Skip to content
Project 2025
Donate to support
diverse voices
Search

Latest Stories

Follow Us:
Top Stories
I Watched the State of the Union Address: Everyone is “Winning” Except Child Care

I Watched the State of the Union Address: Everyone is “Winning” Except Child Care

Disinformation Wins: Justifying ICE Murders through Transphobia

Disinformation Wins: Justifying ICE Murders through Transphobia

A child putting a coin in a small piggy bank.

Trump Accounts: Who Benefits From the New Child Savings Accounts?

10 economic falsehoods debunked from Trump’s State of the Union speech

10 economic falsehoods debunked from Trump’s State of the Union speech

A tragedy in Mali, West Africa is a reminder of solidarity across difference and the work needed at home in the United States

A tragedy in Mali, West Africa is a reminder of solidarity across difference and the work needed at home in the United States

Podcast: How to have better conversations about race

Podcast: How to have better conversations about race
The Fulcrum
By The FulcrumJun 21, 2021
The Fulcrum
The Fulcrum staff.
See More Writings by author

There are many challenging issues to talk about in American society, but those that involve race are among the most difficult. For many there is anger, confusion, and uncertainty. Rather than participating in a conversation, many people avoid it or come armed for an argument.

Tensions around the topic of race suggests that there are still problems that need to be solved. In a recent Civil Squared podcast, Dr. Erec Smith, an Associate Professor of Rhetoric at York College of Pennsylvania, addresses how we can have better conversations about race in this country.

Listen now


Latest news

Trump’s claims versus reality on the economy and tariffs
Economy

Trump’s claims versus reality on the economy and tariffs

News control room
Media & Technology

Non‑Partisan Doesn’t Mean Unbiased: Why America Keeps Getting This Wrong

Trump’s Deportation Rhetoric Reveals a Culture of State Punishment
Governance & Legislation

Trump’s Deportation Rhetoric Reveals a Culture of State Punishment

Will Trump’s moves ever awaken conservatives?
Elections

Will Trump’s moves ever awaken conservatives?

Read More

What War Powers?
white concrete dome buildings
Photo by Darren Halstead on Unsplash

What War Powers?

This week the House has cut its session to just Weds-Thurs while the Senate has its standard Monday evening - Thursday schedule.

There's the usual mix in the House of some bills likely to pass with large majorities and and a couple that will probably be party-line or close to.

Keep ReadingShow less
The spectacle of Operation Epic Fury
A general view of Tehran with smoke visible in the distance after explosions were reported in the city, on March 02, 2026 in Tehran, Iran.
(Photo by Contributor/Getty Images)

The spectacle of Operation Epic Fury

The U.S. and Israel’s joint military campaign against Iran, which rolled out under the name Operation Epic Fury, is a phrase that sounds more like a summer action film than a real‑world conflict in which people are dying. The operation involves massive strikes across Iran, with U.S. Central Command reporting that more than 1,700 targets have been hit in the first 72 hours. President Donald Trump described it as a “massive and ongoing operation” aimed at dismantling Iran’s military capabilities.

This framing matters. When leaders adopt language that emphasizes spectacle, they risk shifting public perception away from the gravity of war. The death of Iran’s supreme leader following the bombardment, for example, was a world‑altering event, yet it unfolded under a banner that evokes adrenaline rather than anguish.

Keep ReadingShow less
A plane flying above.

Analysis of Donald Trump’s second-term immigration crackdown, mass deportation plan, and ICE policies, examining human rights concerns, due process, and historical parallels.

Getty Images, SCM Jeans

Are Trump’s Mass Deportations Leading to State‑Sanctioned Persecution?

For the past 14 months, Americans of all political persuasions have witnessed how Trump’s ICE-related actions have involved aggressive detention and demonization of immigrants and minorities. Historians have not observed this large-scale scope of discrimination behavior since 1953-1955, when President Dwight Eisenhower (R) deported ~1.3 million Mexicans from America, including U.S. citizens of Mexican descent and, in some cases, anyone of Mexican appearance, because agents assumed they were undocumented.

Actions by Mr. Trump and personnel within the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection, ICE, and the FBI have been widely criticized as violating the core American values of equal protection for all families and respect for basic rights. Across the political spectrum, many see these actions as targeting immigrants and minorities in ways that undermine our nation’s shared commitment to fairness, justice, and constitutional equality. Knowing Americans have witnessed two citizens being killed in Minneapolis and one person in Texas by ICE agents, we may be on the verge of systemic persecution and state‑sanctioned violence on a scale not seen in modern American life.

Keep ReadingShow less
American flag

Analysis of concentrated power in the U.S. political economy, examining inequality, institutional trust, executive authority, and the need for equal access and competitive markets.

Chalermpon Poungpeth/EyeEm/Getty Images

America: What We Want, What We Have, What We Need

Equal Access in an Age of Concentrated Power

The American constitutional system was designed to restrain power, not to pursue a single national mission. Authority was divided across branches, diffused among states, and slowed by deliberate friction. As James Madison wrote in Federalist No. 51, ambition was meant to counteract ambition. The design assumed competing interests would prevent domination.

For more than two centuries, that architecture has endured. The United States remains the world’s largest economy by nominal GDP, according to the World Bank’s World Development Indicators, with deep capital markets and a formidable innovation system.

Keep ReadingShow less
© Copyright 2026