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Left Behind

In the annals of quixotic American presidential runs, the candidacy of Cornel West—the seventy-year-old academic, social critic, and activist—for the 2024 election is among the more fantastic. Though Americans have shown a willingness to vote for politically inexperienced candidates so . . . . Continue Reading »

The Dead End of the New Left

For decades, the progressive left has denounced the West for fostering imperialism. Since at least the 1960s, the reaction of the left to any war involving the West has been almost mechanical: Denounce, form anti-war groups, and organize student and street protests. These tactics (aesthetics?) can . . . . Continue Reading »

Muslims in American Politics

In the summer of 2017, something unusual happened at the Islamic Society of North America’s (ISNA) annual conference in Chicago. A table set up by Muslims for Progressive Values (MPV) in partnership with Human Rights Campaign (HRC) was removed after an ­attendee complained. The booth had been . . . . Continue Reading »

The Two Minds of Progressivism

The contradictions between these two ways of looking at the world, promethean and determinist, are obvious. Either we are autonomous individuals who transcend the accidents of birth or we are members of whatever identity groups we happened to be born into. Depending on the circumstances, the Left will either deny or affirm the primacy of nature. Continue Reading »

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