presidency

I wish FDR hadn't run for President

It was really irresponsible of him to run when he had polio.

Our history would be so much better if he had just told everybody he couldn't handle the duties of the Presidency due to illness, and told the Democrats to run J. Hamilton Lewis. After all, Lewis was so much more electable and had so much more chance of beating Hoover.

What matters in a president?

While it may be foolish to look to our political system for solutions to our problems, it is arguable that who is president at any given time matters. I used to be less certain about this. I had come to the view that any president was basically a spokes-model for the 1%, and hence the military industrial complex, Wall Street, the establishment, the oligarchy, etc.

Is the United States a "Thermonuclear Monarchy?"

As we celebrated this July the severing of ties to the royal house of Great Britain in 1776, the truth is that we have come full circle and have since 1945 been living under a far more dangerous and absolute system than anything King George III could have contemplated in his wildest dreams, what author Elaine Scarry calls, “the Thermonuclear Monarchy.”

Memorial Day misgivings

Today is Memorial Day. This is a day about which many Americans think as the start of summer vacation. Memorial day is the day of the Indianapolis 500 race--rapidly going around in circles to return to the starting point--more about this later. Another notion held by the vast majority of americans, especially those born after the ending of World War 2, is that this is a day on which to spend money on sales, sales, sales. How many citizens remember the true purpose of Memorial Day?