Publications

The American Prospect

The Many Varieties of Voter Suppression

America’s decentralized election system fails voters in a common way. As each state adopts independent mesaures, the electoral stresses caused by COVID-19 and laws that aim to ensure the security of American elections may increase voter suppression in the country. 

Six Years After Ferguson, Barriers to Voting Persist

The shooting of Michael Brown in late summer of 2014 started a national conversation about police racism and brutality; and in St. Louis, it started a renaissance of the city’s history of organizing, activism, and engagement in politics. Despite the progress, harsh voter ID laws and socioeconomic and cultural obstacles limit numbers at the polls.

Hugo's World

Hugo Chávez's sweeping election win may be read as a simple mandate for the demagogic Venezuelan leader to push on with his plans to transform his country with what he calls "21st-century socialism," designed to empower the impoverished masses with state-controlled oil profits, as described in my article last week. But for the region and the world, his victory could mean much more.

Chávez Marches On

A small crowd gathers at six each evening on the steps outside a dilapidated high school in one of Caracas's many impoverished barrios. With the sun dipping in the distance, middle-aged women arrive with their daughters. A few old men stand smoking cigarettes. One guy with tattoos on his arms labours up in a wheelchair and two rugged-looking characters help him ease it down the steps. The whole scene feels like something out of a Hugo Chávez infomercial.