Culture As Agent of Social Change

I’ve become aware of a particular conflict that hides a deeper issue. There are the partisans who often promote the view of voting for the lesser of two evils or else they promote the personality cult of a particular politician, the idea being that the right party or the right politician can save us from [...]

Midwest vs Coasts: history, culture & politics

Often in reading about politics, my Midwestern worldview can make me feel like I’m working from a slightly different context than mainstream culture. The mainstream media tends to put issues in terms of Northeastern Democrats versus Southern Republicans or else East Coast Establishment versus West Coast Libertarianism/Liberalism. The Midwest is none of these. I was thinking about this [...]

Do Politicians Racially Discriminate against Constituents?

Here is an example of how racial prejudice persists. Racism is institutionalized because institutions made by and operated by people. People make racist decisions not necessarily because they are overt racists but because most prejudices operate below conscious thought. One thing that surprised me a bit is that racism existed similarly among both blacks and [...]

Political Labels – Meaningless? Divisive?

I keep coming across the problem with political labels. I’m actually a fan of labels when they are used to accurately represent fundamental differences, but too often that isn’t how they are used. I probably don’t have much hope to disentangle that which has been intentionally tangled. Still, I can at least explain my own [...]

Masculinity & Presidency, Sexism & Politics

Katz: Sure. Well, the first thing I think that I look at in my work, and I think it’s really fundamental and basic, is that there is a persistent gender gap in voting patterns in the United States. And among white men in particular, white men have been voting radically disproportionately for the Republican nominee [...]

Conservatives: Then & Now

Rep. Weiner Goes Off On Republicans Over 9/11 Health Compensation Act

In my last post Cost of War, I was expressing my outrage at the ignorance of the American people and the immorality of the American Military-Industrial Complex. It pisses me off. Why do people refuse to do the right thing? Why do people cowardly hide behind political rationalizations, behind patriotic rhetoric, behind empty moralizing? For once, politicians [...]

America’s Political Confusion

I’ve been reading some books lately which have got me thinking about politics and society. The books in question include: The Eliminationists by David Neiwert, The Authoritarians by Bob Altemeyer, Conservativs Without Conscience by John W. Dean, Bite the Hand That Feeds You by Henry Fairlie, several books by Richard Hofstadter (in particular, The Paranoid Style in American Politics), and several books [...]

Abstinence Video By Busted Christian Republican!

Liberals are the New Fiscal Conservatives

In a recent post (Cenk Uygur on Tax Cuts for the Rich), I asked the following question: What is the motivation for Republicans being for and Democrats being against tax cuts for the rich? Many like to argue that both parties are in the pocket of the wealthy elite. But if that were the case, Democrat politicians should [...]