In America, the Joe-mocracy Rules

A Republic? A Democracy? No, Our Country Is an Avuncular Autocracy Run by Old Guys Named Joe

Our aging republic is wasting away. Our democracy may be dying.

But the Joe-mocracy survives.

My fellow Americans, too many of you fail to understand the true nature of government in the United States, here in the third decade of the 21st century. Since 2020, our country has not been governed by its people or by its representative institutions.

Instead, we’ve become a Joe-mocracy. That is, we are governed by people named Joe.

But not by all Joes. The American Joe-mocracy is an avuncular autocracy, led by two elderly Joes from two different mid-Atlantic …

by Joe Mathews | December 13, 2022

What Does Kamala Harris’s Rise Say About America?

The Vice President’s Political Career Is a ‘California Story,’ Says Biographer Dan Morain

by Sara Suárez | February 5, 2021

The inauguration of Kamala Harris was a moment of many firsts—the first woman, the first Black woman, the first woman of color, the first person of South Asian heritage, even …

How to Teach an American Inauguration

Since 2008, My College Students Have Been Exploring—in Real Time—What the Transfer of Power Ceremony Reveals About the Nation

by Himanee Gupta-Carlson | January 20, 2021

“Wouldn’t it be cool to go to D.C. for the inauguration?” I remember telling a fellow adjunct instructor in late 2008. Barack Obama had just been elected, and most of …

The Global Women’s Movements That Helped Kamala Harris Rise

The Vice President-Elect Rides a New Wave of Feminism—Led by Women of Color From Africa and Asia to South America—to the White House

by Pardis Mahdavi | December 28, 2020

As Kamala Harris readies to take the oath of office this January, she does so knowing that she will be the first woman, the first Black woman, the first Asian …

Don’t Trust Kamala Harris; Trust the California That Made Her

Harris’s Path Through the Golden State Prepared the VP Nominee to Understand America as Few Can

by Joe Mathews | August 25, 2020

Kamala will be fine. She’s a Californian.

This column is not an endorsement of the vice presidential nominee. But you can ignore all the anxiety on the left about her shifting …

Why South L.A. Has Earned the Vice Presidency

Karen Bass Has Led Her Community’s 30-Year Transformation. Who Better to Lead a Nation at Rock Bottom?

by Joe Mathews | July 28, 2020

Can South Los Angeles teach America how to lead?

That’s the promising question behind the news that Karen Bass is a top contender to be the Democratic vice-presidential nominee.

Bass is best …

Joe Biden