News at Home

Disaster Relief and the Founding Fathers: Original Intent?

by Cynthia A. Kierner

What does the appalling spectacle of the Superdome after Katrina, the disgraceful neglect of post-Maria Puerto Rico, or the far greater attention paid to wildfires in California over their equally devastating counterparts in Oklahoma, say about the politics and culture of twenty-first-century America?

A Senate Impeachment Trial Isn't Really a Trial and It Was Never Meant to Be

by Harlow Giles Unger

Only Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton were tried in the Senate. As the Founders had planned, both suffered humiliation but neither was convicted. 

Edmund G. Ross Was a Profile in Impeachment Corruption, not Courage

by David O. Stewart

The current impeachment proceedings have revived the historical error of proclaiming Kansas Senator Edmund G. Ross a hero for providing the vote that saved President Andrew Johnson’s job after the April 1868 impeachment trial.   

What Joe Biden and Franklin Roosevelt Have in Common

by James Robenalt

And how it explains the differences between FDR and Donald Trump. 

Why Colleges Need a Required Class in African American History

by David Barber

The real test for our campus is not how loudly we denounce white supremacy, how “disgusting” we find it, but how steadfastly we commit ourselves to really educating our students in the history of this country, a country born in white supremacy.

How the Gender Wars of the Early 1990s Shaped the World We Know

by Philip Jenkins

Political campaigns combined with media crusades and popular activism to effect a radical and irreversible change in concepts of sexual behavior, and to raise unprecedented alarm about the dangers of male sexual violence and harassment.

Why We Should Make Go-Go DC’s Official Music

by Laura Gonzalez

Go-Go is the sound of anti-gentrification in Washington D.C. 

A Boss is a Boss: Nurses Battle for Their First Union Contract at Albany Medical Center

by Lawrence Wittner

A nonprofit employer is not necessarily a better boss than a profit-making one. That sad truth is reinforced by the experience of some 2,200 nurses at Albany Medical Center, who have been fighting for a contract since April 2018, when they voted for union representation.

A President Ready to Pardon

by Harlow Giles Unger

President Trump was far from first to issue controversial military pardons.

Cynicism May be the Real Threat to Impeachment

by Donald J. Fraser

We need to acknowledge that corruption has been allowed to seep into our system by reviewing some examples of recent corruption. We should see what the founders intended, and how far we have strayed from their views of corruption. 

An Extinct Species: The Liberal Republican

by Donne Levy

As both parties have unified, those whose views are not considered mainstream enough have been sidelined or eliminated. This shift has meant the extinction of the liberal or moderate Republican.

The Power of the 2017 Congressional Recess

by Leah Greenberg and Ezra Levin

Leaders got involved because the country had fallen into the hands of a vile, dangerous bully. They were not going to put up with harassment in their own communities.

How did November become the Mizrahi Heritage Month? And what’s Mizrahi anyhow?

by Lior Sternfeld and Arie M. Dubnov

The Mizrahi heritage month is not a local, grassroots initiative that emerged in response to experiences of discrimination or marginalization. Instead, it is a transatlantic importation of recent attempts by the Israeli government to commemorate the forced expulsion of Jews from the Arab and Muslim world in the wake of the establishment of Israel.

A Wealth Tax? Two Framers Weigh In

by Ray Raphael

Wealth taxes are on the current political table and hotly debated. All taxation was on the framers’ table as they considered a new constitution. What would they make of the measures we are considering now?

Impeachment Has Always Been a Purely Political Process

by Waller R. Newell

One of the Constitution’s fundamental aims, according to Alexander Hamilton, was to forestall the emergence an American tyrant — a “Catiline or Caesar.”

William Barr’s Upside-Down Constitution

by Robert J. Spitzer

The Trump administration’s many questionable actions have raised both new and old concerns about the extent and reach of executive power.

Legalize Torture? It’s Tortured Logic

by Sam Ben-Meir

The Report is largely about another single-minded individual, Daniel J. Jones (Adam Driver), lead investigator of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who spent five arduous years doggedly uncovering the CIA’s suspect detention and interrogation program following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Lincoln – not Pilgrims – responsible for Thanksgiving holiday

by William C. Kashatus

Since 1863, Thanksgiving has been observed annually in the United States.

Democrats Should Welcome Michael Bloomberg Into the Primary Race

by Robert Brent Toplin

He could be a promising alternative if Trump looks competitive in 2020.

Fake News and the Founders: Get Used to It!

by Harlow Giles Unger

Fake news did not diminish as the nation matured. Indeed, it became entwined in the nation’s literary fabric.