A Devil We Know
Frightening as it is, Trumpism has many precedents in U.S. history—and the social movements of the last century, from the Southern Tenant Farmers Union to ACT UP, offer important lessons for how to fight it.
Winter 2025
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Texas’s New Ground Game
While conservatives tighten their grip on Washington, a network of grassroots organizers in three Texas cities is showing how local progressives can beat the odds. Could their efforts become a national model for opposing Trumpism?
Trump vs. Hamilton
The Trump camp’s response to Friday’s statement from the Hamilton cast reveals a dangerous double standard on civility.
The Next Democratic Party
Parties recover from defeat in two ways. They can try to beat the opposition at their own game, or they can try to change the rules of the game. Donald Trump did the latter. Now it’s the Democrats’ turn.
No Second Reagan
We can never allow Donald Trump’s politics to be normalized in the way that Ronald Reagan’s have been.
Last Call: Why Leftists Should Vote for Hillary Clinton
If any kind of “political revolution” is to continue, the choice on November 8 could not be clearer.
The Two Sides of Hate
Omar Mateen’s horrific mass murder last week in Orlando and Donald Trump’s vicious campaign for president both signal an alarming return of sadism in American life.
Karl Polanyi for President
Whether they realize it or not, millions of Bernie Sanders supporters across the country have embraced a version of socialism developed by political economist Karl Polanyi in his 1944 classic, The Great Transformation. Dissent explains.
A Life in Grassroots Electoral Politics: Q&A with Nick Licata
“Being in the streets protesting arouses the public, but afterward, quiet, organized efforts are needed to get your supporters elected to office so that they can actually change the laws.”
Right to Work (For Less): By the Numbers
Though it’s still hard to judge the full economic impact of the laws, it’s clear that workers in “right-to-work” states face a cascade of disadvantages.
What Trump’s Rise Means for Democracy
Trump’s astounding rise isn’t the result of too much democracy, but of too little.
A World to Make: Eleven Theses for the Bernie Sanders Generation
Beyond the delegate race lies the Sanders campaign’s larger potential: that a rising generation will emerge from it to transform American political life in ways that until recently seemed impossible. Here’s where they might start.
Free Enterprise vs. Socialism: A Brief History
Business conservatives have demonized every piece of progressive legislation as “creeping socialism” since the 1930s. Now that a democratic socialist has called their bluff, they’re at a loss.
In Defense of Civility
The danger of Trump is that he is completely removing the norms of public discourse—the same norms that have served to hold in check those unwilling to see their society transformed by greater equality and liberty.
In Praise of Impractical Movements
Social change is seldom either as incremental or predictable as insiders suggest. Instead, movements win by changing the political weather, turning demands considered unrealistic into ones that can no longer be ignored.
