Two Democratic Party Conventions
American democracy has changed in many ways since 1948, the year that both the Republican and Democratic Parties held the first televised national Conventions in Philadelphia. Using the Democrats' 1948...
View ArticleThe Feminine Ethos of 2016
Right or wrong, most Americans believe that men and women have different kinds of character. Elections are cultural skirmishes as well as personal contests and policy fights. They are ethnic. They are...
View ArticleZEN MASTER OBAMA AND GIVE 'EM HELL HARRY
Obama must now lead the Democratic Party in preparation for the 2016 general election. In similar circumstances, Harry Truman engineered a winning strategy that could work for the Democratic nominee in...
View ArticleThe 2016 Republican Strategy
The Republicans in the 114th Congress have learned the lessons of 1948. Their recent moves – the Netanyahu invitation and the Iranian letter – are a way to position the Democratic Party as soft on...
View ArticleCampaign Cost Reform?
Regulating the money contributed to election campaigns, Campaign Finance Reform, is a failed approach. Can the problem be approached from the cost side? Rather than trying to limit contributions,...
View ArticleRight Wing Religious Propaganda
A Federal judge ruled that anti-Islamic advertising must be displayed on the sides of 84 Philadelphia buses through the month of April, 2015. The signs were produced by the right wing American Freedom...
View ArticleLabor Unions at the Conventions
In February, 2015, two-hundred members of The Philadelphia Metropolitan Regional Council of Carpenters descended on the Philadelphia Auto Show to stage a protest against the Pennsylvania Convention...
View ArticleWhy The Republican Field is Crowded
The Clintons have earned over $125 million dollars in speaker fees and book royalties since 2001. The role mode on the Republican side, Newt Gingrich, estimates his average net worth at $18,129,534....
View ArticleISIS, the USSR, and a Policy of Containment
There are parallels between international Jihadism based in ISIS and international Communism based in the USSR. Like Communism, Jihadism appeals the young, to the idealistic, to men and women all over...
View ArticleRejection of the Iran Nuclear Agreement Makes War Likely
Should Congress reject the agreement that imposes outside inspections on Iranian nuclear weapons development, the prospect of war with Iran in the near future becomes almost a certainty. Those who...
View ArticlePersonal Technology & Culture
Every new gadget or upgrade separates me a bit farther from other human beings. It’s not just because I am a solitary writer working at home – our culture as a whole is dedicated to the personal.If I’m...
View ArticleTrumpism - 21st Century Politics
The Republican Party as we have known it is disintegrating, and that means that the Two Party System that we have long relied upon to shape our politics is being re-formed. From a momentary, partisan...
View ArticleReforming Presidential Debates
Presidential candidate “debates” have become a central mechanism of American democracy. In all, television audiences have had 25 opportunities to assess the worthiness of those who wish to hold the...
View ArticleResist a Class Divide
My Dear Friends,There are many ways to parse the demographic and political data. We will look at the numbers to understand who voted for Trump and try to answer the basic question - why was nearly half...
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