“That’s How a Democracy Withers”: Barack Obama Declares a National Emergency
Four years ago, leaning into the twilight of his presidential tenure at the Democratic National Convention, Barack Obama reminded the country that democracy does not depend on any one person. It doesn’t come from a “self-declared savior”—he meant Donald Trump—”promising that he alone can restore order.” Wednesday night found Obama in the same city, this…
Michelle Obama’s Show of Vulnerability Is a Balm for Millions. Naturally, the Right Is Throwing a Fit.
Angel Marchin/ZUMA For indispensable reporting on the coronavirus crisis and more, subscribe to Mother Jones’ newsletters.It’s become a familiar story. The outbreak of the coronavirus in the United States, a public health disaster now responsible for more than 160,000 deaths, has left quite a few of us feeling unmoored. A third of Americans, trapped in…
Once Upon a Time, Presidents and Words Didn’t Fail
For indispensable reporting on the coronavirus crisis and more, subscribe to Mother Jones’ newsletters.If the grammatically grotesque tweets, bizarrely unhinged speeches, and wrecking-ball words of a certain president wear you down day after day, week after week, you might want to search your memory, and the news archives, for a time when the presidency was…
Obama’s John Lewis Eulogy: “Let’s Honor Him by Revitalizing” the Voting Rights Act
In 1965, John Lewis was brutally beaten by Alabama state troopers as he led a march advocating for the protection of Black Americans’ right to vote—an event that helped lead to the signing of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. In his gripping eulogy to Lewis at the late lawmaker’s memorial service Thursday, former President Barack…
John Lewis Was Once Dismissed Even by His Allies. Now He’s Praised by Everyone, Give or Take a President.
John Lewis on December 6, 2019.Tom Williams/Congressional Quarterly via ZUMA Press For indispensable reporting on the coronavirus crisis and more, subscribe to Mother Jones’ newsletters.Civil rights hero John Lewis, 80, very much still needed, died Friday of pancreatic cancer. He had helped in the early 1960s to pioneer the regime of nonviolent confrontation in the…
The Former Head of the CDC Has an Audacious Idea for Handling the Pandemic
Mother Jones illustration; Courtesy of Resolve to Save Lives For indispensable reporting on the coronavirus crisis and more, subscribe to Mother Jones’ newsletters.As the world grapples with the devastation of the coronavirus, one thing is clear: The United States simply wasn’t prepared. Despite repeated warnings from infectious disease experts over the years, we lacked essential beds,…