Every 80 years or so, there’s a new generation that defines the best of what America can be. The first came with the American Revolution and the Founding Fathers; the second with the former slaves and anti-slavery activists who fought the Civil War; and the third came with “the ...read more

"Alabama's the Confederacy," Fran Liebowitz said on Real Time last year, correcting Bill Maher's assertion that it was the heartland. Its long association with slavery, racism, and pedophilic Senate candidates will take a long time to shake. Its current governor, Kay Ivey, ...read more

One of the many horrors of American racism has been the persistent effort to criminalize black men and the convenient utilization of this racial narrative by some white women to cover up their personal failings or to incite white male rage. The story out of Texas is the latest ...read more

For many Americans it is increasingly difficult to see a way to hold Donald Trump accountable for any of this actions. The president breaks laws and incinerates political norms on a daily basis and no one appears to be able to do anything about it. The Republican controlled ...read more

As we contemplate what has become of our political scene in 2017, with a President who used to be a reality TV host, dubious billionaires seeking to dip their toe in the water, and a superPAC supporting a 2020 candidacy from Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, we can all breathe a ...read more

The Banter Long Read: Our story begins with the presidential election of 1876, when Democrat Samuel J. Tilden won the popular vote, but did not receive enough electoral votes to assume the presidency... (word count: 1284) To continue reading this MEMBERS ONLY article, please go ...read more

Perhaps you've heard of Nina Turner, one of the few notable women of color to endorse Bernie Sanders, and one of the only women in politics the alt-left doesn't have a problem with. Find something in Kamala Harris's record that they don't like and they'll gleefully try to tear ...read more

Sometimes we get so caught up in the nuts and bolts of the real-world impact of laws that we forget that they can have a powerful psychological and sociological impact as well. Republicans and conservative thought leaders understand this far better than liberals do and it ...read more

Donald Trump is an idiot. He's an ignorant buffoon whose lack of knowledge is matched by a profound arrogance that makes him believe he's actually brilliant and therefore also by a complete lack of desire to learn what he doesn't know. Whenever he's pressed on a subject that ...read more

Time and time again, black people in this country have been a piñata for hatred and the recipients of brutality and disdain. As a group, black people have experienced two hundred years of enslavement and its impact on millions of families has been devastating. America engaged ...read more

Well, what do you know - Ray Tensing, the officer who callously blew a whole in a black man's head for attempting to drive away from him was involved in another aggressive traffic stop with two black men back in May of 2014. Sexton Henley and Demetrius Pace were stopped by ...read more

"In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." - Benjamin Franklin But while married same-sex couples can file federal taxes together for the first time this year since DOMA was struck down last summer, some individual states have made sure that it's ...read more

by Marcus Dowling On April 5, 1968, it was James Brown who famously performed in an effort to keep the city of Boston, Massachusetts from further dissolving into a mess of violent crime in outrage over the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Brown’s concert at the ...read more

When I think of obnoxiously radical pro-gun trolls who delight in killing rare and spectacular animals for fun while routinely popping off with NRA slogans thinner than the bumpers stickers on which they're printed, the first name that comes to mind is aging rocker and Vietnam ...read more

Whenever I post an article about racism or African Americans, angry, white, middle aged internet trolls flood the comments section with an astonishing amount of venom. I'm guessing they have some sort of automatic alert that pings them when someone writes about subjects ...read more

If You Like Ken Cuccinelli, you'll love his pick to be lieutenant governor, E.W. Jackson.  Jackson released this video.  I will let it speak for itself. ...read more

By Bob Cesca: Without much fanfare and without any prime time specials on television, this past Saturday marked the 150th anniversary of President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, arguably one of the most important documents in American history and what I consider to be ...read more