Mandela neither demanded nor received an entirely unconditional devotion; in power he expected his compatriots to behave as assertive citizens not genuflecting disciples
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our election yearOnly Americans vote in the US presidential election, but the result touches us all. Todd Gitlin’s weekly column covers the election for our global readership with a uniquely American voice.
Todd Gitin’s acute, informed, acerbic “Our election year” weekly column has been an openDemocracy highlight of 2004. He discusses the lessons of a tumultuous political year in American politics with Solana Larsen. Read the rest of this post...
No less than the life of the republic itself depends on the election of 2 November 2004, says Todd Gitlin. Read the rest of this post...
With just over a week to go before the presidential election, the paramedia decibels are soaring and the mobilisation intensifying. Todd Gitlin on the curious convulsions and fabulous flavours of this crucial campaign. Read the rest of this post...
For four years, President Bush has been shielded from the public and protected from contrary opinion. The three crucial TV presidential debates have revealed the true man. Advantage John Kerry. Read the rest of this post...
The Dick Cheney-John Edwards Vice-Presidential debate revealed some strange social-psychological truths, notes Todd Gitlin. Read the rest of this post...
John Kerry not just clearly won the first televised debate with George W Bush – he opened up a huge strategic difference over the future of United States policy in Iraq, says Todd Gitlin. Read the rest of this post...
Democracy eschews the private man. Candidates for political office must publicly display their inner man. American voters must choose between a shy John Kerry and a smooth George Bush. Read the rest of this post...
The spirit of “Don’t mourn, organize” is sweeping across Democratic America, says Todd Gitlin. The political is personal. This election is all turn-on and turn-out. Read the rest of this post...
As the media give Bush a wide lead over his rival John Kerry, Todd Gitlin cautions not to call the fight before the final bell. Read the rest of this post...
George W Bush’s closing speech at the Republican convention in New York celebrated the march of freedom, but Todd Gitlin reads its deeper message: endless war. Read the rest of this post...
In a search for truth amongst the fear and smear of the 2004 US Presidential campaigns, Todd Gitlin introduces the full text of John Kerry’s testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1971. Essential reading. Read the rest of this post...
The Bush camp is making out a subversive Kerry is somehow to blame for Vietnam and Iraq. A vast right-wing conspiracy or politics as usual? Todd Gitlin bends his mind. Read the rest of this post...
Twisted stats, contorted figures, false leaks, and baby bounces. As post-convention Kerry and the Democrats hit the road, Todd Gitlin searches for some hot stuff. Read the rest of this post...
“John Kerry’s acceptance speech was the most cogent, most stirring in memory.” Todd Gitlin on the week the patriotic Democrats formally nominated their Presidential candidate, and the media carried “Extreme Makeover”. Read the rest of this post...
Todd Gitlin on the irresistible rise of quick, dirty, heavy–breathing media. Read the rest of this post...
Todd Gitlin goes door–to–door in suburban Philadelphia to gauge the mood of America’s swing voters. Beneath the surface ripples of the televised campaign, he finds a variable, febrile, hard–to–read reality. But people are thinking. Read the rest of this post...
Republicans are crowing at John Kerry’s selection of “Über-liberal” John Edwards as his running-mate. But are Bush’s people really so cocky? Todd Gitlin eyes an “equal-opportunity heart-throb”. Read the rest of this post...
America’s corroded politics, benighted democracy, scandalous history and pliant media, have created a monster. Todd Gitlin on ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’ and Michael Moore, “the master demagogue an age of demagoguery made”. Read the rest of this post...
George W. Bush pretends to have the ear of God, while only 7% of Americans feel that John Kerry is a man of strong religious faith. Todd Gitlin on the battle for sacred votes. Read the rest of this post...
As Ron Reagan Jr. berates politicians who use religion for their own ends, George Bush Jr. tries to enlist the Pope in his crusade for reelection. Todd Gitlin on how the President is consciously dividing America. Read the rest of this post...
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