The Significance of Mike Pence
Published: The Good Men Project (July 16, 2016) As The New York Times recently reported, there are an awful lot of social issues in which Donald Trump doesn’t now or didn’t in the past line up with his new vice presidential running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence. These range from abortion and gay rights to whether smoking kills people. Considering that Trump has flip-flopped on a number of issues...
Buying “Ghostbusters” — or not: How buying in or boycotting a summer family movie became a political act
Published: Salon (July 15, 2016) It’s just a movie, people. Watching the “Ghostbusters” reboot was like going to McDonald’s. It is disposable, thoroughly enjoyable and distinctly American mass-produced entertainment. I savor the flavor of a Big Mac with the same casual attitude that I and the others attending my screening chuckled throughout this movie. This makes it all the more remarkable that...
The Ableism of Non-Autistics
Published: The Good Men Project (July 12, 2016) Wouldn’t it be great if everyone had a handicapped parking space? Obviously this can’t happen – the whole point of handicapped spaces is that they provide the physically disabled with closer proximity to buildings than the physically abled – but an equivalent is possible when it comes to social interactions. To understand what I mean, though, it is...
Jews have a special responsibility to fight Donald Trump
Published: Quartz (July 9, 2016) Donald Trump’s anti-Semitic tweet—I’m sorry, his allegedly anti-Semitic tweet—is still in the news in the US, and with good reason. The presumptive Republican nominee has repeatedly refused to apologize for linking Hillary Clinton, corruption and Judaism all in one ill-advised meme. Meanwhile, his Jewish son-in-law Jared Kushner is being publicly pressured by one...
America has had a tyrant like Trump before: We fought a revolution to get rid of him
Published: Salon (July 4, 2016) As America celebrates its 240th anniversary, the Donald Trump campaign confronts us with the vivid possibility that our democracy could look vastly different if he’s elected. No, I’m not implying that Trump is another Adolf Hitler. You don’t need to be a latter-day Fuehrer to hold positions antithetical to the spirit of the Declaration of Independence. That said,...
Sanders voters should learn from Brexit: Don’t make the same mistake as Brits and support right-wing populism
Published: Salon (July 3, 2016) If Bernie Sanders supporters can learn anything from Brexit, it is that the English-speaking world is in the mood for a certain type of right-wing populism. On one side of the pond, the anti-immigrant and anti-free trade sentiment that swept the United Kingdom prompted that nation to vote for a historic exit from the European Union. In the United States, this...
Grover Cleveland and the Current Political Climate
Published: The Good Men Project (July 2, 2016) The context was the election of 1892. Cleveland had served a single term as president from 1885 to 1889, but had been defeated in his first re-election bid by former Senator Benjamin Harrison of Indiana. Normally that would have marked the end of Cleveland's presidential career, as it had for the previous three presidents who had sought a second...
Trump isn’t Goldwater… He might win.
Published: Salon (July 2, 2016), The Good Men Project (June 28, 2016) Back in March, I observed that Donald Trump had transformed the Republican Party in a similar way as Barry Goldwater. For those of you unfamiliar with the reference, Goldwater was a plucky arch-conservative Senator from Arizona who defied the GOP establishment by winning their party's presidential nomination in 1964. Although...
A Warning About Donald Trump
Published: Quartz (June 24, 2016) If Britain’s decision to leave the European Union is any indication, Americans cannot become complacent about Donald Trump. Trust me, I understand why many of my fellow political writers on the North American side of the Atlantic are breathing early signs of relief. Trump is behind Hillary Clinton in all but a handful of recent national polls and has been far...
Why “Finding Dory” speaks to me as an autistic man
Published: Salon (June 17, 2016) There is a Yiddish word, verklempt, that roughly translates as being choked up to the point of near-tears without actually crying. If you grew up with a learning disability or raised a child with one, there are plenty of scenes in Pixar’s “Finding Dory” which will have that effect on you… and considering that quality family films about learning disabled...
It’s time for Democrats to unify: Why even the most idealistic Sanders voter should support Clinton
Published: Salon (June 16, 2016) We don’t know what Bernie Sanders discussed with Hillary Clinton when the two of them met Tuesday night, but it’s fair to assume that the conversation revolved around Clinton’s new status as the presumptive Democratic nominee. As the burgeoning Bernie or Bust movement clearly demonstrates, a lot of Sanders supporters are unhappy with the prospect of backing...
Radio Interview: How the media is helping Trump
Interview with Kris Welch. Want to hear what I had to say? I'm the first speaker! https://kpfa.org/episode/talkies-june-15-2016/
A First Amendment Pioneer’s Take on the Second Amendment (republished after the Orlando mass shooting)
Published: GirlieGirlArmy (June 12, 2016, July 3, 2014) co-author: Liskula Cohen Editor's Note: This was republished because, at a time when the media is fanning the flames of Islamophobia, we need to remember that if it wasn't for our lax gun control laws and belligerent pro-gun culture, that mass shooter may have never had a firearm in the first place. I have, shall we say, an interesting...
Why Hillary should tap into ’90s nostalgia
Published: Salon (June 11, 2016) Now that Hillary Clinton is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, I have a congratulatory observation for her. When I talk to strangers about politics these days, the subject inevitably turns to the 2016 presidential election. Most of them have strong feelings one way or the other about Donald Trump, but unless they’re a partisan Democrat or simply...
How Gary Johnson can win my liberal vote
Published: The Huffington Post (June 9, 2016), The Good Men Project (June 4, 2016) I'm a Bernie Sanders supporter, but in the likely event that the Democrats don't nominate him, I will most likely cast my vote for Hillary Clinton. That said, I have my reservations. Foremost among them is Clinton's long trail of scandals, which lead me to worry that she might not make it through her first term...
Sanders supporters pushed Clinton to the left—now they have to keep her there
Published: Quartz (June 7, 2016) Heading into California primary today, Donald Trump is catching up toHillary Clinton in the general election polls. According to political analysis from statisticians like Nate Silver, the reluctance of some Bernie Sanders supporters to back an alternate Democratic candidate is part of the reason for Trump’s boost. Sanders’ backers tend to identify as...
How someone with autism views all your ridiculous dating habits
Published: Fusion (June 7, 2016) As someone with autism, I’ve often wondered if there’s anything I can do to make neurotypicals, the name for you folks in the non-autistic community, less unpredictable to myself. I pose this question not as an attack or criticism. It’s just that those of us with high-functioning autism—or Asperger’s Syndrome in my case—struggle every day with your seemingly...