Nancy Pelosi Is Rolling the Dice on World War III
Nancy Pelosi is in Taiwan. The trip will accomplish nothing except ratcheting up tensions with one nuclear-armed superpower while the United States is already in a proxy war with another.
248 Articles by: Ben Burgis
Ben Burgis is a Jacobin columnist, an adjunct philosophy professor at Rutgers University, and the host of the YouTube show and podcast Give Them An Argument. He’s the author of several books, most recently Christopher Hitchens: What He Got Right, How He Went Wrong, and Why He Still Matters.
Dems Promised Universal Pre-K, Paid Leave, and Free Community College. Now It’s All Gone.
As progressives debate whether or not to celebrate the Inflation Reduction Act, let’s take a moment to remember Build Back Better: universal pre-K, paid family and medical leave, free community college. It’s all been taken away — and you should be furious.
J. B. Pritzker Looks Like a Progressive Hero Because Democrats Have Set the Bar So Low
J. B. Pritzker is a billionaire Democrat who hasn’t even signed on to Medicare for All. But the Illinois governor has captured the imaginations of some progressives simply by doing what most Democrats won’t: running on popular ideas and following through.
We Should Have Listened to Bernie Sanders About Ukraine
In early February, Bernie Sanders advocated US involvement in peace talks to head off an “enormously destructive war” in Ukraine. We should have listened.
Peter Thiel Wants You to Think He’s an Evil Genius. He’s Just a Rich Guy.
Venture capitalist Peter Thiel’s massive wealth and resulting political influence are symptoms of a profoundly unequal society. But don’t buy into his “evil genius” self-branding. His ideology isn’t a dark enigma — it’s just run-of-the-mill rich guy stuff.
John Fetterman Is the Kind of Political Communicator the Left Needs
As a communicator, John Fetterman has the highly effective Bernie Sanders formula down pat: take progressive positions on social issues while making denouncements of the 1 percent central to his message.
James O’Keefe Doesn’t Care About Free Speech
Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe talks a big game about free speech. But he opposes the unions that protect workers from being fired for expressing their views.
Voting Harder Won’t Bring Back Roe
The end of Roe v. Wade is a disaster that voting alone can’t solve. We need an abortion rights movement that organizes beyond individual elections and fights for reproductive freedom as part of a federal universal health plan.
Karl Marx Was Right: Workers Are Systematically Exploited Under Capitalism
Even among Marx-friendly economists, the labor theory of value has fallen out of favor. But its technical validity is less important than the core message: workers are exploited because the value they create is undemocratically taken by capitalists.
Don’t Cancel $10,000 of Student Debt. Cancel Every Penny.
The Biden administration has been floating the possibility of a means-tested cancellation of $10,000 of student debt. There’s no reason not to cancel every penny instead.
Meghan McCain, Faildaughter
Meghan McCain’s new book, Bad Republican, is a testament to how little you have to know about politics to have a career as a pundit if your last name is “McCain.”
Nationalize Baby Formula Production
Across the country, millions of parents are desperately searching for baby formula. Why are we letting the private sector alone handle such a vital good?
Democrats Use Abortion Rights to Fundraise — but Don’t Fight to Protect Those Rights
The Supreme Court’s leaked ruling overturning Roe v. Wade is an antidemocratic abomination. The Democrats’ response so far has been a bad joke.
No, Karl Marx Wasn’t a Hideous Racist
Centrist pundit Andrew Sullivan thinks Karl Marx was “one of the most repellent anti-Semites and racists of the 19th century.” That’s nonsense — Marx’s political project was all about expanding human freedom and fighting oppression in every form.
Elon Musk Won’t Protect Free Speech Online
Instead of counting on an allegedly benevolent billionaire like Elon Musk to guard free speech online by buying companies like Twitter, we should just take our digital public square out of rich people’s hands and into public ownership.
I Went on Joe Rogan’s Show, and I Don’t Regret It
I was told not to go on Joe Rogan’s podcast. I did anyway — and I talked for an hour to millions of listeners about democratic socialism.
Nationalize the Weed Industry
Today is 4/20, so we’re indulging in some speculation: What if we didn’t just legalize marijuana but put the cannabis industry under public ownership — and hired the victims of prohibition to run it?
Doing Your Taxes Doesn’t Have to Be This Miserable
It’s Tax Day, so ponder this: in social democratic countries like Sweden, the government does your taxes for you. Just add it to the list of nice things we should have in the US.
G. A. Cohen Showed Why We Should All Be Socialists
Right before he died, Marxist philosopher G. A. Cohen wrote a short book called Why Not Socialism? It’s a perfect introduction to the case for moving beyond a capitalist economy.
No, Left-Wing Opponents of War Aren’t Isolationists
The Left’s opposition to wars allegedly fought for democracy or human rights isn’t tantamount to “isolationism.” Opposing war has always been at the heart of socialist internationalism.