stop the right

George Shulman — Interregnum not Impasse

by George Shulman Since the 2016 election, and during Donald Trump’s Presidency as well as its violent aftermath on January 6, commentators on the left have engaged in two related debates. One has concerned the danger posed by Trump’s rhetoric and policies, by his base,...

Seamus Deane — Apocalypse Now

by Seamus Deane In its drive for universal dominion, the most barbaric global force of the last seventy years has been American foreign policy. Among its most notable creations has been American domestic right-wing nationalism. By extension, this has been reproduced, as part of the...

Elissa Marder — Beyond the Reality Principle Like You Wouldn’t Believe: Reflections on the US Election

by Elissa Marder I think it would be a real mistake to imagine that we are now entering “life after Trump.” Although Trump’s presidency did rupture something in American life by ushering in a scary new day for American fascism, the roots of Trumpism took...

Julia Chan — #hkfortrump: How American Liberals Have Failed Hong Kong’s Democracy Movement

by Julia Chan Thanksgiving, 2019: thousands joined in a rally to express their “gratitude” to Donald Trump. Waving the Stars and Stripes, they held up posters of Trump, photoshopped with a well-toned body and boxer gloves to symbolize the president’s fighting spirit. This took place...

Hortense J. Spillers — Fly Me To The Moon (from the ground)

by Hortense Spillers It is simply incredible, and had I not experienced it in the flesh, rather than in dreams, (where this stuff belongs), I would not believe any description of life in the United States since 2016. The character of these years, first of...

Margaret Ferguson — Doing Some of the Work: Grief, Fear, Hope

by Margaret Ferguson Throughout the long first months of the pandemic—from March to November 2020—I volunteered as a phonebanker for “Indivisible Yolo,” the local chapter of a national movement devoted to defeating Trump and electing Democrats up and down the ballot. We partnered with a...

Bruce Robbins — Return of the Plague

by Bruce Robbins The period of intense anxiety that did not begin with Joe Biden’s undeclared electoral victory on November 3, 2020 and that has now (on November 15th) been stretched to the breaking point by the incumbent’s refusal to concede and by fears that...

Anthony Bogues — Chaos and the Trumpian Project

by Anthony Bogues Chaos. Authoritarian political figures thrive on manipulating events creating grounds in which liberal normality seems to be one which invites disaster from which the authoritarian can intervene to steady the ship even if heads have to be cracked. But there is a...

David Simpson — About “Bedwetting Democrats”

by David Simpson The phrase is James Carville’s. It slipped by without comment during an MSNBC interview just before the election results began to come in. Carville blustered that only “bedwetting Democrats” would doubt the upcoming Biden landslide, already in the bag. The remark is...