The Founders meant for the republic to be agile in philosophy — always changing to meet the new demands of the next generations. They meant for us to be self-governing, and empowered to create policy for problem-solving in new eras they themselves could not even conceive of. Thomas Jefferson wrote forewarningly of the Dead Hand […]
Loser Politics is the psychology of the right wing — the mentality of Confederates through the ages. It is the also rans, the disaffected former military or government personnel, the failed actors and artists, closet gays, and all those jealous jerks who are butthurt over their own assorted failures. It is the mindset of the […]
Majority Leader Schumer is right to come around to the idea that the filibuster must be changed in order to pass voting rights and save our democratic republic from the forces of authoritarianism. The filibuster is an archaic rule that was at first only there by accident, then whittled into a sharp blade of minority […]
In this post, we dive deep into the heart of American political tradition by presenting a complete collection of first presidential inaugural address speeches that have shaped the United States from its inception to the present day. Each speech, a time capsule of its era, is summarized up front (with a link to the full […]
A network of exceedingly wealthy individuals and organizations have channeled their vast fortunes into influencing American politics, policy, and public opinion — they’ve formed a wealth cult. And they’ve leveraged that cult and its considerable fortune to influence and in many ways dramatically transform American politics. The term “dark money” refers to political spending meant […]
One of two major parties in our American first-past-the-post voting system of dual-party reality, the Republican Party, has evolved (or devolved…) into a full-throated authoritarian movement seeking to overthrow our democracy, The Constitution, and the rule of law in order to establish a fascist regime in the United States. It’s been a not-so-secret fever dream […]
Pathocracy is a relatively lesser-known concept in political science and psychology, which refers to a system of government in which individuals with personality disorders, particularly those who exhibit psychopathic, narcissistic, and similar traits (i.e. the “evil of Cluster B“), hold significant power. This term was first introduced by Polish psychiatrist Andrzej Εobaczewski in his work […]
We are rarely content with mere survival — we want naturally to be flourishing… most of us, anyway. A very vocal minority perennially aims to fuck it all up though, with disinformation and bullying and violence and domestic terrorism. Those power mad, money hungry, fame whoring moral prostitutes seek to keep us all surviving vs. […]
Although the advent of reality TV star Donald Trump as the 45th President threw most of us for a loop, in truth the authoritarian impulse goes back centuries in America. Not the first authoritarian leader, Don the Con surely won’t be the last — but maybe we can prevail against the slide into fascism by […]
There are numerous successful arguments against bigotry, and quite precious few in its favor. Bigotry is evidence of rudimentary cognition — it’s a poor way to make decisions, based on a set of assumptions that aren’t true. It’s tragic to find the need to renew these “arguments” anew again and again, decades and generations after […]
There was a period of dashed hopes on Saturday morning during the impeachment trial of former president Trump. After securing a last-minute and unexpected motion to call witnesses, based on resurfaced testimony from Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA), the House Impeachment Managers in conference with Senate Democrats and negotiation with Senate Republicans ended up deciding […]
Only 7 out of 50 among them are patriots — the rest, cowards and knaves who continue to seek destruction of this republic out of self-interest and an authoritarian’s need to dominate others. Today’s impeachment vote of acquittal for Trump‘s role in the January 6 insurrection was brutal but of course, not surprising. It highlighted […]
Sociologist Theodor Adorno created the “F scale” in a 1950 seminal work entitled The Authoritarian Personality, in order to rank the level of predilection to fascism in an individual, which became desirable both during and shortly after World War II. According to Adorno and his cohort, the defining authoritarian personality traits of the Platonic fascist […]
Extremism is a mentality; a black and white worldview. It’s a willingness to go too far to meet one’s objectives — to violate moral boundaries in pursuit of one’s aims. A political extremist is an individual or group adhering to ideologies that are far removed from the mainstream beliefs of society. These ideologies often promote […]