By Tom Purcell – This presidential campaign is the nuttiest in my lifetime but at least America is maintaining its sense of humor. Late-night comics have found a treasure trove of material in Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. He’s been mocked three times as often as any other candidate throughout the campaign. Many of the…
Guest Columns
Black in America: I Am Afraid, but I Summon My Courage
Black, White and Traffic Stops: Why We Need to Listen Harder
Robert Reich: The Five Principles of Patriotism
By Robert Reich – We talk a lot about Patriotism, especially around July 4th, but we need also to take to heart its five basic principles. First: True patriotism isn’t simply about waving the American flag. And it’s not mostly about securing our borders, putting up walls and keeping others out. It’s about coming together…
This Fourth of July Let’s Choose Patriotism That Stands for Inclusion Over Exclusion, Hope Over Fear
By Robert Reich – We hear a lot about patriotism, especially around the Fourth of July. But in 2016 we’re hearing about two very different types of patriotism. One is an inclusive patriotism that binds us together. The other is an exclusive patriotism that keeps others out. Through most of our history we’ve understood patriotism…
Is Brexit a Harbinger of Trumpism?
By Dick Polman – With apologies to the climactic song in “Les Miserables,” here are the self-destructive Brits who voted yesterday to exit the European Union. Cue the music! Do you hear the people sing Singing the song of angry men We will crash the British pound Against the dollar and the yen, When the…
Bernie Sanders Answers the Question: Here’s What We Want
My Supporters and I Want Real Change – By Bernie Sanders – As we head toward the Democratic National Convention, I often hear the question, “What does Bernie want?” Wrong question. The right question is what the 12 million Americans who voted for a political revolution want. And the answer is: They want real change…
A Killing by Police Leaves Mobile on the Brink
By David Underhill – MOBILE, Ala. – Mobile may soon appear on the list that already includes Ferguson, Missouri, Baltimore, New York, Cleveland, Chicago, and less famous places lately in the news, because their people were slain in the streets by police sworn to serve and protect the community. Or Mobile may miss the list.…
Don’t Miss the Bus
By David Underhill – The American South is conservative. This is repeated so often that it resembles church liturgy uttered without thought to display adherence to a creed. But it won’t bear examination. The civil rights movement sprang from the South and convulsed the whole country, which quivers still from the effects in this presidential…
Is the U.S. Republican Party a Threat to Human Survival?
Nuclear weapons, climate change, and the prospects for survival. – By Noam Chomsky – In January 2015, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists advanced its famous Doomsday Clock to three minutes before midnight, a threat level that had not been reached for 30 years. The Bulletin’s statement explaining this advance toward catastrophe invoked the two…
Winning by Destroying: Trump and Gingrich
Hard to Believe: It’s Come Down to Hillary or Trump
Raging Moderate – By Will Durst – Every four years our nation’s electoral eccentricities escalate exponentially and people throw up their hands and shout, “you know, every election cycle is wacky, but especially this one.” But especially this one! With this one, the narrative changes faster than the score of a Wiffle Ball game played…
Robert Reich: It’s Not Over Until It’s Over
By Robert Reich – This morning I heard from an old friend here in California who said “I’m for Bernie, but he doesn’t really have a chance anymore. So isn’t my vote for him in the California primary just prolonging the agony, and indirectly helping Trump?” I told him: 1. True, the electoral numbers are…
Trump Hits on the Media
Making Sense – By Michael Reagan – Donald Trump is still no conservative and never will be. He still hasn’t figured out that the mix of insults, bluster and off-the-cuff political statements that won him the Republican Party primary won’t work in the general election. But a lot of us conservatives enjoyed watching him attack…
Has Alabama Governor Robert Bentley Gone Mad?
Guest Column – By Stephen Cooper – The last time Alabama Governor Bentley penned a column for al.com, I wrote in The Alabama Political Reporter that his op-ed proved he was delusional. But this time, as it concerns his May 29 open letter to all Alabamians (Governor Bentley wants to hear from you), I can’t…
Trump Hits New Low With Attack on ‘Mexican’ Judge
By Dick Polman – Predictably, America’s Troll is still attacking the federal judge who’s handling the lawsuit against Trump University. On Memorial Day, Donald Trump twice tweeted that the judge he derided last week as “Mexican” (Gonzalo Curiel was born, raised, and educated in Indiana) is “totally biased” against the inherent greatness of Der Leader.…
Gorilla Politics and the Grand Old Party
Raging Moderate – By Will Durst – A hearty congratulations to conservatives for a seamless transition from party-wide disgust to near unanimous endorsement of a gorilla as their presidential nominee. Considering the tortuous undulations required, this metamorphosis seems to have occurred with shockingly few chiropractic adjustments. Having indulged in the kind of convoluted contortions that…
Look Which Political Party is Crying Now
Making Sense – By Michael Reagan – Look which party is blowing itself up now and struggling to unify behind a single candidate. Hint: It’s not the Republicans. After all those months of worrying and complaining about having too many candidates, the GOP finally found its 2016 presidential candidate, for good and bad. A couple…
Robert Reich: Advice for Divided Democrats
By Robert Reich – With the Democratic primaries grinding to a bitter end, I have suggestions for both Clinton and Sanders supporters that neither will like. First, my advice to Clinton supporters: Don’t try to drum Bernie Sanders out of the race before Hillary Clinton officially gets the nomination (if she in fact does get…
Robert Reich: Why Trump Might Win
By Robert Reich – A new Washington Post/ABC News poll released Sunday finds Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in a statistical tie, with Trump leading Clinton 46 percent to 44 percent among registered voters. That’s an 11 percent swing against Clinton since March. A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, also released Sunday, shows Clinton…