our election year: all articles

Only 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.
Wednesday 22nd December

Why the Democrats lost: an interview with Todd Gitlin

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.
Monday 1st November

The forces of reason and unreason

No less than the life of the republic itself depends on the election of 2 November 2004, says Todd Gitlin.
Thursday 21st October

Paramedia and Parrot Media

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.
Thursday 14th October

Bush owes no one an explanation

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.
Wednesday 6th October

Snarled up

The Dick Cheney-John Edwards Vice-Presidential debate revealed some strange social-psychological truths, notes Todd Gitlin.
Thursday 30th September

Kerry reports (again) for duty

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.
Wednesday 22nd September

Kerry comes out

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.
Wednesday 15th September

The mobilization

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.
Wednesday 8th September

The torrent waits for no man

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.
Thursday 2nd September

Festival of the smug

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.
Wednesday 25th August

The ghost of Vietnam

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.
Wednesday 18th August

The Manchurian Kerry

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.
Wednesday 4th August

Spinning the Dems

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.
Thursday 29th July

John Kerry, Reporting for Duty

“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”.
Wednesday 21st July

Revenge of the Paramedia

Todd Gitlin on the irresistible rise of quick, dirty, heavy–breathing media.
Wednesday 14th July

The Deep Campaign

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.
Wednesday 7th July

Choosing John Edwards

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”.
Wednesday 30th June

Michael Moore, Alas

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”.
Wednesday 23rd June

God's election

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.
Wednesday 16th June

In his God he trusts

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.
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