Tag Archives: authoritarianism

The John Lewis Example

Posted on January 12, 2026 by gdkrenz

Friends, the news gets more chilling every day. On the one hand, there are good signs that Trump’s coalition is fracturing; on the other hand, he is getting more and more brazen in his statements and in his actions, aided … Continue reading →

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Good and Evil (Gary Krenz)

Posted on January 8, 2026 by gdkrenz

I am essentially at a loss for words about the killing of Reneé Nicole Good. This is a wrenching, grievous moment — of course especially for those close to Good, and for those who were eye witnesses, and for the … Continue reading →

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Self-evident truths (Declaration musings II) (Gary Krenz)

Posted on January 1, 2026 by gdkrenz

Happy New Year! In this second musing on the Declaration of Independence (the first is here), I would like to reflect on the document’s core ideals and what they might mean for the renewal of our democracy today. I ended … Continue reading →

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A submission of facts to a candid world (Declaration musings I) (Gary Krenz)

Posted on December 31, 2025 by gdkrenz

Happy New Year! Tomorrow we enter the year of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. There will be much to review and discuss about America’s Revolution (I haven’t watched the Ken Burns documentary yet but look forward to it); … Continue reading →

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Coin sets and white male supremacy (Gary Krenz)

Posted on December 14, 2025 by gdkrenz

If you would like evidence that the ultimate goal of the Trump Administration and MAGA leadership is a white-male-supremacist society, look no further than the Treasury Department’s release of designs for the US Mint coin set commemorating the nation’s 250th … Continue reading →

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Welcome to Oceania, ca. 1984 (Gary Krenz)

Posted on December 5, 2025 by gdkrenz

The so-called “double-tap” – a terribly sanitizing word – attack on two stranded Venezuelans in the Caribbean continues to be front and center in the news, and now some members of Congress have had access to video of the attack. … Continue reading →

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State Media by Proxy (Gary Krenz)

Posted on November 26, 2025 by gdkrenz

Ben Schwartz has an excellent piece in The Nation, “Trump’s Quest for Total Media Control.”  It lays out in concise fashion how the various strands of Trump’s attacks on media — from trying to get Jimmy Kimmel and others fired to … Continue reading →

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Ruth Ben-Ghiat: “Intellectual Freedom in an Authoritarian Age”

Posted on November 18, 2025 by gdkrenz

As I promised in an earlier post, here is the video of Ruth Ben-Ghiat’s outstanding Davis, Markert, and Nickerson Lecture on Academic and Intellectual Freedom at the University of Michigan. It is well worth watching!

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Terrorism and the White House (Gary Krenz)

Posted on November 17, 2025 by gdkrenz

The Oxford English Dictionary defines “terrorism” as “2. gen. A policy intended to strike with terror those against whom it is adopted; the employment of methods of intimidation; the fact of terrorizing or condition of being terrorized.” As definitions go, it’s … Continue reading →

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No, Spkr Johnson: “No Kings” IS “Love America”

Posted on October 13, 2025 by gdkrenz

We Americans love to label things, no doubt. And labeling things can be important in politics. Labels can give us a shorthand, and they can serve as rallying cries. At this point, we can’t for instance any longer avoid calling … Continue reading →

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