Grand Illusions

Grand Illusions

Pankaj Mishra January 13, 2020 It’s time to abandon the intellectual narcissism of cold war Western liberalism. In Radical Hope: Ethics in the Face of Cultural Devastation (2006), Jonathan Lear writes of the intellectual trauma of the Crow Indians. Forced to move in the mid-nineteenth century from a nomadic to a settled existence, they catastrophically lost not […]

The rise and fall of US democracy

The rise and fall of US democracy

Peter Isackson November 10, 2020 The chaos of this year’s election may well be enough to dispel all remaining illusions about American democracy. A functioning democracy requires an educated, informed population that understands its role in the processes that define how the democratic nation is governed. Ordinary citizens have two opportunities for actively participating in […]

The power of the black vote in the US election

The power of the black vote in the US election

By Jonathan Power March 24, 2020 According to the New York Times, President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign is investing more money and resources in an attempt to attract African-American voters than any previous Republican presidential campaign. The Trump camp believe that with eight months of continuous advertising coupled with the opening of field offices in […]

A socialist foreign policy for America

A socialist foreign policy for America

By Jonathan Power March 20, 2020 Is Bernie Sanders still in with a chance? It is a slim one, but in these primary elections one never knows. There have been a number of surprising upsets. Even if Joe Biden comes out on top and has to face Donald Trump for the presidency the Democratic Party […]

Bernie Sanders’ socialism

Bernie Sanders’ socialism

By Jonathan Power March 3, 2020 The US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is having trouble with his socialism. The younger voters get it, but many of the older liberally-minded people don’t –  the kind of people who read the New York Times and probably like its endorsement of Joe Biden and Amy Klobuchar and find […]