The Devolution of Conservatism: From Edmund Burke to Donald Trump
Ron Berger — There is much talk these days about the need to find unity and common ground in our politics so we can come together and “get things done” for the [...]
Politics and Economics
Warren vs. Sanders: The Differences That Matter Going Forward
Ron Berger — Neither Elizabeth Warren nor Bernie Sanders are likely to run for president again. They are both in their seventies and Kamala Harris is undoubtedly the [...]
The Deficit Myth
Ron Berger — One of the influential books I read while studying sociology in graduate school was Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962). Kuhn [...]
The Faithless? The Untold Story of the Electoral College
Dave Gillespie — Do you think of yourself as something of a political junkie? Are you interested in, or concerned about, problems like partisan polarization and the [...]
Old Prohibition: Party and Leader in the Latter-day
Dave Gillespie — James is the name his parents gave him; James as in Bond, the hero in Ian Fleming novels and movie spy thrillers. But unlike Bond, that famous but [...]
The California Housing Crisis
Jeff Berger — Conor Dougherty’s new book, Golden Gates: Fighting for Housing in America, is an important contribution to understanding the housing crisis in the [...]
Antitrust Law and the Regulation of Corporate Concentration
Ron Berger — When I think about the myriad issues that are being raised during the current Democratic Party presidential primary, I am reminded of the advice given by [...]
Madeline Albright’s Contribution to U.S. Foreign Policy
Jeff Berger — I recently read Madeline Albright’s latest book, Fascism: A Warning, published in 2018, which she completed while Donald Trump was still engaged in a [...]
Deconstructing the Center of American Politics: A Wise Guys Conversation
Ron Berger, Jeff Berger, Charles Cottle, and Dave Gillespie — Eric Levitz is a journalist, opinion writer, and associate editor of the “Daily Intelligencer” blog of [...]
Technology and Jobs of the Future: The View from Karl Marx
Charles Cottle — Reputable sources report that advances in technology now take more jobs from American workers than China. In the past, our educational system has [...]
Can the Majority Rule in the Era of Trump?
Larry Lancit — In the United States we have spent the last two years enduring all manner of insult to our democracy. With the election of Donald Trump, an era of [...]
Is Donald Trump a Fascist?
Ron Berger — Last November I was one of two speakers at a forum on “Fascism and the Holocaust in Historical and Contemporary Perspective” that was part of the [...]
Russia and Ukraine: Ongoing Tensions
Jeff Berger — In August of 2017, I published an article in Wise Guys about Ukraine entitled “Understanding Ukraine: The Historical Context of Current [...]
The Politics of Identity: Insights from Francis Fukuyama
Ron Berger — In his slim but useful book, Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2018), Francis Fukuyama offers [...]
1968: The Year That Changed U.S. Politics, and Our Lives
Ron Berger — For people of my generation, the baby boomers, Lawrence O’Donnell’s Playing With Fire: The 1968 Election and the Transformation of American Politics [...]
The Retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy
John Kozlowicz — With the retirement of US Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy there is considerable speculation about what effect this will have on future Supreme [...]
California Dreamin’: Too Many Jobs, Not Enough Houses
Jeff Berger — Why do people choose to remain in California in spite of its problems? Some people do it because they don’t want to leave their friends and family. [...]
Do Tips Belong to the Employees Who Receive Them?
Charles Cottle — It appears, thanks to a Trump administration initiative, that the lives of many tipped employees in restaurants may soon get much worse. On December 5, [...]
The Dream Deferred: The Assault on DACA
Larry Lancit — When I was in High School in the mid 1960s, I was a tenor in the A Cappella Choir. One of the most inspiring pieces of music we did was a rendition of [...]
