I was recently interviewed by RefuseFascism.org. Note: First 1 minute contains short clips from the full interview. Next, host Coco Das provides anti-fascist news and commentaries. At about 8 minutes 45 seconds, the interview with me begins. I want to give a shout out to the work of cousin Mary Vavrus whose books over the…
Author: Michael Vavrus
A New Governing Regime: Far-Right Extremism
It’s taking us far too long to recognize the ugly hand of fascism. Why, you may ask? History demonstrates rising fascist politics from far-right movements become increasingly entrenched, operating under a seemingly invisible cloak that denies reality. In our current historical moment, this previously unrecognizable but seismic shift in U.S. politics seems to…
Failed Coups & Far-Right Electoral Politics
Adolph Hitler’s “behavior during imprisonment convinced the authorities that, like his political organization…he was no longer to be feared. It is believed he will retire to private life and to Austria, the country of his birth.” So read a 1924 New York Times article headlined “Hitler Tamed by Prison” in the aftermath of his attempted…
Critical Race Theory
Here we are in the 3rd decade of the 21st century and the denial that race was central to the founding of the U.S. continues from conservative and far right corners. Some White supremacist state legislatures would punish teachers if slavery were taught, not as a “peculiar institution,” but rather as the foundation of the…
Time for a Multi-Party Political System
The takeover of the U.S. Capitol by violent right-wing extremists that resulted in Congress being shut down today is telling by the support such paramilitary groups have received from key members of the Republican Party along with their president who encourages such violence. The scenes of the ineffectiveness of the security forces in stopping…
Trumpism and the Politics of Patriarchal Virility
Women in the construction of patriarchal virility are valued only if they are the right kind of women, those who know their place in a male-centric order and defer to men in both the family and in the public square…
A 2020 Movement toward a Third “Reconstruction”?
Our current historical moment suggests that the awakening of the United States may be moving the nation toward a Third Reconstruction. The first Reconstruction of the 1870s was intended to “reconstruct” and eliminate the southern White terrorism against African American after the Civil War. Well, we know how that turned out. 80 years after…
Works in Progress, Olympia’s Progressive Newspaper
Commentaries available in-print & on-line at Works in Progress
From Zeus to Kavanaugh
In creating the myth of Zeus as their supreme deity, ancient Greek male politicians attempted to naturalize misogyny. Misogyny, “dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women,” from the Greek root “hatred [of] women,” centuries later found full-throated expression in U.S. politics through the hearings and eventual confirmation of the misogynist Kavanaugh for a…
“The state of the union for the Left after Trump’s first year in office”
I can almost hear centrist Democrats and other mainstream liberals saying how “idealistic” or “unrealistic” broad calls for social justice are. Never mind that numerous progressive goals proposed in the U.S. are common, legislated practices in many European nations and Canada. Without a vision of where we’d like our nation to become, it’s nearly impossible to…