Tag Archives: politics

Serbia? Seriously?

Posted on March 20, 2025 | 2 comments

How many Americans know anything about Serbia?  My guess? Very few.

I’m one of those very few.  In 2016 I took a Danube River trip with an affable group of fellow travelers.  Halfway through our trip, we made a stop in Bratislava, the charming capital of Slovakia.  [FYI: After Czechoslovakia broke up in 1993, about half of the former Czechoslovakia became the country of Slovakia. The other half became the Czech Republic.]

Our tour left Bratislava and went on to Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. [FYI:  Serbia is one of several smaller countries that formerly made up Yugoslavia.  Even though Yugoslavia broke up in 1992, Serbia didn’t opt for independence until 2006.]

Belgrade turned out to be a surprisingly beautiful and sophisticated city.  As our tour guide led us through the Belgrade Fortress and other tourist sights, I spied an interesting sculpture—that of Nikola Tesla. 

Tesla, the scientist and inventor whose work with electricity rivaled that of his American competitors, Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse, is a celebrated figure in Serbia.  In 1884, he left Europe for America, where he led a complicated life, ending alone in a NYC hotel room with a history of unpaid bills.  Sadly, his formerly-respected name has become anathema to some Americans, thanks to current political developments that Tesla himself had absolutely nothing to do with.

Why talk about Serbia today?  Because its current political situation has become headline news, news seriously worth our attention.

According to the AP, over 100,000 people—maybe as many as 325,000–joined a mass rally in Belgrade last weekend to culminate months-long protests against Serbia’s current President Aleksandar Vucic and his nationalist right-wing-inspired government.  “Large crowds of flag-waving protesters clogged the downtown area…despite occasional rain, with people hardly able to move,” many of them unable to get close to the actual protest venue.

University students have been leading peaceful protests in Serbia for the past four months.  The protests began when the canopy of a railway station collapsed, killing 15 people.  Many blamed the allegedly corrupt builders, allied with the government, as responsible for the canopy’s shoddy construction.

The protests have continued because of fierce opposition to the autocratic government, not merely among students but also among the rest of the Serbian population.  According to a survey reported in The New York Times, only one-third of Serbians approve of President Vucic’s leadership.  As the Financial Times quoted one protest leader, “it is time for this regime to end.”

On Wednesday, March 19, the protests had a demonstrable impact, forcing Prime Minister Milos Vucevic, an ally of President Vucic, to resign, giving the President 30 days to choose a new Prime Minister.

Without elaborating further on Serbian politics, I’ll close with this:  It’s heartening to see young people rise up to protest what they view as corrupt and destructive behavior by their government’s leaders.  Here in the U.S., I’m heartened to see that both young and older citizens have begun to stand up against the current leadership of our own government.  Recent town halls held in a number of congressional districts have highlighted the outspoken protest by those who’ve shown up.  

I hope we don’t have to wait for the 2026 midterm elections to change things.  Some special elections, like the Supreme Court fight in Wisconsin, loom in the next few weeks. 

Let’s fight for the survival of our democracy.  Let’s lend our support to current leaders who have earned it.  Let’s support new leaders who will continue the fight for democracy.  I’m doing what I can to support them, and I hope that you will, too.

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All the Presidents’ Men: an update

Posted on January 24, 2025 | 2 comments

A few weeks ago, I plucked an old movie from my TV playlist and re-watched the 1976 award-winning film, “All the Presidents’ Men.”   I found it not only the riveting film I remembered but also a remarkably relevant film to watch right now. 

In this fast-moving story of two intrepid journalists working at The Washington Post in 1972, the media world at that time gradually became aware of what became known as “Watergate.”  Although President Richard Nixon had a commanding lead in the polls and was about to be reelected in a landslide in November 1972, his sense of insecurity and inferiority led him, along with his cronies, to sponsor a break-in of Democratic Party headquarters in the Watergate office building in June 1972.  The break-in was less than totally successful.  Moronic criminal-types made a couple of foolish errors that led to the detection of the break-in and their arrest by DC police.

At The Post, the two young journalists, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, faced innumerable obstacles as they tried to ferret out the truth of exactly what had happened and why.  The story ultimately focused on WHO:  Who were the players in the Nixon administration who were pulling the strings behind the Watergate break-in? 

To see the whole story play out, you may want to watch the film yourself.  But whether you watch it or not, please keep in mind just how relevant it is today.

Watergate was only one of the “dirty tricks” Nixon and his cohorts employed to undermine his political opponents.  On January 20, a president demonstrably worse than Nixon was inaugurated.  After a campaign replete with disinformation, he has already begun to effect enormous change in our country.  More than ever, we need brave and intrepid journalists like Woodward and Bernstein to ferret out the truth behind any possible wrongdoing.

The role of The Washington Post is central in both eras.  In 1972, Woodward and Bernstein had to persuade their reluctant editor at The Post to support them as they pursued the truth.  He finally relented and allowed them to publish their findings.  But if they had faltered in the face of opposition, the truth may never have come out.

In 2025, journalists at The Post have taken a different route.  A popular columnist, Jennifer Rubin, loudly spoke out against her editors and her publisher, Jeff Bezos, whom she saw as kowtowing to the incoming administration.  She and her colleagues decided to quit working at The Post, proclaiming that it was no longer seeking the truth.  On January 20, she wrote:

“The American people certainly will not be front and center at Trump’s inauguration. It’s all about him and his billionaire cronies, including the media owners who have buckled to his will. ‘Big-name billionaires are lining up to strengthen their relationships with incoming President Donald Trump during next week’s inauguration festivities,” Forbes reported.  When you add in [others] whose combined wealth dwarfs many countries’ GDP’s—you get a vivid tableau of the new oligarchy. We usher into office today a government of, by, and for the billionaires.” 

Rubin and other like-minded journalists decided to create a new entity, The Contrarian.  Norm Eisen explained how it started:

“Jen and I agreed to launch [this] venture, rounding up…over two dozen contributors in a matter of days.  We kicked off with … Jen’s Post resignation letter. While we had high hopes, we never could’ve imagined what happened next. A quarter of a million subscribers poured in … And the engagement was through the roof, with over 1,000,000 views per day.” 

Rubin proclaimed that the new venture hoped to be “a…space where independence is non-negotiable. Here, you won’t find cozy alliances, half-measures, or false equivalences. We bend the knee to no one, vigorously challenge unchecked authority, and champion transparency and accountability.  In a nation awash with noise and growing disinformation, The Contrarian cuts through the static to deliver sharp, uncompromising insights…. Our loyalty is to … the truth, and to our democratic ideals—many of which are currently under threat.”

I’ve signed up to get The Contrarian delivered to my inbox.  I hope it will stick to its commitment to the truth.  But I haven’t given up on the “legacy media”–mainstream publications like The Washington Post, The New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the San Francisco Standard.  All of them still land in my inbox every day.  (I also watch TV news programming when it appears to report the news fairly.)  I think that all of these publications include at least a few brave journalists, like the now-legendary Woodward and Bernstein, still searching for the truth, still speaking out to report wrongdoing in DC or elsewhere. 

I’ll be watching to make sure they don’t falter, hoping that, despite editors and publishers who may stand in their way, they’ll continue to live up to their role as journalists and tell their readers the truth.

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JFK

Posted on November 22, 2024 | 4 comments

Today is November 22, a day forever marked by an American tragedy.  On this day in 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.

As a young kid, I was inspired by Kennedy’s appearance in my world when the media focused on his candidacy for the vice-presidential nomination at the 1956 Democratic Convention.  A vivid contrast to Presidents Truman and Eisenhower, he was a youthful and vigorous U.S. Senator who advocated positive changes in our country.  Along with many others in my generation, the emergence of JFK on the political scene intensified my interest in American politics.  Later that year, my sister gave me a copy of “Profiles in Courage,” Kennedy’s book about political heroes in American history.  I treasured that book and eagerly read and re-read it.  Over the years, I’ve continued to collect books about JFK.  My collection includes my original copy of “Profiles in Courage.”

After his election as President in 1960, Kennedy continued to inspire me.  And on June 11, 1963, he spoke out in favor of equal justice for all Americans.  I had returned to my home in Chicago after my college graduation at WashU in time to watch the televised speech he gave that day.

JFK began by noting Alabama Governor George Wallace‘s refusal, despite a court order, to allow the admission of two Black students to the University of Alabama.  He went on to say that “difficulties over segregation and discrimination exist in every city, in every State of the Union, producing in many cities a rising tide of discontent that threatens the public safety.”  This statement, and others, were important.  But I was mainly moved by these words: “The heart of the question is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities, whether we are going to treat our fellow Americans as we want to be treated.”  After noting the special problem of racial discrimination, he added: “[T]his Nation, for all its hopes and all its boasts, will not be fully free until all its citizens are free.”

He said he planned to ask Congress to enact legislation giving all Americans “the right to be served in facilities…open to the public,” including hotels and restaurants, and to authorize the federal government “to participate more fully in lawsuits designed to end segregation in public education” and “greater protection for the right to vote.”  (His efforts eventually led to the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.)  He closed by asking for “the support of all our citizens.”

I sat transfixed in front of the TV, totally in awe of this speech, and I became an ardent supporter of the same ideals. 

Thanks to JFK, as a young person I developed a consuming interest in politics, and I began to think about a future where I could be involved in politics in some way.  One possible path occurred to me:  Attending law school and becoming a lawyer.  As I wrote in my handwritten journal in 1958, “I have developed a keen interest in law, and at the moment, I am busily planning to study law if possible.  At one time I believed I would be a writer….  Now, law and politics beckon, and…I am trying to convince myself that nothing is impossible and that if I want it badly enough, I will get it!”  Still a teenager, I wasn’t ready to make the leap to law school, but I did look forward to a future somehow focused on government and politics.  So I majored in political science in college and went on to be a graduate student in that field before abandoning it in favor of law school.

JFK’s assassination on November 22, 1963, traumatized me and probably most other Americans at the time.  It was truly shocking.  Looking back, I realize just how much it affected me.  As I wrote in my handwritten journal on the day after he was assassinated: “When the news of [his] death … was announced, I was too stunned to cry, too horrified to do much of anything but say the words echoed over and over by seemingly everyone…. I can’t believe it!  It’s incredible!  How could anyone do such a thing? And why?”  I added: “I was mourning the personal loss of an individual who had brought such vigor, such excitement, such brilliance, such intelligence, such energy…to everything he ever did in his life.  [He] was a personal icon to me, a hero, a leader to follow…who has always stood, in my eyes, for everything that was right in politics and government, and in the pursuit of power for noble aims, and who, I am certain, played a large part in motivating me…toward a life in politics and government for myself.  The result is perhaps a ‘new’ resolve…my resolve to dedicate my own life, as [he] dedicated his, to what is not always the easiest but what will surely be the most rewarding for me…a life of devoted public service to my country.  If I can, I will pursue legal studies for the next three years to prepare me [or else immediately devote] myself to the ideals of hard work and sacrifice in the public interest.” 

I’d grown up in an era when political assassinations happened only in “banana republics.”  Seeing a young, vital, and inspiring political leader like JFK cruelly shot down changed forever my view of America as a place where political transitions always occur peacefully.  The later assassinations of other American leaders (like Martin Luther King, Jr., and RFK) further traumatized me and others in our country. 

But although I lost him as our president, JFK had motivated me to pursue the study of American politics as well as the study of law.  At a pivotal moment, I chose to leave academia with the goal of becoming an activist via the study of law.  

After graduating from law school, I did become an activist.  I was in the vanguard of lawyers who fought to secure women’s reproductive rights.  My co-counsel and I won a hard-fought victory, invalidating the restrictive Illinois abortion statute in 1971 (Doe v. Scott, 321 F.Supp. 1385 (N.D.Ill. 1971).  As part of that lawsuit, I represented a Black teenage rape victim, winning a TRO in the appellate court that enabled her to have a legal abortion in March 1970.  This lawsuit is the focus of my forthcoming book, tentatively titled On the Barricades.

Throughout my life and my varied career, I’ve maintained my enormous interest in politics, government, and law.  Although I now view myself primarily as a writer, I continue to enthusiastically follow all of that today, whether current trends align with my personal views or not.

I will forever be indebted to JFK for inspiring me to follow this path.

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Polls 2024

Posted on October 24, 2024 | 2 comments

Are you fed up with polls?  I am.

I’m mad that every time I turn on TV news, I’m confronted with one poll after another.  The media seem obsessed with them, perhaps because they’re desperately trying to come up with fresh stories to fill their nearly endless need to offer viewers something new and different.

I’ve always been leery of polls.  First, I’ve never been asked to be in any poll, and no one I know has either. I’ve always wondered exactly who are the people answering questions in these polls.  Currently, polls seem to be focusing on voters in “swing states” and voters in one demographic group or another.  Maybe I don’t fit into any of those categories.  But I think my views on any number of issues are valuable and should somehow be included in these polls.  Why aren’t they?

Further, I’m quite certain that the people who do participate are often led to answer questions in a given way, thanks to questions that are, in my view, slanted in one direction or another. You’ve probably noticed that, too.

Instead of getting mad, maybe I should take the advice of Ezra Klein, an opinion writer for The New York Times.  On October 13, he published a column, “Ignore the Polls.”  He makes a bunch of good points.  To begin with, he notes that you’re probably looking at polls to know who’ll win.  But the polls can’t tell you that.  On average, polls in every presidential election between 1969 and 2012 were off by two percentage points.  More recent polls, in 2016 and 2020, were off by even more.  Klein states that pollsters today are desperate to avoid the mistakes they made in 2016 and 2020, when they undercounted Trump supporters.  So some of them are asking voters to recall who they voted for in 2020 and then using that info to include Trump voters more accurately this time.  But the results are very different when pollsters don’t ask voters to recall what they did in the past.  According to Klein, voters are “notoriously bad at recalling past votes.”  So why do the pollsters even bother asking?

Klein adds that polls are “remarkably, eerily stable.”  Events keep happening (like assassination attempts and televised debates), but the polls haven’t really changed.  So Klein advises us to give ourselves a break.  “Step off the emotional roller coaster.  If you want to do something to affect the election, donate money or time in a swing state…or volunteer in a local race.  Call anyone in your life who might actually be undecided or might not be registered to vote or might not make it to the polls.  And then let it go.” 

That’s exactly what I’ve been doing.  I’m glad my outlook resembles Ezra Klein’s.  Now if the media would just pay attention to his wise advice.  Hey, media people, ignore the polls.  Instead, seek out interesting stories about the candidates, the voters, and the issues.  Then let it go. 

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