislation heavily towards corporations and the rich, had come up with a bill that truly favored white middle class voters, … Continue reading
The Worldviews of Donald Trump and Roy Moore
Recently, commentators have been making suggestive comparisons between Donald Trump and Roy Moore in the wake of the sex scandals uncovered in Moore’s Alabama senate campaign. The similarity between the two men in their personal misbehavior is apt and well … Continue reading
