Democrats Plan to Counter Trump’s Speech to Congress With Rally

The House Democratic leader has asked rank-and-file members to sit quietly at the speech or skip it altogether, wary of creating a distraction.

By Annie Karni

The Republican Governor Getting Under Trump’s Skin - The Wall Street Journal

The Republican Governor Getting Under Trump’s Skin  The Wall Street Journal

‘Populism’: we used to know what it meant. Now the defining word of our era has lost its meaning | Oliver Eagleton

In the 2010s it described an insurgent rhetorical style; in the 2020s it is inadequate to account for the wildly diverging fates of the left and right “Populism” may well have been the defining word of the previous decade: a shorthand for the insurgent parties that came to prominence in the 2010s, challenging the dominance of the liberal centre. But no sooner had it become the main rubric for discussing both the far left and far right than commentators began to question its validity: worrying that it was too vague, or too pejorative, or fuelling the forces to which it referred. Now, with the fortunes of the two political poles heading in different directions – the right gaining ground across the west while much of the left struggles to rebound from serial defeats – the notion that this word could encompass such different players seems even less plausible. For a lucid account of these forces, we might have to shift our focus elsewhere: finding terms that can explain their unequal balance of power, so that we can in turn find the proper remedy. Oliver Eagleton is managing editor at Phenomenal World Continue reading...

By Oliver Eagleton

Extremist rhetoric is often found in government messaging. Who's the target?

In a rare move, the White House recently took down a racist post from one of President Trump's social media accounts. Extremism researchers say it fits a pattern of mainstreaming extremist ideas.

By Odette Yousef

Anatomy of the Maga right - The Observer

Anatomy of the Maga right  The Observer