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Elections – Presidential (2016)

Why no one watched the Democratic debate

Published: The Good Men Project (November 17, 2015) The most recent Democratic presidential debate was the lowest rated of the six held by either party this election cycle, drawing in only 8.55 million viewers. This may seem like bad news for the Democrats, but the truth is actually more disturbing - in all likelihood, they planned it this way. We can start our analysis with the day on which it...

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Hey progressives, Hillary isn’t the enemy

Published: Salon (November 12, 2015) The inevitable has finally happened: Bernie Sanders supporters are beginning to openly proclaim that, if Hillary Clinton defeats their champion in the upcoming Democratic presidential primaries, they will not support her in the subsequent election. I refer to this trend as “inevitable” because, as a Sanders supporter myself, I’ve heard this sentiment...

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Unprecedented Presidents: A History of Firsts

Published: The Good Men Project (November 5, 2015) The past century has proved to be a golden age for unprecedented presidents and vice presidents. Before the election of 1928 (more on that in a moment), every candidate for America's two highest offices fit into a very narrow demographic profile: Protestant, male, of northern and/or western European descent. By contrast, the 2016 presidential...

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2016: The weirdest presidential election ever?

Published: The Good Men Project (November 3, 2015) Politics is usually pretty weird, but the presidential election shaping up right now is definitely an outlier even by American standards. There has to be a deeper significance in the fact that such an unusual election is occurring right now, but in lieu of being able to come up with one, I'm instead going to briefly dissect the reasons why I...

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The GOP can’t escape football: Republicans’ long love affair with America’s most brutal sport

Published: Salon (November 1, 2015) Chris Christie might have thought it was ludicrous for the CNBC debate moderators to ask about the booming yet ethically murky “daily fantasy football” industry, but they had defensible reasons for doing so. Websites such as Draft Kings and FanDuel now generate tens of billions of dollars, by way of a product that bears striking similarities to online...

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Why the Democrats need Martin O’Malley…

Published: The Good Men Project (October 27, 2015) To begin, I must emphasize that I am not officially supporting the presidential campaign of Martin O'Malley, the former governor of Maryland. This article is focusing on his candidacy because there is a practical argument to be made in favor of nominating him - one that is too compelling, even alarming, to be safely ignored. Right now the...

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Biden: The president we deserve, but not the one we need

Published: The Good Men Project (October 22, 2015) To paraphrase a famous line from "The Dark Knight": Joe Biden is the president we deserve, but not the one we need. I've written quite a bit about Biden over the course of my career because - as a PhD student focusing on American political history - I can't help but admire such a quintessential throwback. We live in a time of "authenticity"...

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Here’s why Donald Trump is hosting ‘SNL,’ as explained by Twitter

Published: The Daily Dot (October 21, 2015) Donald Trump is a racist blowhard who shouldn’t step foot anywhere near theWhite House—but that doesn’t mean he also shouldn’t be allowed on TV. The National Hispanic Leadership Agenda recently denounced Republicanpresidential candidate Donald Trump’s forthcoming appearance on Saturday Night Live. Referring to his “bigoted comments” about undocumented...

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Why Biden’s Decision Matters (for the Vice Presidency)

Published: The Good Men Project (October 20, 2015) As America prepares for Joe Biden’s decision on whether or not to run for president next year, it is perhaps appropriate to reflect on the impact his choice will have on the office he currently holds – the vice presidency of the United States. In one sense, Biden’s legacy as vice president is already secure. While scaling back the excesses that...

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The Right (and Wrong) Way to Discuss Socialism

Published: Salon (October 20, 2015), The Good Men Project (October 17, 2015) Is the term “socialist” losing its stigma? There are two examples from last week's news cycle that shed some light on that question. At the beginning of Tuesday’s Democratic presidential debate, Anderson Cooper challenged Sen. Bernie Sanders on the Vermont liberal’s willingness to describe himself as a democratic...

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