#more-perfect-union

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NYC politics
fromThe Nation
2 days ago

Mamdani Wants to Show That Democratic Socialism "Can Flourish Anywhere"

Democratic socialism can thrive nationally, focusing on the working class and delivering practical governance, as demonstrated by the mayor's early accomplishments.
#birthright-citizenship
US Elections
fromwww.npr.org
2 weeks ago

As birthright citizenship goes to Supreme Court, here's how Americans feel about it

The Supreme Court will decide on the future of automatic citizenship for children born in the U.S., a practice under constitutional debate.
Social justice
fromFuncheap
2 days ago

Trump vs. Birthright Citizenship: Free Discussion + Poetry (Berkeley)

Trump's executive order to abolish birthright citizenship violates the 14th Amendment, prompting a Supreme Court review of its constitutionality.
US Elections
fromThe New Yorker
2 weeks ago

The Supreme Court on Who Gets to Be an American

The Supreme Court's ruling on Wong Kim Ark established a crucial precedent for birthright citizenship in the United States.
Right-wing politics
fromLos Angeles Times
2 weeks ago

Commentary: Birthright citizenship secured my family's American dream. No wonder Trump hates it

Trump's executive order to end birthright citizenship is under Supreme Court review, despite strong public support for the policy.
US Elections
fromwww.npr.org
2 weeks ago

Who is an American? The Supreme Court will decide

President Trump claims there is no automatic guarantee to birthright citizenship in the Constitution, challenging established legal interpretations.
US Elections
fromwww.npr.org
2 weeks ago

As birthright citizenship goes to Supreme Court, here's how Americans feel about it

The Supreme Court will decide on the future of automatic citizenship for children born in the U.S., a practice under constitutional debate.
Right-wing politics
fromEsquire
2 days ago

Clarence Thomas Wouldn't Know What Progressivism Was If It Smacked Him on the Head

Justice Clarence Thomas criticizes progressivism for undermining natural rights and blames Woodrow Wilson for its adoption in American governance.
US news
fromwww.npr.org
5 days ago

Virginia joins a national effort to ensure only popular vote winners become president

Virginia joins the National Popular Vote Compact, increasing the total to 18 states and 222 electoral votes, aiming for a nationwide popular vote system.
History
fromSmithsonian Magazine
6 days ago

In 1776, the Declaration of Independence Was Breaking News. Here's How the Founding Document Reached the American Public

Emily Sneff's book tracks the reception and journey of the Declaration of Independence's first printed copies across the Thirteen Colonies and beyond.
Law
fromHarvard Gazette
1 week ago

When is it time to dissent? - Harvard Gazette

Dissent is essential in law and faith, offering lessons on navigating disagreement productively.
#american-history
Philosophy
fromHarvard Gazette
3 weeks ago

Revisiting America's vision statement - Harvard Gazette

The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution represent a disjunction between America's vision of equality and its operational compromises.
Philosophy
fromHarvard Gazette
3 weeks ago

Revisiting America's vision statement - Harvard Gazette

The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution represent a disjunction between America's vision of equality and its operational compromises.
Left-wing politics
fromFortune
1 week ago

America's CEOs have become reluctant guardians of democracy | Fortune

Business leaders have historically played a crucial role in promoting democracy and social justice in America.
fromHarvard Gazette
2 weeks ago

Is a more perfect union still possible? - Harvard Gazette

"If we're going to get to a good place again ... it's going to be because people do something and decide that union matters and that we want to be a nation that is unified." Drew Faust
World politics
Washington DC
fromLGBTQ Nation
2 weeks ago

America has long been obsessed with war. But true patriots glorify peace. - LGBTQ Nation

The author reflects on the impact of war and military actions throughout their life, highlighting personal and historical tragedies associated with conflict.
World news
fromThe Nation
2 weeks ago

What Are Your Obligations When Your Country Is the Villain?

The U.S. executed a devastating missile strike on a school in Iran, killing many children and raising moral questions about its actions.
#immigration-enforcement
fromThe Atlantic
2 weeks ago
US politics

Does the Constitution Protect This Congresswoman From Trump?

The Trump administration uses criminal charges to intimidate dissenters, exemplified by Congress member LaMonica McIver's prosecution for protesting immigration enforcement.
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 months ago
US politics

America has reached a tipping point on fascism and on opposition to it | Robert Reich

Recent events in Minneapolis and federal actions have driven lifelong Republicans away, exposing lies and accelerating a slide toward a repressive, fascist police state.
US politics
fromThe Atlantic
2 weeks ago

Does the Constitution Protect This Congresswoman From Trump?

The Trump administration uses criminal charges to intimidate dissenters, exemplified by Congress member LaMonica McIver's prosecution for protesting immigration enforcement.
Podcast
from99% Invisible
3 weeks ago

Constitution Breakdown #8: Jill Lepore - 99% Invisible

Article V outlines the amendment process of the U.S. Constitution, which has become increasingly difficult to navigate.
US news
fromwww.nytimes.com
2 weeks ago

Video: The Supreme Court's Personal Connections to Immigration

The Supreme Court justices have personal connections to immigration, influencing their perspectives on birthright citizenship.
US politics
fromwww.mediaite.com
3 weeks ago

DC No Kings' Protesters Add a New Verse To America The Beautiful': Thy Immigrant, Who Hail From Every Land'

Protesters in D.C. added a new verse to America The Beautiful to express opposition to Trump's immigration policies.
Psychology
fromPsychology Today
1 month ago

From Political Polarization to Bridging Divides

Political polarization stems from emotional identity and negative out-group perceptions rather than factual disagreement, and community engagement proves more effective than presenting contradictory evidence.
Law
fromAbove the Law
1 month ago

The Rule Of Law Joins America's Dead Pets On The Rainbow Bridge - Above the Law

Trump attorney John Lauro claimed the DOJ improved under Attorney General Pam Bondi, contradicting legal observers who view current conditions as a constitutional crisis threatening prosecutorial independence.
fromemptywheel
1 month ago

Mixing The Mixed Constitution - emptywheel

Burke's was a broadside that not only excoriated the social upheavals effected by the French revolutionaries and (by extension) commended by Marx, but the continual economic and social instability prized by modern liberal economic philosophy and practice. Against a new class of elites-mainly, an alliance between ideological progressive theorists and a rising financial oligarchy-Burke urged protection of the stability, tradition, and social continuities vital for the flourishing of ordinary people.
Left-wing politics
fromJezebel
1 month ago

The U.S. Is So Over World Peace It Erased the Olive Branch from the Dime

For a nation whose founding symbols were carefully engineered around the balance of peace and war, that omission is hard to read as accidental. Dropping the olive branch from the dime isn't just a design choice: it's a cultural signal.
Washington DC
fromWorld History Encyclopedia
1 month ago

Liberty's Grid: A Founding Father, a Mathematical Dreamland, and the Shaping of America

The street plan of the Valley is 'the street plan of America.' By this, he means that streets in cities across the U.S. offer rectilinear uniformity: 'broad, arrow-straight avenues, regularly spaced and perfectly parallel to one another, are met at fixed intervals by equally straight and parallel streets that intersect them at precise right angles.'
History
fromThe Conversation
1 month ago

What James Madison can teach Americans about religious freedom today

Since taking office for a second time, the Trump administration has issued a number of executive orders on religion that raise new questions about religious freedom. On May 1, 2025, the administration established the Religious Liberty Commission. The commission will advise the White House on policies intended to protect the free exercise of religion and to prevent discrimination against people of faith by the federal government.
Philosophy
US politics
fromAxios
1 month ago

Axios Finish Line: A consensus Bill of Rights

Americans across political lines support limited government intervention in personal freedoms, secure borders with pathways for legal immigrants, reduced federal spending, and decreased government trust.
fromBig Think
1 month ago

How the U.S. Constitution protects liberty from the powerful's dark impulses

The real Führer is always a judge. Out of Führerdom flows judgeship. One who wants to separate the two from each other or puts them in opposition to each other would have the judge be either the leader of the opposition or the tool of the opposition and is trying to unhinge the state with the help of the judiciary.
History
fromHarvard Gazette
1 month ago

Excerpt from 'The Cradle of Citizenship' by James Traub - Harvard Gazette

The same deep forces that afflict many Western nations have wrenched us apart: the transition to a postindustrial economy and the attendant erosion of working-class security, the demographic shift toward a "majority minority" nation, the cultural upheaval that has dethroned men, and especially white men, from their age-old dominance - and the rise of entrepreneurs of outrage eager to exploit all that free-floating anger.
Education
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

Democracy Dies in Broad Daylight

Last week- after the Wall Street Journal broke more news about the Trump family's dodgy crypto-business dealings and before the President shared a racist video of the Obamas depicted as dancing apes-the Amazon entrepreneur Jeff Bezos decided that one of his smaller properties, the Washington Post, has proved such a drag on his two-hundred-and-thirty-billion-dollar fortune that prudence required that he obliterate much of its newsroom.
Media industry
fromThe Atlantic
1 month ago

A Word for Our Troubled Times

A record high of adults—80 percent—believes that Americans are divided on the most important values. National pride, trust in government, and confidence in institutions are near record lows. The Princeton University historian Sean Wilentz says the United States hasn't been this divided since the Civil War. Nearly half of Americans think another civil war is likely in their lifetime.
US politics
Canada news
fromemptywheel
2 months ago

The Truth of Dead Exceptionalism - emptywheel

Canada has shifted to value-based realism, pursuing principled and pragmatic engagement with middle powers to defend values, sovereignty, and security amid shifting global power behavior.
Law
fromAbove the Law
1 month ago

Standing Up And Cheering For American-ish Principles - Above the Law

Trump's State of the Union challenge to Democrats about protecting American citizens over illegal aliens was a rhetorical trap that oversimplified complex policy issues requiring nuanced discussion rather than simple yes-or-no responses.
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 months ago

Why most democracies won't touch Trump's Board of Peace

It turns out: not that many world leaders or global citizens. That's because the Board of Peace, created last year by a UN security council resolution, and intended to have a singular focus on implementing a Gaza peace plan, is increasingly looking like a Donald Trump fiefdom, which could allow the US president to wade into other countries' affairs as he sees fit.
World news
Philosophy
fromAeon
2 months ago

The West's forgotten republican heritage | Aeon Essays

Power to shape daily life has shifted to markets, corporations, and data systems, leaving citizens feeling powerless and fueling a turn toward authoritarian politics.
Left-wing politics
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

How the University Replaced the Church as the Home of Liberal Morality

Universities have replaced churches and unions as primary institutions shaping young liberals' moral imagination, community, and political activism.
US news
fromwww.npr.org
2 months ago

How President Trump has challenged a constitutional foundation

President Trump significantly expanded executive power and eroded democratic checks, pushing governance toward authoritarian practices while provoking widespread disapproval.
fromSmithsonian Magazine
2 months ago

Commemorate Presidents' Day With 15 Images That Celebrate the Founding Fathers

Observed on February 22, George Washington's birthday, Presidents' Day became a holiday in 1885. In 1971, the day evolved to recognize all presidents, namely Abraham Lincoln, who was born on February 12. Still a federal holiday 140 years later, Presidents' Day is a time to reflect on the nation's leaders, who have shaped life for its citizens and affected the world in immeasurable ways-for better or worse.
Law
fromAbove the Law
1 month ago

Justice Gorsuch: Originalism Requires We Recall That The Founders Knew How To F-ing Party - Above the Law

Justice Gorsuch argues that founding-era 'habitual drunkard' laws cannot justify modern firearm restrictions for drug users, citing evidence that Founders consumed far more alcohol than modern standards would classify as habitual use.
US politics
fromThe Atlantic
2 months ago

America Needs 'Self-Evident' Truths

Public revulsion at ICE killings in Minnesota forced federal agents to withdraw and revealed a broad, shared moral opposition to violence against immigrants.
US politics
fromThe Atlantic
2 months ago

The Founders Would Have Opposed 'Nationalizing' Elections

State-centered election administration and constitutional limits make nationalizing voting inconsistent with the Framers' intent and vulnerable to judicial resistance.
Law
fromEsquire
2 months ago

There's No Way Anyone in the Trump Administration Has Read the Declaration of Independence

A federal court ordered release of Adrian Conejo Arias and his five-year-old son, finding the Constitution and Fourth Amendment protect against administrative detention.
fromFast Company
2 months ago

Our embrace of individuals over institutions isn't serving us well

In the early 20th century, sociologist Max Weber noted that sweeping industrialization would transform how societies worked. As small, informal operations gave way to large, complex organizations with clearly defined roles and responsibilities, leaders would need to rely less on tradition and charisma, and more on organization and rationality. He also foresaw that jobs would need to be broken down into specialized tasks and governed by a system of hierarchy,
History
US politics
fromThe Atlantic
2 months ago

American Democracy Is Showing Signs of Life

American democracy faced severe authoritarian threats under Trump but shows resilience through declining presidential support, mass protest, citizen defense, political opposition, and judicial resistance.
fromwww.mercurynews.com
2 months ago

Opinion: Liberty doesn't defend itself right now, it needs our help.

In the United States, we haven't yet seen rifles aimed at large crowds, but we do observe masked federal agents detaining protesters in unmarked vehicles, flashy ICE raids staged like military operations and pardons for political violence all clear warning signs. Ignoring this is the first step toward complacency, which can kill liberty. Fascism is often misunderstood. It is not just political oppression; it is a set of traits, as scholars and observers point out,
US politics
US politics
fromwww.amny.com
1 month ago

Op-Ed | The Trump administration believes that it has the right to decide what the rule of law is | amNewYork

A federal judge invalidated the Trump administration's policy of deporting undocumented immigrants to third countries rather than their home countries, ruling it violates U.S. law protecting against torture and persecution.
fromHarvard Gazette
2 months ago

What would the Founding Fathers think of TikTok? - Harvard Gazette

By placing 80 percent of its U.S. assets under the control of non-Chinese investors, the joint venture aims to avoid an outright ban. The new investors include the technology company Oracle, the private equity company Silver Lake, and the Emirati investment firm MGX. ByteDance retains a stake of just under 20 percent and will license its algorithm to the new entity.
US politics
US politics
fromThe Mercury News
2 months ago

Letters: Hypocrisy of MAGA repudiates principles of the US

Hypocrisy of MAGA repudiates founding principles and health system needs increased staffing to prevent patient harm.
US politics
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 months ago

Democrats have a constitutional power they aren't using to fight back: state resolutions | Sidney Blumenthal

Democratic state legislatures can revive pre-17th Amendment orders of instruction to pressure senators and counter attempts to impose a police state.
US politics
fromwww.nytimes.com
2 months ago

Video: Opinion | The Pay-to-Play Patriotism of 2026

U.S. 250th celebration is marketed as pay-to-play with million-dollar VIP access, millionaire speaking slots, public-private deals, and administration-linked crypto profits.
US politics
fromThe Nation
2 months ago

Freedoms Under Threat

Independent, progressive journalism holds the powerful accountable, centers marginalized communities, exposes distortions, and relies on reader support to sustain urgent coverage.
fromEmptywheel
2 months ago

The Unstated Constitutional Problems With Obama "Using the 14th"

The Founders, in creating and nurturing our system of governance by and through the Constitution provided separate and distinct branches of government, the Legislative, Executive and Judicial and, further, provided for intentional, established and delineated checks and balances so that power was balanced and not able to be usurped by any one branch tyrannically against the interest of the citizenry.
US politics
fromThe Nation
2 months ago

The Antidemocratic Zealots Presiding Over Trump's Makeover of US History

Freedom 250 is being used to infuse MAGA messaging into the U.S. semiquincentennial celebration and reshape national institutions with Trump's branding.
US politics
fromwww.mercurynews.com
2 months ago

Letters: Hypocrisy of MAGA repudiates principles of the US

Political hypocrisy and power-driven policies undermine U.S. founding principles, while insufficient healthcare staffing at Kaiser endangers patients and demands increased staffing.
US politics
fromLGBTQ Nation
2 months ago

Democrats reintroduce Trans Bill of Rights as "a moral commitment" to trans people - LGBTQ Nation

Federal legislation would codify protections and access to medical care, shelter, safety, and economic security for transgender and nonbinary people by amending civil rights law.
US politics
fromAbove the Law
2 months ago

Even A Trump Judge Knows We're In The Middle Of A Constitutional Crisis - Above the Law

ICE's operations at the Whipple Federal Building violate detainees' constitutional rights through opaque transfers, inadequate legal notice, and dismissive government evidence.
US politics
fromThe Atlantic
2 months ago

Another Way to Be an American

Enforced Americanization undermines democracy; allowing immigrants to retain cultural identities supports a trans-national Americanism that strengthens democratic pluralism.
US politics
fromSlate Magazine
2 months ago

Donald Trump and George Washington Have Some Surprising Traits in Common. There's One Gigantic Difference.

George Washington relinquished power and modeled selfless leadership; Donald Trump seeks prolonged power, self-aggrandizes, and asserts unwarranted authority.
fromPsychology Today
2 months ago

Presidential Words for Presidents Day

From George Washington's first presidential "administration" to Donald Trump's promises to cut taxes "bigly," U.S. presidents have played a big role in shaping the direction of the country, including the words we use to talk about everything from national politics to everyday objects and actions.
US politics
US politics
fromwww.mediaite.com
2 months ago

Alex Pretti's Life Should Remind Us Of What American Citizenship Looks Like

Alex Pretti, a VA ICU nurse who cared for veterans, was killed on video whose viral freeze-frame decontextualized him and became a symbol of outrage.
fromThe Atlantic
1 month ago

How America Chose Not to Hold the Powerful to Account

Since Richard Nixon was forced to resign, powerful people in both political parties have worked assiduously to ensure that their leaders would escape the consequences of their actions. Trump has evaded punishment for crimes both low (campaign-finance violations, for which he was convicted, though he will serve no time thanks to his 2024 victory) and high (his attempted overthrow of the federal government in the aftermath of his 2020 election loss, for which he was spared by the Supreme Court's decision to grant him a kingly immunity).
US politics
fromwww.aljazeera.com
2 months ago

Cornel West: US is facing moral collapse and democratic decay

The academic and political activist discusses what he sees as a moral collapse in the US and a leadership crisis in the Democratic Party. In this episode of Talk to Al Jazeera, American philosopher and activist Cornel West delivers a searing critique of the United States, describing what he sees as moral collapse, democratic decay and spiritual bankruptcy. Drawing on the Black freedom struggle and his own run in the 2024 presidential election,
US politics
fromLGBTQ Nation
2 months ago

Political pragmatism is not a moral failing. It may be the only thing that can save us. - LGBTQ Nation

He is not worthy of the presidency. He takes bribes blatantly. And now he's being a racist, blatantly. They were supposed to deport the dangerous criminals. They were not supposed to go after small children, storm schools, bring terror upon, you know, the little kids and the women and children, not just the immigrants in the school. All the children are scared.
US politics
US politics
fromThe Nation
2 months ago

Is It Possible for Speech to Ever Be Too Free?

Free speech empowers dissent and equality but can also inflict harm, spread disinformation, entrench power and privilege, and requires balancing individual liberty with collective protections.
#authoritarianism
US politics
fromwww.mediaite.com
2 months ago

Bill Clinton Speaks Out on MN Unrest After Alex Pretti Death

Former President Bill Clinton condemned the shooting death of Alex Pretti and called the actions of federal agents unacceptable and avoidable.
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