Derek Barker
@dwmbarker
Senior program officer for research initiatives, Kettering Foundation. Leads Kettering-Gallup Democracy for All Project annual survey. Studies democracy, virtue ethics, and Aristotle; Orioles fan.
Trying to wrap my head around how it will be entertaining to watch cars driving 147 times around a small area of downtown dc
This is the key point: Academic freedom is not just about protecting higher education, it is about preventing state control of civil society institutions to promote its ideology and suppress dissent.
The NYT story on the $Trump grift scheme buries the lede somewhat. The huge losses most investors lost represents virtually the entire investment as the crypto has become practically worthless. shorturl.at/kRCTc
Once the nightmare is over I wonder if govt can learn anything here about using social media for actual mission related communication and education as opposed to propaganda
From the collection at the Morgan Library in NYC...I wonder what one of the world's richest men took away from reading Rousseau if he actually read the books at all.
The ICE agent "internal bleeding" seemed an obvious smokescreen. I expect that of Weiss/CBS but scary that it was picked up by NYT and others. Even if US media isn't fully captured it is polluted for certain. www.theguardian.com/media/2026/j...
From the former Fed chairs and Treasury Secretaries in support of Powell and the principle of fed independence. The linkage between democracy and prosperity is a story that desperately needs to be told.
When wages are stagnating and people are upset about inflation, the playbook says go after trans kids. This part is especially horrifyibg. www.erininthemorning.com/p/nationwide...
The NYT Editorial Board is really using Trump to prove their thesis that moderation wins elections. Hello!!!!!! www.nytimes.com/2025/10/20/o...
Looks good in print! TLDR, it is possible to be a critic of liberalism without going to the post liberal/MAGA/natcon dark side. Online here: politicalsciencereviewer.com/index.php/psr
Just remember when they were yelling slurs at Adam Jones and throwing stuff at Hyun Soo Kim.
The new holy Trinity: the Catholic, the evangelical protestant, and the conspiracy theory anti-science fringe
I recently saw a somewhat different explanation which makes better sense of Panama. Basically RU gets UKR, we get CAN/GRN and PAN in our sphere of influence. CH gets TWN. www.electoral-vote.com/evp2025/Item...
This quote from JD in Politico is interesting. They hijacked the infrastructure of the establishment right but shifted the agenda from free trade to cultural politics. They are fine with blowing it up because they perceive the establishment (left and right) as failing.
See here for the facts on Tulsi Gabbard's trans purge. Remember, Chris Rufo, the activist who broadcast (and mischaracterized) the leaked chats played a major role in spreading lies about Haitian immigrants in Springfield.
Stealth Democracy (2002) by Hibbing and Theiss-Morse offers a strikingly realist and minimalist concept of democracy. Yet even they are optimistic for, and rely upon, public opposition to corruption. The new administration is testing this theory along with the guardrails of US democracy
Nice observation by Politico that Aileen Cannon's rationale for dismissing Jack Smith could be used against DOGE in the appointments clause case. www.politico.com/news/2025/02...