In a post-George Floyd America, where many are now calling to “defund the police” and focus on community-based investment, Democrats must listen to those who have been a victim of police brutality and racism. Beyond being a conversation about race, it is also a conversation about unbridled power and the brutality of draconian law. If we are to request massive reassessments that divest from punitive criminal authority to more holistic public safety standards, we have to be honest about America’s defense spending. …

John Reed’s journalistic testament of the Russian Revolution in the Ten Days That Shook the World promotes a ‘glorified’ picture of the revolution, most classically, as furnishing a global upshot of socialist politics. In the preface, he states, “No matter what one thinks of Bolshevism, it is undeniable that the Russian Revolution is one of the great events of human history, and the rise of the Bolsheviki [is] a phenomenon of world-wide importance.” [15] Reed seems to hold genuine confidence in the global ramifications of the Russian Revolution, which was, as most scholars attest, ‘caused by the struggle for international…

In modern academia, the role of the historian takes on many shades of thought and varies in philosophical perspective and practice. Whether the vast differences within the discipline is “ethical” or not is to be determined by analyzing what historians define as “history.” While many may envisage history as a study of analyzing the past, or as a way to predict the future, it should be understood as a method aimed at keeping human consciousness of the political past enduring through the present and future. As Rosenzweig and Thelen have discovered in their extensive study of people’s personal histories, we…

Paul Krugman’s New York Times article about “Moochers Against Welfare” points to a fundamental problem that has been getting worse in America since the Clinton era: awareness of social welfare policies. After a recent conversation with a friend on Facebook, it demonstrated what Krugman emphasized — a majority of people who are against social welfare make up the largest share of welfare recipients. This mostly includes the white working-class in red states, seniors, and veterans. Krugman’s article speaks to a more extensive body of research about the opaque nature of private intermediaries involved in the procurement of social welfare policies…

POP-CULTURE OPINION

We all know wrestling is choreographed. But for decades, wrestling has had the power to captivate our minds artistically and expressively. It prompts fans to aspire to be bold in the things they believe in. The WWE has captured an immense audience for many years displaying a variety of strengths and controversy, and at times, corny storylines. While WWE has not always played a role in shaping societal conventions, over the past two years, it has been the loudest in raising women’s voices to the forefront of wrestling. This historic shift has been primarily due to the work…

After reflecting on the materialization of discourse in revolutionary France during 1789, one can’t help but notice the prevalence of radical republicanism. Republican virtue was synonymous with liberty, solidarity, and equality. In bringing such ideas to prominence in government, Maximilien Robespierre once wrote on “Political Morality” professing

Republican virtue can be considered in relation to the people and in relation to the government; it is necessary in both. When only the government lacks virtue, there remains a resource in the people’s virtue; but when the people itself is corrupted, liberty is already lost. . . [7]

For fear of subversion…

Since researching the stages of national development in the Soviet Union, I came across a very interesting trend that places the female subject front-and-center in Soviet political history. Not only do women play a critical role in the Russian Revolution that brought forth the first socialist experiment in world history, but women are able to enhance their labor and educational agency post-Russian Civil War in ways that propel them into high places. For one, women are key players in the agricultural sector, and become the teachers for future generations of Soviet citizens, using their vocation as a political revitalization agenda…

POP-CULTURE OPINION

Think about it. Let it simmer in your mind a little. Search your feelings, “you know it to be true. . .”

At least it makes for a good story. It even fits well with the recent trilogy’s notion suggesting that the force is reemerging, awakening, and that this most recent film will be about the “Last Jedi.” Rey can’t be a Solo, Rey has an English accent. She can’t be a Skywalker, Luke is chaste. Nor can she be a Kenobi, Obi Wan went into hiding and died well before any possibility of Rey being his daughter…