What a year it has been since the dark night when the Democrats lost to Trump. And now, still lacking a serious vision, the Democrats will use the promise of impeachment as an election strategy to try to take the House in 2018.
Baynard Woods
Baynard Woods is a reporter for The Real News. Tips to democracyincrisicolumn@gmail.com. Twitter @demoincrisis.
Posted inOpinion
Democracy in Crisis: Trump’s flirtations with racism are making the alt-right more palatable
In the same way that Breitbart launders the extremist views of the Daily Stormer, the Trump administration is acting as a bridge to legitimize Nazi and Confederacy sympathizers.
Posted inUncategorized
Democracy in Crisis: What ‘War and Peace,’ umbrellas and anti-fascists tell us about the way we understand the world
Last week, a few moments before Senators Richard Burr and Mark Warner, chair and co-chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee respectively, came out to present an update on their investigation into Russian attempts to interfere with the 2016 election, a man walked out carrying a large cardboard sign — not a protest sign, but the clip-arty press-conference explainers that are always terrible but expensive looking.
Posted inUncategorized
Democracy in Crisis: Alabama’s special election and Trump’s attack on Kaepernick point to an even more racist Republican future
Last week, the populist theocratic authoritarian former Alabama chief justice Roy Moore beat Luther Strange in a special election to fulfil the rest of Jeff Sessions’ term in the Senate. Strange, who had been filling the seat, was endorsed by President Trump, even though Moore, who pulled a gun out at a rally right before the special election, is far more Trumpian than Strange. In some ways, he is even more Trumpian than Trump. Moore’s closest analogue may be fascist former Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio, whom the president recently pardoned.
Posted inUncategorized
Democracy in Crisis: How Pepe-posting meme warriors responded to real violence from the alt-right
For the internet’s Trump-endorsing shitposters, it seems that the big problem with the Nazis is that they aren’t ironic enough in their hatred.
Posted inUncategorized
Democracy in Crisis: The Juggalos March on Washington eclipses pro-Trump ‘Mother of All Rallies’
The political heat of 2017 has finally boiled all the political chants down to their essence. “Fuck that shit!” More than a thousand juggalos — fans of the horror-art rap group the Insane Clown Posse (ICP) — chant this perfect refrain for our insane era in front of the Lincoln Memorial on Saturday, Sept. 16. Many of them are wearing clown paint on their faces or sporting tattoos or other signs that they are down with the clown.
Posted inFeatures
Democracy in Crisis: Charlottesville and the Shattering of America (photos)
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Two middle-aged men, one black and one white, were walking up a street in downtown Charlottesville, Virginia yelling at each other. It was a moment of relative normalcy in a day otherwise defined by mayhem. Both men use the phrase “born and bred” to define their relationship to the smallish Southern college town, nestled […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Democracy in Crisis: Trump’s America is not “not normal”
Trump was right when he said the system was broken. He is proof of that. He is a product of our normal, its culmination. It’s not normal that a psycho rich guy like Trump takes over the office to make profit for his family. But it is normal for rich guys to hold the office.
Posted inUncategorized
Democracy in Crisis: Activist Medea Benjamin raises hell in the halls of power
Medea Benjamin, the firebrand activist and author of a dozen odd books, looks surprisingly small in the midst of the lunchtime crowd jostling one another in the basement cafeteria of the the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C. Her pale face is framed by straight-cut bangs that are pretty darn close to pink in […]
Posted inUncategorized
Democracy in Crisis: A prominent conservative signs on for an attempt to change the Constitution
In the early years of the Obama era, then-Senator Jim DeMint embodied a series of contradictions in the American character. The hard-jawed and bitter-faced sandlapper was simultaneously a theocrat, a cynic and a salesman. What he sold, as salvation, was hate and fear. He realized before the rest of us that it does not matter what politicians say or do as long as they can demonize their enemies, turning them into villains that the American people can love to hate.
Posted inUncategorized
Democracy in Crisis: A queer dance party descends on McConnell’s house following anger over health care bill
A swanky stretch of C Street near the Capitol in Washington D.C. is blocked by a raucous crowd dancing in front of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s house on an unseasonably cool summer evening. As music blasts from loudspeakers, the scene resembles a Pride block party as about 50 members of the LGBTQ community and their allies attempt to dance away their fears and anger over McConnell’s so-called health care bill, which was negotiated in secret.
Posted inUncategorized
Democracy in Crisis: Press Briefs — Sad little scenes from the White House briefing room
1. The White House briefing room feels like a mansion’s pool house, but with the carpet of a church basement. On the eve of the summer solstice, after a week without an on-camera press briefing, the room smells like a grill doused with too much lighter fluid. Cameramen and techies move around in loose clothes […]
