We were thinking about it yesterday in more theoretical terms, about what makes a revolution and the act of rebellion legitimate and humane – true to the liberating spirit that animates it – and how revolutions betray themselves. To think about Egypt more practically is to recognize the social factors in Egypt that make the […]
Rebellion and Revolution
With the current events in Egypt following upon the still unfolding story in Tunisia, the nature and potential consequences of revolutionary upheaval are much on people’s minds. For Egypt, as generally for the Middle East, democrats everywhere celebrate the swell of a common spirit of liberty seeking to throw off shackles. Realists, even among democrats, […]
The Right’s Responsibility for the Tucson Shooting
The Washington Post provided fascinating news about Jared Lee Loughner yesterday. In the weeks and days before the shooting rampage in Tucson, suspect Jared Lee Loughner surfed the Internet on his computer in what investigators believe was an effort to prepare for his alleged assassination attempt, law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation said. Loughner […]
The Next GOP Assault on Working Americans: State Bankruptcy
In fact, it has been going on for over thirty years. It has taken the form of nearly stagnant wages, while the accumulation of wealth among the richest Americans has reached proportions beyond all previous measure. It grew in the increased turn to a contingent labor force, steadily shorn of worker protections, benefits, and even […]
Benjamin Franklin & U.S. Grant on the American Constitution
Harvard historian Jill Lepore had an excellent piece int The New Yorker a week ago on “the Constitution and its worshippers.” In it she quotes from the speech the frail Benjamin Franklin had delivered for him just before the signing of the document on September 17, 1787. We have a record of it from the […]