The American Spectator

The Progressive

Alas, horrified by the bleak legacy of Citizens United, the once hopeful Progressive magazine turns to “the Framers” for succor, the very same patriarchal, closed circle of plutocrats and slave owners who got us into this mess in the first place. Is there no hope?

The Framers gave us a “Republic.” But by a Republic, they meant a “representative democracy.” And by a “representative democracy,” they meant a government with a branch that would be “dependent upon the People alone.” The simplest and most important objective of any constitutional amendment must be to restore that critical principle by removing a dependence on anything save “the People alone.”

(October 2012)

The Nation

In the sedate pages of the Nation a storm trooper commandeers space, and in the background we hear the old “Host Wessel Song” sounding. Indeed, even the Nation is turning to the right:

The Republicans have built on a white revanchism located among the racists and the fearful within white America. These voters not only despise the idea of an African-American serving as president of what they believe to be a white republic; they are terrified that the demographics of the country are changing in favor of people of color. For this reason, calls to boycott the election or turn toward third-party candidates miss what is going on. The right wishes to perpetrate a massive disenfranchisement in its desperate effort to preserve the rule of a reactionary white elite.

(October 2, 2012)

New York Times Magazine

Writing to the Times Magazine’s saintly ethicist, Kasey of New York confesses to a new form of Democratic voter fraud only to meet with stern disapproval:

My parents live in the South and are staunch Republicans. I usually don’t care about politics but lean Democratic and liberal. I live in New York City and know that Obama will win the state handily with or without my vote. So is it O.K. for me to vote for Romney as a birthday present for my mother in lieu of buying her a gift?

Kasey Taylor, New York