Essays

I won’t be a dictator, “except on day one” – Donald Trump Axios (Basu & Davis, 2024) holds that President Trump promised to make 59 major policy changes the first day of his second term. The president’s declaration about limiting dictatorship to “day one” may lack veracity, but he has followed through on many of…

  Ideology is the most devilish variation of the lie – Hannah Arendt To speak of reaction is to counterpose it with progress. This terminology is not helpful. Stable issues of political life, such as legitimate authority, justice, transparent government, clarity on the means vs ends problem; along with issues of character such as fair-mindedness; respect…

The contentious United Nations COP30 climate summit, held in November 2025 in Belém, Brazil, provides a useful reference point for making sense of the host country’s global agenda, as well as president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s third term in office and broader political project. Analyzing the linkages between the domestic and international aspects of…

Commemorating a scholarly text now known only by title demands a certain circumspection that would not be required to honor a distinguished song, movie, or novel, each of which would boast a contingent of afficionados for whom allocating respect to the cultural product in question would be “natural.”  Music in particular summons up enthusiastic endorsement…