http://www.inthesetimes.com/archives/tags/campaigns/ In These Times features award-winning investigative reporting about corporate malfeasance and government wrongdoing, insightful analysis of national and international affairs, and sharp cultural criticism about events and ideas that matter. en-us Expression Engine jessica@inthesetimes.com seamus@inthesetimes.com Fri, 27 Feb 2009 23:18:58 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4270/the_anti-blago/ Illinois politics has produced its fair share of progressive intellectual leaders, including Barack Obama, former Sen. Paul Douglas, Adlai Stevenson, Rep. Abner Mikva, and bookish Mayor Harold Washington. But it's best known for tough, often shady operators with strong organizational loyalties and few ideas, such as the two Mayor Daleys, former Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, and a host of minor, forgettable organizational hacks, whose success was dictated by the old Democratic machine maxim: "Don't send nobody, nobody sent." On Tuesday, Democratic primary voters face a choice for a new U.S. Representative in Rostenkowski's old district--recently vacated by Obama's new chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel--between a brilliant independent progressive intellectual and a handful of legislators with strong organizational links, a veneer of… campaigns politics elections Grace Lee Boggs Mon, 17 Aug 2009 05:59:23 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4746/whos_got_the_power/ After decades of playing political defense and suffering defeats to an increasingly arrogant and reckless right wing, it's not surprising that American liberals and progressives suffer from "a culture of impoverished politics," in the words of Jeff Blum, executive director of USAction, a coalition of citizen groups. In many ways, progressives are still catching up to the changed political landscape, starting with Democrats holding power in Washington. More importantly, longer-term possibilities have been created by the failure of the Bush administration, the narrowing Republican base, the economic crisis, the shift of independent voters toward liberal Democratic views and the demographic trends favoring a growing progressive bloc of voters. Political analyst Ruy Teixeira argues in a new report that the right… Grace Lee Boggs Sun, 23 Aug 2009 06:00:11 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4794/rethinking_venezuelan_politics/ Hugo Chavez has become the face of Venezuela. But if we are to understand the ongoing debate over strategies for change in Latin America, we must step back from the avalanche of Chavez headlines and examine what is happening on the ground around Latin America's most visible leader. Indeed, an analysis of concrete developments in Venezuela sheds light on the viability of movements and struggles in developing countries that aim to transform their respective societies and challenge domination from the north. Throughout the developing world, these types of political contestation have been initiated from "above" and from "below": by the state and political parties that seek to obtain and retain power, and by social movements and unorganized sectors of the… Grace Lee Boggs Wed, 16 Sep 2009 06:00:07 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4904/snapshot_after_the_coup/ TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS—Supporters of ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya demonstrate on August 28, 2009. The United States pressured Honduran coup leaders after they rejected a settlement, with plans in the works to cut off nearly $150 million in U.S. assistance. (Photo by Orlando Sierra/AFP/Getty Images) Grace Lee Boggs Mon, 21 Sep 2009 06:00:54 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4901/chronically_displaced_in_nola/ On July 26, about 50 people lined up to testify before a United Nations advisory committee in the cafeteria of McDonogh 42, a New Orleans elementary school. Though there had been only a small notice in the New Orleans Times-Picayune calling for public input, about 300 Hurricane Katrina survivors turned up to tell the UN-HABITAT advisors about the difficulties they still face returning to their ancestral homes even four years after the disaster. According to the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center (GNOCDC), about a quarter of the city's pre-Katrina population--more than 175,000 people--has not returned. Though many of their neighbors have given up and left town, the group gathered at McDonogh wants to remain in New Orleans because their… Grace Lee Boggs Thu, 01 Oct 2009 06:00:43 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4915/rural_america_needs_you/ Fifty years ago, when I grew up in a small Iowa town, diversified family farms were the norm, local economies were thriving and the middle class was expanding. Then a new weapon was launched in the Cold War--cheap food--and the landscape of my youth was plowed under. The horrors of an industrialized food system already were well-known, but with Richard Nixon in the White House, "feeding the world" became our national mantra and farmers famously were told to "get big or get out." Land values rose, credit flowed, and neighbors were bought out or squeezed out of the growing global economy. Agribusinesses like Archer Daniels Midland, John Deere and Cargill were quick to seize on this new opportunity, developing a… Grace Lee Boggs Sun, 15 Nov 2009 05:00:34 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/5177/schools_cool/ The October 26 issue of Newsweek featured a cover story on the "three-year solution," the belief of Robert Zemsky, a University of Pennsylvania professor, that the nation's universities should shorten their undergraduate degree programs from four years to three. In a video on Newsweek's website, Zemsky calls the youth currently entering higher education "mallrats," who are accustomed to making decisions by "running from one end to the other, trying to compare... They think that's what life is--you run from one end of the mall to the other." By shortening the track toward a bachelor's degree, Zemsky aims to rescue the mallrats from the Sisyphean burden of consumer decision; currently, he says, they are "petrified by the level of choice." The… Grace Lee Boggs Mon, 16 Nov 2009 05:00:54 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/5179/sitting_in_for_healthcare/ Since September 29, when Mobilization for Health Care for All organized its first sit-in at health insurer Aetna's New York City offices, more than 147 activists with the group have been arrested in 24 actions around the country. Protesters, opposed to any healthcare reform short of a national single-payer system, have also occupied both Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's office in San Francisco and Senator Joe Lieberman's office on Capitol Hill. Mobilization, a two-month-old conglomeration of healthcare action groups, organized the protests as part of a campaign for what it calls "Medicare for All." Groups in each city work with the new umbrella organization to set up national days for civil disobedience. Since the Aetna sit-in in New York,… Grace Lee Boggs Tue, 01 Dec 2009 05:00:23 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/5248/100_miles_of_mirrors/ As world leaders and delegations prepare to meet in Copenhagen for the two-week UN Climate Change conference beginning Monday, it's worth asking two basic questions: How bad is global warming? And is the world on track to fix it? To answer the first question: it's more than just bad. It's bleak. According to James Hansen, NASA's top climate scientist, we must stop burning coal to generate electricity by 2030. If we don't, the West Antarctic ice shelf will melt with unstoppable momentum (PDF link), raising sea levels by over 25 feet within a century, and perhaps sooner. Rises of that size spell doom for many island nations and American coastal cities, including Miami and New York. (Other scientists predict smaller… Grace Lee Boggs