The Interesting Challenge of a Neighborhood Legislature
John Cox spent over a million dollars to end money influence in politics. The seeming irony exists because Cox believes the only way to reduce special interest money in candidate campaigns is to make districts so small that big money is not needed to win a seat in the Legislature. To make such a major […]
How to Impeach a President
How do you impeach a president? South Korea knows how. I recently visited Seoul to attend a conference put on by the Korea Democracy Foundation. The focus was mostly on direct and participatory democracy — the use of initiatives, referenda and deliberative processes – by citizens to make decisions between elections. But a powerful keynote […]
California, The Rhetoric Of Illegal Immigration, And The Perils Of Ignoring Thucydides’s Warning
Vocabulary changes always reflect the agendas of a political debate. The fight over illegal immigration plays out by altering words and their meanings. Take the traditional rubric “illegal alien.” The English has been clear and exact for nearly a century: illegal alien (cf. Latin alienus) was a descriptive term for any foreigner who crossed the US […]