July | 2016 | Praxis

Despite Dems’ High Tech Advantages, Lowly Email May Doom Clinton’s Chances

“The DNC documents show this election really wasn’t an election at all. It was a coronation,” said Joshua Rothstein, a 25-year-old comedian from Brooklyn, his cardboard-and-duct tape pitchfork in hand. “Before those documents came out, I would have been happy to support Hillary.” But, he says, “the leaks put me over the edge.” Wasserman Schultz’s departure, especially the day before the convention begins, instantly casts the Democrats as a party in turmoil. That’s a far cry from the image the party hoped to present after…

Why Doesn’t Gary Johnson Criticize Hillary Clinton?

Gary Johnson’s fondness for savaging Republicans gives way to a strange delicacy when Democrats are up for discussion. In a word-association exercise at a CNN town hall, Johnson labeled Clinton a “great public servant” and declined to elaborate. Sure, Johnson’s libertarianism puts him at loggerheads with orthodox conservatives on social and foreign policy. But it should also bring biting reproach of liberals and socialists, who reject constraints on government (like the Constitution) when these stand in the way of a desired result. Johnson, to win…

Kasich, Rest of GOP Leaders Still Haven’t Realized the Bush Foreign Policy Was a Failure

The Republican Party is heir to a failed foreign policy that it has never fully confronted. The man who forced a partial confrontation has just secured the party’s nomination. But the reaction of the party elite appears to be that the best approach is to return, as soon as possible, to the old doctrines and nostrums and that it best to focus, not on the current election, but on establishing the parameters for 2020. How else to interpret Ohio Governor John Kasich’s speech on Tuesday afternoon…

Fox News Employees Couldn’t Believe Roger Ailes Was Going to Be Forced Out

On Thursday, Roger Ailes—the man who created the Fox News Channel under Rupert Murdoch and built it into the most powerful and influential cable news network in the country—stepped down. The decision to do so came after pressure from the Murdoch family—particularly Rupert’s sons, Lachlan and James—which was responding to numerous claims of sexual harassment against Ailes, including a lawsuit by former Fox & Friends co-host Gretchen Carlson. By the time the network’s newest star, Megyn Kelly, reportedly told independent investigators that Ailes had harassed…

Donald Trump Took the American Right Into Parts Unknown Last Night

In Walt Whitman’s famous poem “Song of Myself,” the unnamed gestalt narrator boasts that he “contains multitudes.” There are few actual people about whom that can be said other than Donald Trump. The billionaire real estate developer has encouraged some of the worst racial and religious characteristics of the American Right but he is also the first truly 21st-century Republican presidential candidate. He made it official in the speech he delivered accepting the GOP’s nomination Thursday night in Cleveland. That dual identity was on display…

Urban Voters Overwhelmingly Choose Democrats But This Was Not Always the Case

Over the past few decades, Republicans and Democrats have become more and more sharply divided – not just ideologically, but also geographically. Democrats tend to do best in the nation’s urban areas, while Republicans find their strongest support in more rural areas. Now, a new Pew Research Center analysis of county-level presidential-voting data quantifies just how dominant Democrats are in big cities – and analysts say this dominance will present a tough challenge to Donald Trump this November. […] The last time a GOP presidential candidate won…

Liberals Haven’t Turned Out to Protest Trump’s Convention. Why Not?

Leading up to this year’s Republican National Convention (RNC) in Cleveland, many worried that protests would be large, unruly and violent. […] But chaos hasn’t arrived. In fact, the protests at this year’s RNC are considerably smaller than we’ve seen at recent conventions. Why? The answer is not a newfound love of Donald Trump among social activists. The story is about organization — or rather, the lack of it. The groups interested in protest failed to forge a broad, unifying coalition that could bring together protesters…

After Scorning Him, Big Donors Are Now Seeking Room in Trump’s GOP

In his unlikely rise to the Republican nomination Donald J. Trump attacked lobbyists, disparaged big donors and railed against the party’s establishment. But on the shores of Lake Erie this week, beyond the glare of television cameras, the power of the permanent political class seemed virtually undisturbed. Though Mr. Trump promises to topple Washington’s “rigged system,” the opening rounds of his party’s quadrennial meeting accentuated a more enduring maxim: Money always adapts to power. In Cleveland, even some of those who had worked against Mr….

Meet Alex Jones, the Conspiracy Radio Host Who’s Donald Trump’s Biggest Media Ally

“There’s no way the Trump people would have reached out to me a year and a half ago, if he wasn’t aware of the work,” Jones would tell me later in the week. “He’s been what you call a ‘closet conspiracy theorist’ for 50 years. I think he’s been a chameleon in the system, and now he sees the time to strike.” When I pressed for details about the Trump outreach, Jones clammed up. (Trump guested on his radio show last December, but hasn’t been a…

Donald Trump’s RNC Convention Speech Transcript

Friends, delegates and fellow Americans: I humbly and gratefully accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States. Who would have believed that when we started this journey on June 16, last year, we — I say we because we are a team — would have received almost 14 million votes, the most in the history of the Republican party? And that the Republican Party would get 60 percent more votes than it received eight years ago. Who would have believed it? The Democrats…

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