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Building up Trust
By Rolf Alter In 2008, a Gallup poll reported that, on average, less than half of the OECD population trusted their government. The crisis worsened the situation with a decline of four additional...
View Article'Who Makes the Game?' Donald Sterling Certainly Asked the Right Question
His racism got all the headlines, but there was something to be learned from Donald Sterling's other words. So, before the spotlight turns elsewhere and Sterling crawls back into well-deserved...
View ArticleLatinos Hold the Key to Democrats' Victory (or Defeat) in 2014
The Washington echo chamber has Democrats being crushed in November's midterms. There is the history of second-term midterms, the president's mediocre approval ratings, Obamacare's hangover, electoral...
View ArticleWhy Democrats Would Be Smart to Participate in a Select Committee on Benghazi
A Democratic boycott of the Select Committee on Benghazi, as suggested by Congressman Adam Schiff (D-California) would be stupid and a disservice to our nation. A boycott is the Democrats playing...
View ArticleSecond-Guessing Obama's Foreign Policy
I've not exactly been shy about criticizing President Obama when I felt criticism was warranted. But the pile-on by Republicans and the media on his foreign policy challenges is excessive. I mean, what...
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Nader-Erickson Alliance? And Will 'Sterling-Silver' Ever Be the Same?
LISTEN HERE: Erickson and Alter question Nader on his new book, Unstoppable, about how Left and Right can converge on NSA, banks, incarceration, empire. Ralph argues that Corporatists vs....
View ArticleA Foreign-Policy Problem No One Talks About
Cries for American military preparedness are growing louder and louder by the day, rising, circling, and echoing one another in a frenzy that even the awfulness of events in the Ukraine and many other...
View ArticleIndependence and Nakba: Intertwined and Inseparable
Israel's Independence Day is also Nakba Day. This is inescapable. The reality of Israeliness can't help but incorporate not only the Jewish story but the Palestinian story as well (Nakba, or "the...
View ArticleJim Oberstar: Another of Minnesota's Iconic Figures
He was the longest serving congressman in Minnesota history until he was upset in 2010 while seeking a 19th term, but Democrat Jim Oberstar will be remembered for more than his longevity. Oberstar, 79,...
View ArticleWorld Economic Forum Must Help #BringBackOurGirls
As the World Economic Forum meets this in Nigeria, home of the 300 schoolgirls kidnapped from the Government Girls Secondary School on April 14 by Boko Haram terrorists, its leaders must use their...
View ArticleEducation, Gender, Kidnapping: Fight for the Right to Learn!
Almost two weeks ago Gordon Brown wrote: "The world must wake up to an escalating tragedy now engulfing Nigeria. Today the lives of 230 teenage schoolgirls hang in the balance." As of this afternoon,...
View ArticleDespite Criticism, Obama's Foreign Policy Is Better Than That of Recent...
All in all, I don't think Barack Obama has been a very good president. In a new updated version of my book Recarving Rushmore: Ranking the Presidents on Peace, Prosperity, and Liberty, being published...
View ArticleThe Triumph of Authoritarianism: What Ukraine Reminds Us About the Flaws of...
The battle over Ukraine may look like a simple power play between Russia and the U.S., but much more is at stake than which of the former arch-adversaries comes out ahead in the skirmish. Should the...
View ArticleA High-Stakes Moment: Accreditation, the Federal Government and...
Reauthorization of the 1965 Higher Education Act is where the federal government, colleges and universities, and accreditation periodically decide their relationship. The Act defines their respective...
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Obama Poll Watch -- April 2014
Bouncing Back After suffering a negative month in the polls in March, President Obama bounced back in April, gaining back all the ground he had lost and then some (well, "and then a little bit more"...
View ArticleRacism's in the Air: Race Is the Determining Factor When It Comes to Who...
For decades the environmental justice movement has insisted that pollution is just another form of racism. Now a University of Minnesota study is conclusively confirming this painful reality. The...
View ArticleI'm Tired
As spring slowly unfolds into summer, I wonder if most Americans feel frustrations similar to mine. Like most people I know, I'm weary of "things as they are." To borrow from the title of Joe Louis...
View ArticleA Truly Strong Foreign Policy
The weekend media featured an uncommon amount of navel gazing about foreign policy. Except the navel being gazed at belonged to Barack Obama. To the degree that pundits ever agree, they seemed to agree...
View ArticleFreeing the Media's Coverage of Incarceration and the Mentally Ill
When the papers of record write and opine about mental illness, they invariably focus on incarceration. In so doing, they often reinforce stereotypes about the mentally ill by propagating the notion...
View ArticleMarriage Equality, the Ex-Marine and Ayn Rand
Ex-marine Roger Huffstetler discovered two friends were gay. One was a bunkmate from Afghanistan; the other a childhood friend. He started to wonder what kind of friend he was and went to them. Both...
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