Author Archives: David S. Meyer

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About David S. Meyer

Author and professor of Sociology and Political Science at the University of California, Irvine

Can the IRS resurrect the Tea Party?

By allowing mid-level bureaucrats to dump on local Tea Party groups, the Internal Revenue Series provided the movement a chance to regroup and re-emerge on the public stage. Particularly at the grassroots, the Tea Party has mostly severely diminished, divided, … Continue reading

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Immigration divides the Tea Party

Or not?  Conventional wisdom among Republican regulars was that the Party’s harsh “self-deportation” posture was costly in the last election.  Party establishment figures pushed for quick action on immigration reform to put the issue behind them so that they might … Continue reading

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Occupy is an unprotected trademark

Sarah Maslin Nir produced a nice piece in the New York Times that identified–and poked at–the ever-increasing diversity of people and groups claiming to be Occupy. After Hurricane Superstorm Sandy hit New York, Occupy activists focused their efforts on helping … Continue reading

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Auditing the Tea Party: One style of American repression

Another example of the old joke: just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you: The revelation that the Internal Revenue Service targeted groups with “Tea Party” or “Patriot” in their names for strict scrutiny tells us … Continue reading

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Gitmo and the hunger strikes

What happens when you run strap a prisoner down and run a tube through his nose to feed him?  What if it’s twice a day?  What if it’s one hundred people every day? This is what’s happening at the prison … Continue reading

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Remembering the shootings at Kent State

It’s the anniversary of the killing of four college students at Kent State University.  Young National Guardsmen opened fire on students protesting the war on May 4, discharging more than 60 rounds in roughly 13 seconds.  They killed four students: … Continue reading

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May Day 2013

Wednesday’s May Day events remind us about how the people who participate in an event define it for their own purposes.  Initially a celebration of Spring, organized around May poles (and May flies?),  for more than 100 years, May 1 … Continue reading

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Immigration politics inside and outside the Capitol

The immigration rights activists returned to demonstrate outside the Capitol yesterday, as reports of a Senate compromise on an immigration reform continue to seep into media reports. Most reports put the turnout in the tens of thousands–and noted sympathy rallies … Continue reading

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Recovery for Occupy Wall Street’s library

In the weeks that Occupy Wall Street created a protest village in lower Manhattan, activists put together a lending library of more than 5,000 volumes.  When the police cleared the demonstrators out of Zuccotti Park, contractors hauled all of the … Continue reading

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Marriage equality and the digital political button

If you visited a Facebook site last week you probably saw some version of the badge at right, representing support for marriage equality side of the cases the Supreme Court considered.  Activists encouraged people to change their profile picture to … Continue reading

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