Category Archives: Uncategorized

Occupy elected office

Is incumbency another word for occupation? Today two self-identified Occupiers announced candidacies for local office in Northern California.  Jeff Kravitz, a lawyer who has represented Occupy Sacramento activists, is running for a county board seat.  So is Gary Blenner, a … Continue reading

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The Tea Party’s disappointment with the Republican field

In seeking both a powerful advocate or a strong candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, the Tea Partiers are likely to get neither. Elections channel and dilute social movements.  This was James Madison’s design, and it works pretty much as … Continue reading

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Roe v. Wade commemorations, 2012

Last year, anti-abortion and abortion rights activists staged demonstrations commemorating (or protesting) the 1973 Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade.  Below is last year’s post, which ends with the prediction of large demonstrations next year.  That’s today.  And today: both … Continue reading

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Occupy Congress

Sooner or later activists in any American movement confront the possibility of trying to adjust the thermostat, and not just the climate. On Tuesday, January 17, when members of Congress return to Washington, DC, they’ll be met by Occupiers.  There … Continue reading

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Martin Luther King and dead heroes (King Day again)

Martin Luther King died young enough and dramatically enough to be turned into an American hero, but it was neither his youth nor his death that made him heroic. In his rather brief public life, beginning in Montgomery at 26, … Continue reading

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Remembering the present: Guantanamo protests and a decade of detention

President Obama didn’t keep his campaign promise to close the American prison for suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay.  Yesterday marked Gitmo’s 10th anniversary.  The camp on Cuba, conveniently perhaps outside the jurisdiction of normal legal procedures in the United States, … Continue reading

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New Hampshire, the Tea Party, and movement capture

As New Hampshire voters and others try to sift through the mess of small differences among the Republican hopefuls (and as everyone in the rest of the country overinterprets the results) it’s good to take a step back to think … Continue reading

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The Tea Party’s Iowa

Protest movements sometimes have perverse effects, hastening outcomes they don’t want.  Tuesday’s Republican Iowa caucus has to be scored as a disappointment for the Tea Party, perhaps a sign of its dissolution. The Tea Party, an alliance between populist and … Continue reading

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Occupy the Constitution

At least several hundred protesters marched after the Tournament of Roses Parade, drawing some cheers, some boos, and extensive media coverage.  (Occupy the Rose Parade and the Hollywood Alist estimated 5,000 Occupy marchers.) Parades are occasions for spectacle and theater, … Continue reading

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Occupy at the Rose Bowl

A march looks a lot like a parade with demands. Occupy the Rose Parade will present a presence–with floats–at the 123rd Tournament of Roses Parade on Monday morning in Pasadena. The parade, patriotic and explicitly non-political, allows cause groups to … Continue reading

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