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I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man
—Thomas Jefferson, letter to Benjamin Rush, September 23, 1800

Race: the legacy of slavery continues to haunt the present

• Fort Myers News-Press (Florida), 16 March 2006
  Contrary to a widely-held belief, Robert E. Lee described “the painful discipline“ of slavery as necessary for Africans’ “instruction as a race,” and did not free his slaves — his father-in-law did. Lee held similar views about Mexicans and Asians:
  Lee County needs to re-examine link to Confederate general
• Pacific News Service, 23 January 2003
  The assault on affirmative action:
  Bush’s Snake Dance on Race

Electoral reform needed to get rid of gerrymandered congressional districts, guarantee all citizens effective representation, and ensure fair and color-blind representation of minorities

• Los Angeles Times, July 2003
  European electoral systems, with ‘31 flavors,’ offer citizens better representation:
  ‘Baskin-Robbins’ Voting
• Christian Science Monitor, May 2003:
  Beyond gerrymandering and Texas posses: US electoral reform
• Christian Science Monitor, August 1995:
  Let’s Dump Single-Member Electoral Districts: Proportional representation would ensure minorities a place in legislatures
• Los Angeles Times, July 1994:
  Making Every Vote Really Count: “Winner take all” isn’t fair—a proportional system would offer minority voices a chance for representation

US Latin America policy leading to increasing isolation, “anti-Americanism”

• Globe and Mail, 25 March 2003
  Though France took the heat for its promised veto of the U.S. war resolution on Iraq, in fact Latin America was the resolution’s defeater:
  Why Washington is isolated in its own back yard
• Newsday, 27 February 2003
  The free market is an economic goal, not a foreign policy:
  U.S. Policies Fuel Latin America’s Problems

The terrorist challenge

• Sacramento Bee, 18 August 2002
  Collective punishment is not only unjust but counterproductive:
  Sanctions punish and inflame the innocent
• Pacific News Service, 3 October 2001
  From a European perspective, the US is in some ways disturbingly similar to its fundamentalist adversaries:
  Quid Pro Quo - Europe Needs U.S. to Recognize EU Power

Political trends: independents gain strength as two-party system weakens and the US polarizes

• Globe and Mail, 29 May 2001
  The defection of Senator James Jeffords of Vermont was about a lot more than control of the US Senate:
  Get ready for a third U.S. party

Presidential election 2000

• Miami Herald, December 2000
  Other countries do a better job: The most glaring defect is partisanship in counting ballots
• Cleveland Plain Dealer, November 2000
  The flawed Florida vote count: Statewide recount is best resolution

The political implications of economic integration

• New York Times Book Review, 8 July 2001:
  The Merger: A journalist explores the marriage of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico
• Pacific News Service, 23 April 2001:
  U.S. Free Trade Policy Not as Free as it Appears
• Journal of Commerce, 6 December 1999:
  The Seattle protests—the real issue is democracy, not trade
  World Trade Organization not responsive to the public
• Journal of Commerce, 20 November 1997:
  Trade and the Return of Robber Barons
• Wall Street Journal, March 1993:
  No Rule of Law, No Free Trade
  
• World Policy Journal, Summer 1992:
  The United States and the New World Order: Bolstering Democracy in the Americas
• Ottawa Citizen, September 1992:
  North American Free Trade: Trading away democracy? The new deal highlights the need for a continental parliament
• Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, November 1993:
  Why Democracy Must Accompany Free Trade

Popular culture

• Newsday, July 1999:
  JFK, Jr.: Kennedy—A Victim of Camelot Culture
• Pacific News Service, May 1999:
  High school shootings: What role does the “jock” culture of conformity play in high school violence?
• Chicago Tribune, January 1999:
  The Y2K fiasco: Can’t Anyone Count Anymore?

With safeguards, the property tax is often the fairest tax available to local government

• Los Angeles Times, April 1998:
  The City That Staged a Rebellion and Embraced Property Taxes
• St Petersburg Times, October 1997:
  As property taxes roll back, other taxes rise

For replacing the mortgage deduction, which benefits the well-off, with a tax credit to increase homeownership

• Peter Dreier and John Atlas, Los Angeles Times, January 1995:
  Give the Middle Class a Break

Misinterpreting the Second and Tenth Amendments

• Origin of the Second Amendment
• The meaning of the Second Amendment, according to the US Supreme Court:
  United States v. Miller (1939)
• Houston Chronicle, July 1995:
  States, not extremists, have militia-forming role
• Comparisons with other English-speaking developed countries suggest high rates of gun ownership decrease, not increase, personal security: comparative homicide rates

How U.S. foreign policy can undermine human rights abroad

• Fresno Bee, November 1997:
  Death squads lure U.S. support in Colombia
• Christianity & Crisis, 30 April 1984:
  Grenada as looking glass—Playing the “Russian game” in the Americas

The costs of not observing democracy and human rights abroad

• Worldbusiness, Nov/Dec 1995:
  Political risk in emerging markets

Immigration and democracy

• Pacific News Service, May 2002:
  Can Europe keep its Western values with unassimilated immigrants?
• Jorge G. Castañeda, 1995:
  Mexico and California: The Paradox of Toleration and Democratization
• San Francisco Chronicle, 1994:
  Summit of the Americas Shouldn’t Ignore Immigration

Has affirmative action been achieving its goals?

• Richard Rodríguez, Sacramento Bee, June 1997
  Affirmative action solved nothing for cultural minorities

Drugs and public policy

• Journal of Commerce, March 2000:
  “War on Drugs” a game of illusion and pretense on both sides
• William F Buckey Jr et al in National Review, February 1996:
  The War On Drugs Is Lost
• Cleveland Plain Dealer, October 1997:
  Narcotics and narcodollars—reciprocal addictions: Drug money runs Latin economy

Holding to populist principles can win elections, even against the tide

• Journal of Commerce, November 1994:
  How Did Bernie Sanders Win?

When is civil disobedience justified?

• Howard Zinn:
  seven guidelines
• The Vermont Personal Liberty Law (1858) freed slaves who stepped on Vermont soil, in open defiance of the federal Fugitive Slave Act

The politics of human rights

• Banning slavery:
  Vermont Constitution (1777)
• Elizabeth Cady Stanton on women’s rights:
  Declaration of Sentiments (1848)
• Abraham Lincoln on Jefferson, human rights, and property rights:
  Letter to Henry L. Pierce (1859)
• The human rights legacy of a 19th-century maverick:
  Charles Sumner of Massachusetts

On the meaning of freedom

• John Stuart Mill:
  excerpts from On Liberty
• Andrew Reding, in International Interactions:
  Foreign Relations as Extensions of Inner Relations: The Semantics and Ambiguities of American Freedom