elections

The decision to support or reject the opposition in its appeals to AKP voters is bound up with its identity as the representative of official secularism, a reputation that has proved difficult to shake. The memory of the divisive 1970s and the terror-filled aftermath of the 1980 coup remains a deeply impactful force conditioning voter behavior. An understanding of these traumatizing years, which left few segments of society untouched, contextualizes the steep odds against which the opposition was forced to contend.

BY BEN MCGUIRE Fresh on the heels of a disastrous G7 summit, Mexico is poised to elect a President whose aggressive approach may scorch as much earth as his northern counterparts. A victory for Andrés Manuel López Obrador (also known as AMLO) will immediately impact negotiations over NAFTA and immigration. Regardless of how the race […]

BY QUINTON MAYNE For many Americans, cities have become a beacon of hope. The can-do, eye-level politics of our city halls is increasingly viewed as an antidote to what seems like a culture of top-down, self-serving, and polarizing party politics inside the Beltway. An important question then is whether city leaders will live up to […]

BY JEFF ROUSSET Be prepared for eight years of President Trump. Van Jones recently offered that warning at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum. That’s the cost if Democrats fail to learn from 2016. We can’t just blame Russia for Trump, and it’s not enough to criticize Republicans. We need to understand the problems facing […]

BY MATTHEW ERIC SPECTOR Throughout a fraught 2017, my home state of New Jersey has been frequently, even exquisitely, dragged through the mud on the national stage. Governor Chris Christie will leave office as the most unpopular governor in the state’s history. This summer, Christie even outed himself as a “shoobie,” a term Jersey natives […]

He may be a political insider, but Hassan Rouhani ran his 2017 presidential campaign as an anti-establishment candidate. More than 40 million Iranians voted, and despite the close election President Rouhani won a second term in May with 57% of the votes. When the election results were announced, thousands of people spilled into the streets dancing, singing, […]

BY BRYNNA QUILLIN For almost a month after Election Day 2016, the race between incumbent North Carolina Republican governor Pat McCrory and his Democratic rival Roy Cooper remained contested. The race was tight, with just over ten thousand votes separating the two candidates. In a desperate attempt to hang on, McCrory cried fraud. McCrory’s campaign […]

BY THOMAS KARL E. HOCKS Yes, Angela Merkel may lose power this year. No, it won’t be like Brexit or the United States presidential election. After the recent turmoil around Brexit and the administration of President Trump, eyes are on the French presidential elections in the spring and the German federal election in the fall. […]

BY JAMES PAGANO President Trump continues to struggle to accept his popular vote loss. He again made headlines last week, repeating unsubstantiated claims of massive voter fraud. Although absolutely no evidence supporting his claim exists, President Trump has vowed to open an investigation into the matter. His claims distract from the real election issues facing […]

This article is being published in collaboration with Pangyrus. BY SEBASTIAN JOHNSON “The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.” — Milan Kundera I. Invention One of the first documentations of African people in British North America dates to 1619, when approximately 20 captives from present-day Angola disembarked at Jamestown. Slavery […]

BY HAMADA ZAHAWI It was 9:45pm on election night. Still avoiding the news, I boarded my flight back to Boston, after several days of canvassing and protecting the vote with a team of lawyers in a coveted area of a key battleground state – Broward County, Florida. By the time I landed in Boston, Donald […]

BY JAMES PAGANO As the dust settles on the 2016 Presidential Election, the Democratic Party will begin a process of deep self-reflection. If the past week is any indication, the party will analyze what happened in 2016 with a specific focus on improving its future electoral prospects among rural white working-class voters. The shocking upset […]