Rights and Democracy
Where Are the Populist Democrats?
It's futile to hope that the GOP's gaggle of corporate-hugging, right-wing presidential candidates will seriously address the issue of rising inequality in our land. How about the Democrats? Well, Hillary Clinton has warned that "extreme inequality has corrupted other...
Did Slaves Catch Your Seafood?
A few years ago, a friend promised Asorasak Thama a job in the Thai fishing industry. The job offered good pay for a few weeks of work. Instead, he wound up trapped at sea for a year, working in terrible conditions for no pay at all. Thama had become a slave....
Don’t Let This Cable Giant Stamp Out Democracy
Comcast’s gleaming tower soars over its hometown of Philadelphia. The cable giant’s presence in the city is palpable. You’d like to believe that the company would have a sense of what’s going on in its backyard — and what its neighbors need. But Comcast isn’t paying...
The Road to Ruin
That harsh whine you hear in the background — like a buzzsaw getting ready for a log to come down the chute — is the vast right-wing conspiracy revving its engines. America Rising, an opposition research Super PAC that lives to trash the Clintons, dashed off a press...
Guilty of Being Poor
Here’s something you might not know about Ferguson, Missouri: In this city of 21,000 people, 16,000 have outstanding arrest warrants. In fact, in 2013 alone, authorities issued 9,000 warrants for over 32,000 offenses. That’s one-and-a-half offenses for every resident...
Cruzing to Coverage
A Quiet Corporate Coup on Capitol Hill
Being a Congress critter isn’t the cushy job many people assume. After all, they must draft laws, organize hearings, write speeches, round up votes, and do all sorts of other things. Oh, wait… my mistake. Members have staff to do all that, including telling the...
Shining a Light on Corporate ‘Dark Money’
If 2014 was the "Year of Dark Money" in elections, then 2016 is likely to be the "Year of Way, Way More Dark Money" — that is, unless something big changes soon. One of the most troubling aspects of the explosion of big money in politics in recent years is the rapid...
For Rent: The GOP’s No. 3
Representative Steve Scalise might not be for sale, but he is available for long-term lease. The lease is straightforward: Lobbyists pony up millions of corporate dollars to "keep and expand our [Republican] majority in Congress," as Scalise puts it. Then that...
Standing Up for Our Neighbors
As a teaching assistant in a class on race in the United States, I've probably paid more attention to the #BlackLivesMatter movement than a lot of my white peers. The professor who teaches the course here in Madison, Wisconsin — where I'm pursuing a PhD in sociology —...
