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Liberal Democracy at the End of its Rope: The Participatory Democracy Alternative Part II
Orientation Unfortunately, in the United States the terms “liberal, “democracy” and “capitalism” are all mushed together according to the following logic: All democratic societies are liberal; All liberal societies are capitalist and All democratic societies are capitalist In Part I of my article, I challenged this logic because many capitalist societies have dictatorships and some […]
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Liberal Democracy at the End of its Rope: The Participatory Democracy Alternative
You’ve always looked for leaders, strong men with no faults. There aren’t any. There are only men like yourselves. Speaking of leaders, they change, they desert, die. There are no leaders but yourselves. A united people is the only lasting strength. — Emiliano Zapata, 1952, to his followers In Yankeedom, the terms “liberal”, “democracy” and […]
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The Convenient Lie
Newspaper: Democracy. The case of death is not at all the cause of the dead, it’s the cause of the living. — Ghassan Kanafani, from the novel Men Under the Sun My people are fearless and the gallows to each person among us is the instance that precedes the dawn of a new day for […]
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They’re Coming for Your Birthright: Citizenship as Spectacle, Transaction, or Privilege
A $5 million gold card. A reality show for migrants. A birthright under assault. Let us be very clear: the Trump Administration does not want citizenship to be a right. They want it to be a reward for the loyal, the rich, or the compliant. To this end, President Trump’s bid to unilaterally end birthright citizenship for […]
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Trump Is Making America Constitutionally Literate—By Violating the Constitution
Few modern political figures have done more to prompt spontaneous national discussions about the Bill of Rights and constitutional limits on government power than Donald Trump—if only because he tramples on them so frequently. Indeed, President Trump has become a walking civics lesson. Consider some of the constitutional principles that Trump can be credited with […]
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Is the Constitution Becoming Optional?
Rights aren’t rights if someone can take them away. They’re privileges. That’s all we’ve ever had in this country is a ‘Bill of Temporary Privileges.’ And if you read the news, even badly, you know that the list gets shorter and shorter. —George Carlin Disguising its power grabs in the self-righteous fervor of national security, […]
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The Political Matrix Sustains the Illusion of Freedom
What you smell is the stench of a dying republic. Our dying republic. We are trapped in a political matrix intended to sustain the illusion that we are citizens of a constitutional republic. In reality, we are caught somewhere between a kleptocracy (a government ruled by thieves) and a kakistocracy (a government run by unprincipled […]
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The Right to Not Be Lied To: Making the Case for Truth in Politics
Q: “How can you tell if a politician is lying?” A: “When his lips are moving.” The First Amendment assures us of a right to free speech. It does not, unfortunately, explicitly assure us of a right to not be lied to by our government and its various officials. Any hope of holding government officials […]
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Get Up, Stand Up, Don’t Give Up the Fight: Know Your Rights or You Will Lose Them
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be. — Thomas Jefferson If America’s schools are to impart principles of freedom and democracy to future generations, they must start by respecting the constitutional rights of their students Take the case of […]
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The Assange Case: A Flicker of Hope in the UK High Court
It was faint, but there was more than just a flicker of hope. In the tormented (and tormenting) journey the WikiLeaks founder and publisher, Julian Assange, has endured, May 20, 2024 provided another pitstop. As with many such stops over the years, it involved lawyers. Many of them. The occasion was whether the UK High […]
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