There are three levels on which one can respond to the claim that abortion has now been “sent back to the states.” First, one can point out that many states have been so gerrymandered by Republican state legislators (aided by the same Republican justices who just sent abortion “back to the states”) that their governmentsContinue reading “Thrones, Dominions, Principalities, Powers”
Category Archives: Politics
Where We’re Going, Where We’ve Been
Much of what our society frames as tolerance in political discourse is infantilizing nonsense. It is not actually respectful to treat people like children, to sit silently as they deny or obfuscate the consequences of their actions, to allow ill-formed or selfish intentions to weigh heavier than results. Adults ought to own what they believeContinue reading “Where We’re Going, Where We’ve Been”
Unliving History
If science fiction is as much about the present as the future, then alternate history is as much about the actual past as the imagined one. That Curtis Sittenfeld’s latest novel, Rodham, is alternate history as wish fulfillment (or, to echo Laura Miller, as fan fiction) is both more obvious and less interesting than justContinue reading “Unliving History”
Nobody Knows Anything
I never watch the party conventions. I don’t pay attention to political speeches even when they’re of potential historical significance (my high school American history teacher frowned at us when no one in the class had watched Bush’s speech announcing the Iraq War, but I was and am unrepentant), so I’m certainly not going toContinue reading “Nobody Knows Anything”
On the Virtues of Not Being Excited
I wrote back in February about how comparatively small the stakes were in this year’s Democratic primary, given Donald Trump’s obvious, dangerous unfitness for office and the congressional Republican Party’s determination to obstruct anything a Democratic replacement might do. Imagine, then, how much smaller were the stakes in Joe Biden’s selection of a running mate.Continue reading “On the Virtues of Not Being Excited”
Late Democracy 