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

Diluted Tea

Sharron Angle, the failed Republican/Tea Party Senate candidate in Nevada, has just announced that she’s forming a PAC to advance Tea Party ideals and Tea Party candidates.  Angle, whose candidacy was buoyed by Sarah Palin and the Tea Party Express, … Continue reading

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Strong Tea

Rep. Michele Bachmann, founder of the Tea Party Caucus in the House of Representatives, promised that she would provide classes on the Constitution for her colleagues, particularly her newest colleagues.  And there are plenty of them in the next Congress.  … Continue reading

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Phelps Family Flop? Not quite.

Elizabeth Edwards’s funeral in Raleigh, North Carolina, was another occasion for the Westboro Church (read: Fred Phelps and family) to get attention. As discussed here, the tiny hyperconservative church has succeeded in gaining national attention by picketing military funerals and … Continue reading

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The Royal Treatment

If you’re upset about the tripling of university tuition in Britain, why destroy Prince Charles’s car?  He didn’t raise tuition, can’t lower it, and will be able to find other ways to get to work–or whatever he does. But activists … Continue reading

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Protest against Tuition Hikes: A Teaching Moment

“They say ‘Cut Back.’  We Say ‘Fight Back.’”  The chants are the same across the Atlantic, even if the politics are somewhat different.  Students and other young people in the UK have taken to the streets to protest the Cameron … Continue reading

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Is the Tea Party Over (part III)

Only the left went on the attack against President Obama’s compromise on extending the Bush-era tax cuts.  Faced with intransigence from the Republicans in the Senate, Obama cut a deal.  He endorsed a two year extension of historically low tax … Continue reading

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Coming Out and Movement Politics

An astonishing number of young men and women who came to the United States as children without government authorization are going public with their status.  When they come out, they acknowledge that they are breaking the law and put themselves … Continue reading

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When Allies Disappoint

This lame duck session in Congress seems like the last best hope for advocates of the DREAM Act, as well as the best shot for the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell through Congress–and not the courts.  Activists on both … Continue reading

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Fasting for the DREAM

Students in San Antonio are fasting in support of the DREAM Act, which would provide a path toward citizenship for young people who came to the United States (illegally) as children, and have attended college or served in the military … Continue reading

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War on Terrors

It doesn’t take violence, or even the threat of violence, to get on a government watch list.  This fall, the Inspector General of the US Department of Justice released a study that found a number of activists groups had been … Continue reading

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