For progressives, the goal is ultimately about working toward a society built on one unified vision of policy and culture, rather than a diverse array of policies and cultures. “If you’re confident that you can get the right answer to something, like health care policy, or welfare, or any number of very difficult social problems, it’s hard not to say that right answer should be equally available to everyone,” says law professor Ernest Young, meaning that progressives believe their “right answers” should be legislated through federal policy.
Read More in The AtlanticAuthor: sh136@duke.edu
U.S. Sidelined as Putin Calls Shots on Syria Cease-Fire
President Obama’s aides say what’s important is that the violence stops. But the president’s critics say his hesitation to use force has led others to fill a power vacuum in the Middle East. Bruce Jentleson, a Sanford School professor and former State Department official, says Obama “over-learned the lessons of Iraq.”
Read More in PoliticoWashington Waits, Worries, Wonders About Trump Era
The president-elect is “willing to say or do the thing that’s just not done, that breaks a tradition or a norm or unwritten rule,” says political science professor Peter Feaver. “It’s a mistake to call it erratic. There’s more of a purposefulness behind it. They’re not going to accept arbitrary restrictions that were accepted at face value.”
Read More in The Philadelphia InquirerWhen One Party Has the Governor’s Mansion and the Other Has the Statehouse
Sanford School professor Pope “Mac” McCorkle says that if North Carolina Republicans “keep on sending people a message they are right-wingers,” newly elected Democratic governor Roy Cooper will have an advantage in the “outside game” of appealing to voters who think the state has veered too far from its moderate political tradition.
Why I Got Arrested at the General Assembly
“We scholars evenhandedly weigh evidence — but as citizens we should never be ‘evenhanded’ about democracy,” writes Elizabeth Oltmans Ananat, an associate professor of public policy and economics.
The One-Person, One-Vote Myth
William Chafe, an emeritus history professor, writes that the issue of race has been a continuing thread in our country’s history of voting inequality. “If in fact we believe in one person, one vote, we need to change our electoral system now!”
NC Republicans Take Unprecedented Steps to Curb Dem Gov.’s Power
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory signed an unprecedented law passed by a last-minute session of the Republican legislature Friday that would radically curb the power of the incoming Democratic governor, despite widespread protests and a vow to challenge the measure in court. “There’s no precedent in the last 100 years,” says Michael Gillespie, a professor of political science, who compares the current political climate to the legislative tensions surrounding Jim Crow laws. “The goal is to do whatever they can to sustain their dominance in the state legislature.”
Read More in TIMENow, America, You Know How Chileans Felt
“The United States cannot in good faith decry what has been done to its decent citizens until it is ready to face what it did so often to the equally decent citizens of other nations. And it must firmly resolve never to engage in such imperious activities again,” writes Ariel Dorfman, professor emeritus of literature, on reports that Russia interfered in the U.S. election. “If ever there was a time for America to look at itself in the mirror, if ever there was a time of reckoning and accountability, it is now.”
Why Health Care Leaders are Worried About Their Industry
“However the Trump administration and the Republican U.S. Congress replace or revamp the Affordable Care Act, it is unlikely to halt America’s ongoing move from the rightfully maligned fee-for-service payment system to one that pays for ‘value'” — the quality of outcomes relative to the price, write Dr. Kevin Schulman and a colleague from Johns Hopkins.
When a President Calls the CIA Unreliable
President-elect Donald Trump is dismissing intelligence reports that point to Russian interference in the election, and backing away from the daily intelligence briefings. Listen to professor David Schanzer, director of the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security, talk about the implications.
Listen on Minn. Public Radio
The Working Class When Millionaires, Billionaires are in Charge
“This is not to say that business people are bad, or rich people are bad, but it’s important to recognize that everyone’s perspective and policy and government is shaped by the kind of life you’ve lived,” says Sanford School professor Nick Carnes. “If you’ve been rich for a long time, it’s easy to forget about the perspectives of those who don’t have so much.”
Read More in The Washington Post
Legal Scholars to Trump: Abide by Constitution
Neil Siegel, a professor of law, political science and co-director of the Program in Public Law, discusses an open letter to Donald Trump, which was written by several leading constitutional experts who call on conservative constitutional scholars to join progressives in “speaking law to power.”
Read More in USA Today