The Anderson Files
A progressive, populist message leads to Democratic victories
A growing number of Americans are dissatisfied with both political parties and the quality of candidates, according to a recent poll by Pew Research. Nevertheless,...
Choosing terrain for activism
What if America had a parliamentary system? What if we got rid of the presidency and the Senate and turned the House of Representatives...
U.S. being treated like a developing nation
You know the old story of U.S.-based multinational corporations moving plants to the developing world, where they have a more “business-friendly,” unregulated environment under...
Not-so-innocent hyperbole
Only 11 percent of the media coverage of the 2016 presidential primaries dealt with the candidates’ policy positions, leadership abilities and professional histories according...
Is gun machismo destabilizing the US with paranoia and murder?
The pandemic inspired a gun-buying surge. Americans purchased approximately 60 million guns between 2020 and 2022, according to The Trace, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news...
Disturbing questions about Jan. 6 insurrection and law enforcement
A Republican congressman has described the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill insurrection as a “normal tourist visit.” During the opening hearing of the House select committee...
Public banking in North Dakota
North Dakota is one of the three most conservative states in the United States, according to Gallup. Wyoming is number one, with self-identified conservatives...
Bernie and Biden vs. Trumpists in Brazil
I am writing this a few days before the election and feeling anxious. This may sound strange, but a look at the recent election...
Russian Revolution turns 100, Soviet Union collapse turns 25
There was no official commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution last year.
Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, asked, “What is there to...
The Anderson file: Poetry on a mission
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the celebrated poet and publisher of Beat Generation writers, argued in an essay in the San Francisco Chronicle in 1999 that poetry...
History is in the telling
History is not the past. It is the stories we tell about the past. How we tell these stories — triumphantly or self-critically, metaphysically...
Lessons from Nixon and Kent State
Tin soldiers and Nixon coming,
We’re finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming
Four dead in Ohio.
— Neil Young, “Ohio”
Something ugly...
