In addition to my academic scholarship, I have published op-eds and commentaries in the following: The Progressive, Salon, and HuffPost.
“What the ‘No Kings’ Protests Accomplished,” The Progressive (October 21, 2025).
The protests on October 18 felt good because they were. I call it “moral decontamination.” It’s the collective repudiation of the regime’s lies, violence, and stupidity. An assertion of principles in the face of Trump’s nihilism.
The MAGA clique strives to keep us isolated and demoralized. No Kings creates the connections and the sense of agency we need to renew our democracy. It is a prefatory exercise. A people making themselves worthy of a Republic.
“The Problem of Tonnage,” Writers for Democratic Action (September 23, 2025)
If you’ve read Arthur Koestler’s Darkness at Noon, you may recall “the problem of tonnage.” For those who haven’t, Koestler illuminates a great deal about our current predicament in a few crucial pages.
Published in 1940, Darkness at Noon was Koestler’s attempt to distill and analyze the essence of Soviet totalitarianism under Josef Stalin. Like other leftist intellectuals, Koestler was coming to grips with the barbarism and irrationality of the Soviet regime after having been a member of the Communist Party from 1931-38.
In the loosely fictionalized dictatorship portrayed by Koestler, there is an intra-Party debate regarding the construction of submarines. The question at first seems esoteric, but a great deal rides on the answer. Should the Party, now two decades out from seizing power, invest in big subs or little?
“The Danger of MAGA History,” The Progressive (January 30, 2025)
Trump is all in on patriotic history. He wants a triumphal past. His Second Inaugural Address was saturated by nation-glorifying imagery and rhetoric. In the MAGA historical imaginary, America wins all the time—except when internal enemies block the application of “common sense.” The past Trump desires is the present MAGA has embraced: rugged, manly, expansionist, culturally uniform, and unapologetic.
The problem with MAGA history is not simply that it is untrue—America’s past includes much to celebrate, but also much to mourn and repent. The deeper issue is that MAGA history is nakedly ideological. It obliterates what it does not desire and poisons what it cannot abide. Instead of being open to multiple perspectives, it strives to be univocal. MAGA, as we are seeing, refuses to share reality—or history—with those who do not pledge their fealty to its leaders.
https://progressive.org/latest/the-danger-of-maga-history-karn-20250130/
“The Corruption of MAGA Comedy,” Salon (November 18, 2024)
The contrast between Trump’s policy ineptitude and his razor-sharp comedy is remarkable. Asked about his plans to overhaul the Affordable Care Act, Trump sputtered lamely about “concepts of a plan.” When pressed for a specific proposal on how to provide affordable child care to American workers, Trump rambled incoherently through an embarrassing list of non-sequiturs. The election results show us such stumbles can be excused. That’s because when it comes to lambasting his opponents and tickling the funny bone of the MAGA base, the incoming comedian-in-chief pulls from a seemingly bottomless well of zingers.
https://www.salon.com/2024/11/18/the-corruption-of-maga-comedy/
“Trump’s Toxic Rhetoric,” The Progressive (October 29, 2024)
In his now-classic study “The Language of the Third Reich,” German scholar Victor Klemperer observed how Nazi rhetoric altered the thinking of ordinary Germans and subverted traditional values. Besides its resentments and scapegoating, Nazism was at its core a linguistic barrage, which Klemperer immediately recognized as dangerous.
“If someone replaces the words ‘heroic’ and ‘virtuous’ with ‘fanatical’ for long enough,” Klemperer wrote, “he will come to believe that a fanatic really is a virtuous hero, and that no one can be a hero without fanaticism.”
More recently, writers and pundits who have observed former President Donald Trump at his campaign events have noted the increasing coarseness of his language and the dehumanizing vocabulary he uses to vilify his rivals and outline his plans for a vindictive second term.
https://progressive.org/op-eds/trumps-rhetoric-is-frightening-and-toxic-karn-20241029/
ALEXANDER KARN 