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Oct 30, 2024 | 
justsecurity.org | Rachel Kleinfeld
Press freedom in the United States showed the world its Achilles heel this week – a soft spot that reveals just where the greatest weakness lies. Jeff Bezos, the owner of the Washington Post, and Patrick Soon-Shiong, owner of the LA Times, both cancelled editorial board decisions to endorse Kamala Harris for president; in the case of the Washington Post, an editorial was already reportedly written and approved. Soon-Shiong also blocked a series of stories about Donald Trump.
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Sep 29, 2024 | 
laprogressive.com | Rachel Kleinfeld |Rob Maurer
How can we reduce political violence? The United States has been asking itself this question since a would-be assassin’s bullet narrowly missed former president Donald Trump at a July 2024 rally, insurrectionists attacked the U.S. Capitol on 6 January 2021, and threats against election officials and other public servants exploded around the 2020 presidential election. The United States is not alone.
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Sep 26, 2024 | 
persuasion.community | Rachel Kleinfeld |Eboo Patel
This article is part of an ongoing Persuasion series on the future of universities. Universities are in crisis—losing public support, shaken by internal divisions, facing angry donors and alumni, and increasingly straying from their core mission of intellectual curiosity and open inquiry.
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Aug 19, 2024 | 
justsecurity.org | Rachel Kleinfeld |Paras Shah |Clara Apt
From the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol to the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, political violence in the United States is on the minds of many around the country and around the world. As the 2024 election draws closer, now is a useful moment to reflect on the threats of political violence, to consider how other nations have dealt with similar risks, and to evaluate where government and civil institutions can improve.
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Jul 19, 2024 | 
elpais.com | Rachel Kleinfeld
El atentado contra Donald Trump de hace una semana no es, desde luego, el primer episodio de violencia política en la historia de Estados Unidos. Nuestro país ha vivido épocas violentas, en las que la política estaba muy polarizada y en las que figuras políticas hacían llamamientos implícitos a la violencia contra quienes discreparan de ellos.
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Jul 19, 2024 | 
justsecurity.org | Rachel Kleinfeld
Editor’s note: This essay was originally published on July 19, 2024; we are republishing it today due to the direct relevance to recent events. Readers may also be interested in a Just Security podcast interview with Rachel Kleinfeld. Around the country, people are concerned that the attempted assassination of Donald Trump will ripple in destabilizing ways, perhaps even leading to further violence in the United States.
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Jul 19, 2024 | 
almendron.com | Rachel Kleinfeld
It is commonplace for Americans to assume that their country’s problems are sui generis. Since the July 13 assassination attempt against former U.S. President Donald Trump, many commentators have portrayed the event and the tensions around it as unprecedented. Others have reached for comparisons, but they have almost always been domestic—focusing, for instance, on the astounding number of assault weapons in private hands in the United States compared to the number in every other country on earth.
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Jul 19, 2024 | 
foreignaffairs.com | Rachel Kleinfeld
It is commonplace for Americans to assume that their country’s problems are sui generis. Since the July 13 assassination attempt against former U.S. President Donald Trump, many commentators have portrayed the event and the tensions around it as unprecedented.
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Jul 14, 2024 | 
journalofdemocracy.org | Rachel Kleinfeld |Michael Ignatieff |Arthur Brooks |Scott Radnitz
The attack on former president Donald Trump is one of the worst instances of political violence in recent years. Such violence is the result of a moment in which people begin to see their political opponents as enemies instead of citizens of a different political stripe. Sadly, this is where we find the United States today. The Journal of Democracy has assembled a collection of essays to understand this horrible phenomenon and the danger it poses to our democracy.
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May 16, 2024 | 
pilotonline.com | Rachel Kleinfeld
There is a scene in the first “Star Wars” where the heroes find themselves in a garbage compactor. They frantically grab for anything that can keep them from getting crushed as the walls inexorably close in. Such is the plight of civil society in countries facing what democracy experts call “closing space” — and it has now come to the United States.
