Politics – Excerpted

“The reality of this primary process is that if you aren’t on the stage in Houston next week, you aren’t going to be the Democratic nominee”

12 September 2019 Drew KaplanPolitics in America

…the 10 men and women not on the stage will argue that the Democratic National Committee’s rules on how to qualify for the Houston debate (2% in four early state or national polls and 130,000[…]

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez “has become a handy and versatile symbol — the representative representative”

22 May 201922 May 2019 Drew KaplanPolitics in America

The congresswoman has become a handy and versatile symbol — the representative representative. For the leftward and younger wings of the Democratic Party, she serves as a figurehead and a hero; for conservative media outlets,[…]

“Likability is associated with an emotional connection between candidate and voter that makes a politician worthy of trust”

22 May 2019 Drew KaplanGender

Likability seems to have emerged as an important personality trait in the late 19th century, when it became closely associated with male business success. Before this, people liked or disliked one another, of course, but[…]

“The very things that can make the center so appealing, however, are also its great weaknesses”

5 March 20195 March 2019 Drew KaplanPolitics in America

The very things that can make the center so appealing, however, are also its great weaknesses. As worried centrists have long noted, it can be hard to rally the people behind a message of pragmatism,[…]

“There are really important arenas…where the comparisons between these two countries need to be interrogated, and where deep work has to take place in order to ensure that the two societies are not reinforcing each others’ weaknesses”

25 February 2019 Drew KaplanAmerica

There are really important arenas – ideological trends like the rise of nationalism and shifts in how democracy is valued and understood, and political alliances like the dangerous dalliance between Trump and Netanyahu – where[…]

“Trump’s assault on the premises of democracy is not only unique in modern American history but unique in the annals of modern liberal democracy”

4 October 2018 Drew KaplanPolitics in America

Trump’s assault on the premises of democracy is not only unique in modern American history but unique in the annals of modern liberal democracy. No duly elected leader of any mature democratic state has gone[…]

“‘Classified’ still conjures images of top-secret government plots, but, in Trump’s Washington, it’s more often used to describe information that the president would prefer to keep quiet”

16 April 201812 April 2018 Drew KaplanPolitics in America

Trump has been merciless toward anyone else in government who reveals his administration’s secrets, tweeting that ‘‘the real story that Congress, the F.B.I. and all others should be looking into is the leaking of Classified[…]

“When underlying conditions are already suffused with politics, doing nothing can itself constitute a political act”

6 March 20182 March 2018 Drew KaplanPolitics in America

Change, of course, is inherently destabilizing. It upsets an existing state of affairs that might be unbearable to some but suits others just fine. Which is why accusations of “politicizing” might seem like so much[…]

“Politicization is the last refuge of the scoundrel”

4 March 20182 March 2018 Drew KaplanPolitics in America

Politicization is the last refuge of the scoundrel. To “politicize” something — hurricanes, intelligence, science, football, gun violence — is to render it political in a way that distorts its true meaning. That, at least,[…]

“The existence of multiple moral frameworks with which to view the world is not a sign of confusion; it is a sign of sophistication and strength”

7 November 20176 November 2017 Drew KaplanJewish Community

I recognize that there are those people, on the right and on the left, for whom their relationship to Israel is not just a moral imperative, but an exclusive imperative; and for whom, therefore, common[…]

Excerpted

Excerpts of Interest

Tag: Politics

“The reality of this primary process is that if you aren’t on the stage in Houston next week, you aren’t going to be the Democratic nominee”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez “has become a handy and versatile symbol — the representative representative”

“Likability is associated with an emotional connection between candidate and voter that makes a politician worthy of trust”

“The very things that can make the center so appealing, however, are also its great weaknesses”

“There are really important arenas…where the comparisons between these two countries need to be interrogated, and where deep work has to take place in order to ensure that the two societies are not reinforcing each others’ weaknesses”

“Trump’s assault on the premises of democracy is not only unique in modern American history but unique in the annals of modern liberal democracy”

“‘Classified’ still conjures images of top-secret government plots, but, in Trump’s Washington, it’s more often used to describe information that the president would prefer to keep quiet”

“When underlying conditions are already suffused with politics, doing nothing can itself constitute a political act”

“Politicization is the last refuge of the scoundrel”

“The existence of multiple moral frameworks with which to view the world is not a sign of confusion; it is a sign of sophistication and strength”