Brad Rourke

Category: authoritarianism

  • Rebranding Power, Rebranding America Through Culture and Spectacle

    Rebranding Power, Rebranding America Through Culture and Spectacle

    This week, a massive banner featuring President Donald Trump’s portrait was draped across the Department of Labor building in Washington, D.C., alongside an American flag and Theodore Roosevelt. It carried the phrase “American Workers First.” In announcing it at a Cabinet meeting, Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-Deremer said, “Mr. President, I invite you to see…

  • Note From a New Dissident

    Note From a New Dissident

    I have worked my entire career in the democracy space, primarily working towards bridging divides and developing stronger, deeper democratic life. The work that has occupied my decades now feels inadequate to the times I find myself in. I live in the Washington, DC area. Heather Cox Richardson’s “Letters From An American” from August 22,…

  • Abortion the Tip of the Spear for Antidemocrats

    The recent Arizona Supreme Court ruling upholding a near total ban on abortion reminded me of a recent interview I had the opportunity to conduct for the Kettering Foundation with former NARAL Pro-Choice America president Ilyse Hogue, now a senior fellow at New America. Ilyse was in the room during oral arguments in the U.S.…

  • Interview: Countering Authoritarianism with Maria J. Stephan and V Fixmer-Oraiz

    An interview with Maria J. Stephan, co-director of the Horizons Project, and V Fixmer-Oraiz, county supervisor of Johnson County, Iowa. I interviewed the two after a particularly moving panel today at #NCDD2023 in Atlanta. I have the privilege of serving on the board of NCDD, which is a network of dialogue and civic practitioners. At…