Domestic Politics - The Spectre

Obies make calls for Sanders at student-organized phone bank, find camaraderie, good vibes

“I really like how this is a people-powered movement. We’re not seasoned campaign volunteers, but we're doing this because we really believe in it.”

Domestic Politics

Kmart and Me: Exploring Late Capitalism’s Festering Sores

Kmart is an open wound within the otherwise smooth space of retail, where IBM computers from the 1990s, signage from 2005, and Kylo Ren action figures stand side by side. It is a living monument to obsolescence and the fact of history amidst the endless rush of consumer trends and styles.

Domestic Politics

Medicare for Whomst? Breaking Down the Democrats’ Healthcare Debate

If we want to mobilize grassroots support for political change, we must offer more than a half-measure. Solving this crisis means fundamentally restructuring our dysfunctional healthcare system to serve the interests of the American people: this is the promise of M4A.

Domestic Politics

Opinion: CNN Botched Crucial January Debate, Targeted Sanders

The U.S. is occupying Iraq while on the brink of war with Iran, there is record inequality in America, and the economy is potentially on course toward for worst crash in modern history. Why are we focusing on candidates’ squabbles and not their policy agendas?

Domestic Politics

Why is Tulsi Gabbard’s Foreign Policy So Awful?

Should she enter the White House in 2021, her policies would continue regional destabilization, refugee crises, and endless wars across the world.

Domestic Politics

Not Just a Walk in the Woods: Students for Energy Justice Sound Alarm on NEXUS Pipeline

The odds that Oberlin, a small town making up only a few miles of NEXUS’s 256 mile route, will be subject to a pipeline spill are not likely; yet the odds that NEXUS will spill, or leak, or blast open, at some point in its lifetime, are almost certain.

Domestic Politics

Can We Trust Elizabeth Warren’s Progressive Rhetoric?

Elizabeth Warren’s campaign relies on progressive rhetoric to garner grassroots support, but has already shown signs that she is unwilling to challenge the system which led to a for-profit healthcare system; trillions of dollars of student debt; and historic wealth inequality.

Domestic Politics

Who Suicided Jeffrey Epstein? A Test Case for a New Woke Trutherism

Jeffrey Epstein’s murder was a moment when the fact of the moral rot of the ruling class was, for a fleeting moment, nakedly obvious. It should catalyze a new “woke” trutherism on the American political scene — a trutherism with a firm, class conscious basis.

Domestic Politics

Dirty Tactics from a Dirty Industry: Lessons Learned from the Fight over HB 6

Referendum campaigns and direct actions are both deeply important projects, and both demand our support. But they also expose a major weakness of the climate movement: we are always playing defense.

Domestic Politics

OCOPE Defends Protections for Workers from “One Oberlin” Austerity

While Oberlin’s administration is prepared to sacrifice workers on the altar of “academic excellence,” employees and students, the real engine of this College, must unify in the face of austerity.

Domestic Politics

“What Are You Going to Do About It?” Oberlin Students Witness the Ruins of Extractive Capitalism at RAMPS Fall Summit

“I ache for these people,” she said, “and I ache for this land. But we are educated, we’re motivated, we’re organized, we give a shit, and we’re not backing down! Because somebody taught us what you can do when you don’t back down.”

Subscribe to The Spectre