Author: Thom Hartmann

“No political truth is of greater intrinsic value, or is stamped with the authority of more enlightened patrons of liberty: The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands … may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” — James Madison, Federalist 47 “All the powers of government, legislative, executive, and judiciary, result to the legislative body. The concentrating of these in the same hands, is precisely the definition of despotic government. An ELECTIVE DESPOTISM was not the government we fought for; but one … in which the powers of government should be so...

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” — Abraham Lincoln “The greatest good we can do our country is to heal its party divisions and make them one people. To render us again one people, acting as one nation, should be the object of every man really a patriot.” — Thomas Jefferson People are baffled. Why are Trump and his Republicans so intent on gutting our government, destroying our alliances and reputation around the world, and screwing working-class people while transferring over $50 trillion from them to the morbidly rich? Historian Kevin M. Kruse captured the zeitgeist brilliantly, reflecting...

Masked, armed law enforcement agents who regularly violate the law and strip people of their constitutional rights is nothing new in America. They have, in fact, a long and well-documented history, including states — after years of abuse by masked men — passing laws specifically to prevent them from concealing their identities when performing law enforcement operations. In this era, we call them Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents; during the late 19th and early- to mid-20th centuries they called themselves the Ku Klux Klan. They often operated with the blessing of both federal and state governments, often deputized...

Remember the old TV crime drama shows? A cop would bang on a suspect’s door, and the suspect would say, through the door, “Do you have a warrant?” The officer would then walk away, promising to come back later with the requisite paper signed by a judge. No more. Now they’re kicking in doors, shooting pepper-gas balls into the open windows of cars driven by reporters, smashing windows and furniture, and concealing their faces and identities like the Klan did in days of old. In Chicago, they’ve shot two unarmed people, killing one. And there wasn’t a warrant signed...

When Charlie Kirk was assassinated, he was sitting under a tent that had “America Comeback Tour” printed in huge letters across all four sides. It was the theme of his tour of college campuses, a tour run by his Turning Point organization that was, according to NBC News, early-funded by ten morbidly rich right-wingers. The question is “America Comeback” to what? In 1981, when Ronald Reagan was sworn into office: Fully two-thirds of Americans were in the middle class, College was so cheap you could pay your tuition with a weekend job, — Healthcare was inexpensive and widely available,...