Pontificating About Civic Literacy
Friday, I participated in a conference titled “Democracy in America–Promises and Perils” at Loyola Law School in Chicago. My concerns will not come as a surprise to regular readers. Here’s what I said....
View ArticleMore Confirmation Of Civic Ignorance
One of the most obvious–and infuriating–characteristics of the Keystone Kop administration that Trump has cobbled together is its utter cluelessness about the government they have been installed to...
View ArticleHow Children Become American
A couple of weeks ago, I came across a column in the Washington Post addressing the critical role of the nation’s schools in integrating the children of immigrants into American culture. Public schools...
View ArticleWhy I Harp On Civic Literacy
In yesterday’s post, I listed elements of necessary political reform, beginning with reinvigorated civics instruction in the public schools. I would understand if regular readers of this blog shrugged...
View ArticleCivic Ignorance and Democratic Accountability
Published in Loyola Law Journal There is growing recognition that Americans’ diminished civic participation and the erosion of democratic norms are linked to low levels of civic literacy, defined as a...
View ArticlePast Time For These–And Other–Reforms
Americans shouldn’t allow Trump’s COVID diagnosis to become the ultimate distraction from the electoral choices that face us, or the structural challenges we will face even in the best of electoral...
View ArticleIt Isn’t Just Media Literacy
Americans today face some unprecedented challenges–and as I have repeatedly noted, our information environment makes those challenges far more difficult to meet. The Internet, which has brought us...
View ArticleIt’s All Connected
Americans today face an unprecedented challenge. The Internet, which has brought us undeniable benefits and conveniences, also allows us to occupy “filter bubbles”—to inhabit different realities. One...
View ArticleStuff I Know You Know…
At noon today, I’m speaking (via Zoom) to a Columbus, Indiana human rights organization. Here are my prepared remarks. (Long one–sorry.) ____________________________________________________ Over the...
View ArticlePolicy, Politics And Reality
Paul Krugman condenses our current democratic dysfunction into one pithy paragraph. In principle, voters should judge politicians by their actions; they should support politicians who pursue policies...
View ArticleBut I Repeat Myself…
Last Thursday, I delivered the following speech to a Kiwanis group in Northwest Indianapolis. Longtime readers of this blog will recognize the “theme”…It’s also considerably longer than my usual posts,...
View ArticleI Know I’m A Broken Record…
Can you stand one more diatribe about the importance of civic literacy? Especially now, as Congressional hearings and Supreme Court decisions demonstrate not just how close we’ve come to disaster? An...
View ArticleChristian Grievance
Sometimes, a news article will hit several of my hot buttons. This recent one managed to do so. (Not that it is particularly difficult to piss me off…the older I get, the crankier…) Here’s the gist of...
View ArticleWhy I Love David French
I make it a point to read anything I come across from David French, whose writing I love because it is both eloquent and thoughtful–and admittedly, for the same reason most of us like writers: he...
View ArticleAddressing The Civics Deficit
I spent a considerable part of my academic career focusing on what I described as the civic deficit. Soon after joining the faculty–and especially when I taught undergraduate classes–I came face to...
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