Last week, we saw two important and contrasting events in American foreign policy. The first was Bernie Sanders’ speech at Westminster College, where he declared a need to “rethink the old Washington mindset.” He questioned the moral validity of Washington’s alliance with human rights violators like Saudi Arabia, stressed the need to classify climate change…
Opinion
Democalypse 2016: Forecasting a summer of election madness
In my final article of the year, I think it’s important to reflect on the roller coaster of a primary we have experienced thus far, as well as provide some insight for the coming months. This election has been unpredictable and unconventional since day one. If the pundits and experts had been correct, we would…
Opinion
Not “feeling the Bern:” Being a non-Bernie supporter at Mac
Macalester seems to have become saturated with supporters of Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders, from stickers and posters, to every other conversation in Café Mac, to multiple articles and mentions in The Mac Weekly, weekly. Of course, it makes sense to surround yourself with rhetoric from and news about your preferred candidate. I myself would love…
Features
Way Back at Mac: Campus was “Feeling the Bern” in 1987
On March 17, 1987, a certain mayor visited Macalester Campus and spoke to an audience of 200 packed into Weyerhaeuser Chapel. If this same man visited campus today, the spectators would fill the chapel, spill out across the Campus Center lawn and all the way onto Shaw Field as well. Any ideas? Hint — he…
Arts, Content
Content: Celebrity presidential endorsements are entertaining
Any thinking person bases their political decisions solely upon the opinions of their favorite celebrities. The celebrity presidential endorsement presents a meaningless sideshow in a season filled with meaningless sideshows. What do the identities of celebrities who choose to endorse a certain candidate tell us about that candidate? What kind of influence will celebrities exert…
Opinion
Trump & Sanders: Why I don’t support either end of the spectrum
American politics in 2016 makes me want to cry. As a moderate conservative, I become more frightened every day that my party will be represented by Donald Trump. Even just a few years ago, I loved the caricature of Donald Trump, an absurd but ultimately harmless businessman with an endless supply of antics. He extended…
News
Super Tuesday in Minnesota, students caucus and campaign for candidates
National Results On Tuesday night, it was Minnesota’s turn. Voters across the state flocked to caucus sites to have their say in who should carry their party’s torch in the presidential election. In Minnesota, Senator Bernie Sanders won every congressional district in the state and thus the DFL delegates, while Senator Marco Rubio won the…
News
Ian Haney López talks race, politics and economic jeopardy in U.S
On the evening of Monday, Feb. 29, Ian Haney López gave this year’s Mitau Lecture in John B. Davis Lecture Hall. Haney López is a professor of race and constitutional law at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the…
News
Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders hosts RiverCentre rally
On Tuesday afternoon, hordes of eager Macalester students sporting Bernie Sanders gear filled several Metro transit buses as they headed to hear the presidential candidate give a speech at the RiverCentre in downtown Saint Paul. The students joined over 15,000 other supporters, who packed into the RiverCentre and an “overflow room” for a chance to…