A compendium of the best reporting and commentary surrounding the pivotal 2024 elections in the United States. You won't find horse race coverage here, or the standard "both sides" BS that passes so often for political journalism. What you will find are links, with brief commentary, to work that I believe advances the conversation we should be having about America's – and the world's – future. Remember: Everything is at stake this year. (Unfortunately, some of the work I point to is behind paywalls.)
I believe that we have not fully digested the emotional and social effects of [Trump and the extreme right's] relentless psychological warfare. No wonder joy seems shocking! No wonder people are flooding into the stadiums, convention centers, and other venues to hear Harris and Walz. These politicians genuinely care about others and the country. They fill us with hope that together we can do what is possible to save our freedoms.
Ben-Ghiat studies and teaches authoritarians, propaganda, and is a leading thinker in the vital task of protecting democracy. You may find this piece naive or impractical. But do not dismiss it. The author looks at what has happened in Chile and, more recently, Turkey to suggest that joy can, under the right conditions, effectively challenge the dictators. The Harris campaign is bringing considerable good feeling back into national politics; Democratic voters are vastly more enthusiastic about participating than they were only a few weeks ago. May joy prevail at the ballot box.
The 100 S&P 500 corporations with the lowest median wages — the Low-Wage 100 — last year paid their CEOs an average 538 times what they paid their most typical workers, we found. Extreme pay disparities lower employee morale and productivity and raise turnover rates. They also widen gender and racial disparities, since women and people of color make up a disproportionately large share of low-wage workers and a tiny share of corporate leaders. Can Americans transcend our differences and come together to tackle these obscene pay divides? ... Public outrage over corporate pay gaps is helping unions win strong new contracts at enterprises ranging from Detroit’s Big 3 automakers to major hotel chains.
This report should make you furious and optimistic. Furious, because the zero-accountability privilege of our corporate looters is worse than ever. Optimistic, because there are some faint signs of progress in reclaiming a decent form of capitalism from the barons who control it now. The report has a laundry list of specific recommendations, most of which are sensible. But it will take more confrontational politics, leading to new laws, to boost the workers' efforts. The Biden administration has been the most pro-labor in decades, and there's every reason to expect a Harris White House would push even further. (I linked directly to this report even though some media organizations have covered it. Why? The survey – put together by one of the leading liberal think tanks – has better details. It's all there. The writing is clear, and has some of the passion the topic deserves. There are times when it's best to go straight to the source, without the filter of Big Journalism, and this is definitely one of them.)
Peter Bondi, the managing director of Informing Democracy, a nonpartisan, nonprofit election watchdog group, said he believes that changes Congress and some states have made since 2020 have strengthened safeguards, but there is a “strong movement and a growing movement to try to bend the system.”
Votebeat is an invaluable news organization that looks deeper into local voting issues than any national media organization. Last week it published a thoroughly reported roundup of a key element of voting rights – right-wing plans to disrupt vote certification – in the major swing states. While the potential for chaos is real, the people who work to protect voting rights are working feverishly to keep the worst from happening, and expert observers say that the preparation is bearing fruit.
“This incident was unfortunate, and it is also unfortunate that the ANC employee and her professionalism has been unfairly attacked,” the Army statement said. “ANC is a national shrine to the honored dead of the Armed Forces, and its dedicated staff will continue to ensure public ceremonies are conducted with the dignity and respect the nation’s fallen deserve.”
The Army simply does not make statements like the one above, ever. The polite language is, reading between the lines, an expression of sheer disgust for what Trump and his apparatchiks did the other day. The cemetery employee who declined to press charges reportedly feared for her safety, given the violence-prone nature of the Trump cult. Benen's story is a round-up of the many, many facets of this story. He says, and it seems likely, that this sordid story isn't over.
Even in an administration full of loyalists, Patel was exceptional in his devotion. This was what seemed to disturb many of his colleagues the most: Patel was dangerous, several of them told me, not because of a certain plan he would be poised to carry out if given control of the CIA or FBI, but because he appeared to have no plan at all—his priorities today always subject to a mercurial president’s wishes tomorrow. (Patel disputes this characterization.) What wouldn’t a person like that do, if asked?
This Atlantic magazine article is disturbing – and important – because it contemplates a second Trump administration in the context of dictatorship he and his people are planning to operate. Understand, the damage this one man could cause is enormous. (Not incidentally, he loathes the press and wants to punish any number of journalists who haven't bowed to the boss.) Worse, the White House and agencies would be filled with people who lack principles other than fulfilling the corrupt and vengeful wishes of the boss. Most Americans – certainly including most of our top editors and political reporters – are still refusing to contemplate what could happen here. (Note: The article is behind a paywall, but the magazine offers no-cost trial subscriptions.)
Voting is just part of democracy, but it's the essential place to start. Make sure you're registered. Doublecheck in the fall, well before Election Day, because in some states Republican officials are removing people, mostly those who tend to vote for Democrats, from voting rolls.
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I spend a lot of time looking for essential coverage, and hope you'll help me by letting me know about the good stuff you find. Let me know.
Ruth Ben-Ghiat
averyr
Carrie Levine
Leo Shane III
Steve Benen
Elaina Plott Calabro
