(Update of lecture at Cy Cergy Université, Paris France, 23 April 2024) Voter polls report that Donald Trump has at least a fifty percent chance of being elected President of the United States once more. Here in Europe, Trump’s “America…
Two Cheers for Isolationism
by jeff.faux •
(A slightly shorter version of this essay was published in The Nation, November 17, 2023.) American Progressives are at a foreign policy dead-end. Their historic concern for global human rights, democracy and peace has become an ideological cover for naked…
The Dogs of War Will Eat Your Future
by jeff.faux •
“This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.” Dwight Eisenhower. Two years ago, Joe Biden’s agenda signaled that the Democratic…
Destructive Myths
by jeff.faux •
Nations, like the individuals who make them up, define themselves largely through their memories. And, as countless psycho- logical studies have shown, our memories are malleable, as often as not shaped to fit the identities we have already chosen. Elizabeth…
Dangers of Demonizing Putin
by jeff.faux •
Adolph Hitler burned to a crisp in his besieged Berlin bunker in 1945. But his specter still haunts the corridors of American power, regularly dragged out to frighten us into supporting the various military misadventures of the US governing class. …
Biden: Don’t Repeat Jimmy Carter’s Catastrophic Mistake on Inflation
by jeff.faux •
Democrats are right to worry about inflation’s threat to Joe Biden’s presidency. But they need to learn the right lesson from our history: Overreaction can be fatal. The last time inflation had a significant impact on U.S. politics was in…
US and Afghanistan: War Lost, Empire Prevails
by jeff.faux •
Yes, America’s pull-out from Afghanistan was ignominious and clumsy. So it is not a surprise that it has generated a sandstorm of domestic recrimination and handwringing over why the war was “lost.” Plenty of blame to go around Republicans blame…
Immigration: Biden’s Biggest Foreign Policy Test
by jeff.faux •
Joe Biden has pledged to pursue “a foreign policy for the middle class.” The statement acknowledges that the globalization policies of his two Democratic predecessors — Bill Clinton and Barack Obama — had alienated a large part of the Democratic Party’s…
The Path to a Progressive Future
by jeff.faux •
The agenda of the Democratic Party’s left wing has more political support than at any time since the era of the Great Society. Majorities of Americans favor Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, a wealth tax on the rich,…
Race, Class and Joe Biden’s Election
by jeff.faux •
Joe Biden and the Democrats did not win the November election decisively enough to drive Donald Trump’s neofascist threat back to the shadows. Trump’s shadow victories Trump – despite four years of corruption, incompetence and often clownish behavior – actually increased…