Author: KJ McElrath

When it comes to honoring and acknowledging the work and the sacrifices of real American heroes – military or civilian – the Republicans talk a good game. But, as they have demonstrated over and over again, it’s nothing more than talk. This past weekend marked fifteen years since the collapse of the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001. It offered yet another opportunity for GOP leaders to spout off rhetoric about how “America will remember not only the horror of those attacks, but also the heroism of our response” (Mitch McConnell), or how “It is impossible to forget the...

After the collapse of the World Trade Center just 15 years ago, the federal government set up a relief fund for small businesses in the area that had been affected by 9/11. That relief fund was administered by the Empire State Development Corporation, an agency funded by the State of New York. It’s difficult to imagine any of Donald Trump’s businesses in Manhattan as being “small.” And even if his property located at 40 Wall Street did qualify as a small business, surely someone with a net worth of $10 billion (as he was reported having at the time)...

Since 2008, the term alt-right has been in the media, touted as an alternative to the mainstream conservative movement in the U.S. It isn’t. Instead, alt-right is an umbrella term covering a range of antiquated, racist, and hateful ideologies that Donald Trump’s followers find quite comfortable. In fact, the whole Trump campaign has brought the alt-right out of the shadows and into full public view – and its rank-and-file adherents are milking it for all it’s worth. The term alternative right appears to have been used for the first time in 2008 in a speech delivered before the H.L. Mencken...