In recent years, conservative commentators have criticized how the individualism of the neoliberal age has undermined the moral and ethical foundations of community in America. Yuval Levin’s 2014 essay “Taking the Long Way” argues that too many people on both the right and left are committed to a thin vision of liberty, defined simply as…
Read MoreAsk voters about American politics, and they typically respond that it is ever more polarized, fragmented, divisive, and hyperpartisan. A recent report indicated that 78 percent of voters are unhappy with increasing partisan divisions. Beyond the issue of polarization, there is also a problem of performance. Satisfaction with American political institutions is decreasing. The dominant…
Read MorePolitics is fundamentally agonistic. Not all interests and desires can be harmonized. Periods of cultural and economic hegemony supplant one another through material and ideational conflict. Within these periods there are winners and losers. Competing political parties quibble at the margins, but it is rare that an election gives rise to more than superficial change.…
Read MoreAmerica’s two major political parties appear to be in the process of swapping their historic coalition constituents. With that shift, many of our assumptions about what it means to be a Democrat or a Republican are coming apart at the seams. The most significant development seen in recent polling data is the exodus of college-educated…
Read MoreMy first reaction to the work of Barbara Ehrenreich was one of complete indignation and contempt. A professor had assigned Ehrenreich’s book Nickel and Dimed (2001) for an English prerequisite at my commuter college—the urban satellite campus for two major universities intended to cater to low-income and nontraditional students. (Go Jaguars!) The book was a…
Read MoreAs the Berlin Wall crumbled in 1989, so too, it seemed, did the dream of socialism. The German sociologist Rolf Dahrendorf declared, “The point has to be made unequivocally that socialism is dead and that none of its variants can be revived for a world awakening from the double nightmare…
Read MoreTen years ago, Brazil was a left-wing success story. The Workers’ Party’s generous cash-transfer programs for poor families, bankrolled by buoyant commodity prices and constructed on a preexisting foundation of fiscal discipline, helped to lift millions out of poverty. Constitutional order was maintained. The economy grew, and arrangements were reached between the reigning patronage party…
Read MoreFor a brief moment, just before the end of Michel Houellebecq’s latest novel Sérotonine, a ray of hope seems to galvanize its protagonist. For a short while he seems to recover his lust for life. Having languished for years without a sense of purpose…
Read MoreIn ever more areas of life, algorithms are coming to substitute for judgment exercised by identifiable human beings who can be held to account. The rationale offered is that automated decision-making will be more reliable. But a further attraction is that it serves to insulate various forms of power from popular pressures. Our readiness to…
Read MoreIn mid-November 2018, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez issued a rallying cry that was not given sufficient attention. She called on left-wing activists to take over the Democratic Party. Her chief of staff Saikat Chakrabarti went one step further, openly calling on left-wingers to primary sitting Democrats. Together with YouTube personalities Cenk Uyger and Kyle Kulinski, Chakrabarti is…
Read More
Already subscribed?
Sign In With Your AAJ Account
| Sign In with Blink
