Fair and reliable elections, an informed citizenry, wide participation in governance — these are cornerstones of democracy. But the recent election in the U.S.A. has pointed out serious cracks in those cornerstones. …
Hillary Clinton topped Bernie Sanders to win the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. But Sanders got 46% of the pledged delegates, and brought out great enthusiastic throngs to back him and his policies. He then took that power to the Democratic…
In “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” Lewis Carroll tells the story of Alice, a more-or-less average curious, rational child, who, on a dreamy summer day, chases a waistcoat-wearing white rabbit down a rabbit hole into a bizarre land. In this, and…
So, you’re a Republican come to Cleveland for your party’s convention — your first visit to my city. I want you to make good use of your time here, and to that end offer these six things for you to do in Cleveland:
In 1974, spurred by the upcoming United States bicentennial, the Aspen Institute held a three-day conference to study three momentous American documents: the Declaration of Independence, the Preamble to the Constitution, and the Gettysburg Address. The conference proposed that those…
The last of the primaries has occurred, and the Bernie Sanders campaign has, practically speaking, fallen short of one of its aims — to put Sanders in the White House. But the campaign made a pretty good swipe at it,…
(Satire.) At the height of a campaign season, where differences between supporters of this candidate and that are sharpened, and things are said and written that may later be regretted, it is natural to look for a unity candidate — someone that could bring the country together. …
From the time Bernie Sanders threw his hat in the ring, and announced a “political revolution” — a movement to replace the USA’s legalized bribery system with revitalized democracy — various cold water brigades have been trying to douse his…
The above graph, using data from NASA, plots monthly average global temperatures as a departure from the 1951-1980 average. We can see the last two data points in the blue line shooting up and heading off the chart — first…
(Analysis) An enduring factor in American elections is the “lesser of two evils” (also known as “the lesser of two weasels”) issue. On one side is the citizen that won’t vote because the lesser of two evils is still evil.…