• Transatlantic Left Voices

The morning after Election Day 2014, the New York Daily News featured a headline: “Bam Drags Down Dems.” Roughly translated, this means: “President Obama’s declining popularity led to the Democratic Party losing both Houses of Congress to the Republicans, as well as several state gubernatorial races.” More precisely, the political meaning is: “The Republicans’ relentless […]

• Transatlantic Left Voices

Elections alone do not make a democracy, but without elections, there can be no democracy, because the right to vote is the foundation of republican self-governance. For decades, the United States has had among the lowest voter participation rates of any democracy. In addition, the people who participate in elections are whiter, richer, and have […]

• Transatlantic Left Voices

In the battle for the White House, the predominant depiction by the media industry portrays the opposing camps of the Democratic incumbent, Barack Obama, and his Republican challenger, the multi-millionaire and former Governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney, as irreconcilable. But are the political differences between them really as large as the media industry makes it […]