Tim Libretti

Tim Libretti is a professor of U.S. literature and culture at a state university in Chicago. A long-time progressive voice, he has published many academic and journalistic articles on culture, class, race, gender, and politics, for which he has received awards from the Working Class Studies Association, the International Labor Communications Association, the National Federation of Press Women, and the Illinois Woman's Press Association.
Opinion: House Resolution Denouncing Socialism Distracts from GOP’s Real Authoritarian Agenda

Opinion: House Resolution Denouncing Socialism Distracts from GOP’s Real Authoritarian Agenda

When one starts to put two and two together, it starts to sound like this kind of “anti-socialist” ideology is…

1 year ago

Opinion: Amid GOP Drama Democrats Need To Flip The Script On Inflation

We need to flip the script so expert economists’ first instinct isn’t to attack workers, where the pain will be…

1 year ago

What the House Drama Reveals about the State of Extremism in America

The gang of extremists, who controlled the process of deciding the Speaker, did not so much elect McCarthy as much…

1 year ago

Opinion: “A League of Their Own” Joins Biden in Fight for America’s Soul

While far from perfect, A League of Their Own, like Biden’s speech, tries to push the soul of America to…

2 years ago

Opinion: The Dangerous Distortion of “Fairness” in the Student Loan Forgiveness Debate

Biden’s plan is an effort to create fairness and equity when it comes to access to higher education.

2 years ago

Opinion: How to Deal with Christian Nationalists? Let them Secede and Tyrannize Over Themselves

If these hateful Christian nationalists want to secede and form their own fascist state to tyrannize over themselves, why don’t…

2 years ago

Opinion: Republicans Aren’t Changing Their Authoritarian Minds or Lying Ways

The 1/6 Committee hearings have not changed Republican minds about reality, only about Trump’s viability.

2 years ago

Opinion: “Anti-Government” GOP Actually Wants Big Government Against The People

This is a form of government not of, by and for the people, but one against the people. This is…

2 years ago

Opinion: Criticizing Saudi Visit, Media Ignores Biden’s Difficult Bind of Saving Democracy

We can’t really judge or evaluate Biden’s meeting with MBS without properly assessing the outright and serious threats to democracy…

2 years ago

Opinion: How The GOP Used Trump, And Why They Can Dump Him And Still Harm America

They aren’t dumping Trumpism, just Trump. Indeed, what some pundits have termed Trumpism is really just what mainstream Republican politics…

2 years ago

Opinion: Alito, Thomas Think Reality of Gun Violence Shouldn’t Concern SCOTUS

Rather than assess our history and re-think traditions that are unhealthy, indeed lethal, for us, SCOTUS, lead by the illogical…

2 years ago

Opinion: Chicago Sky Celebrate 50 years of Women’s Equality Under Title IX as Alito, SCOTUS Do the Opposite

While the celebration of Title IX was certainly planned ahead of the release of the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe…

2 years ago

Opinion: SCOTUS Unleashes Reign of Terror on Americans

We have to recognize that the Supreme Court is now currently operating not just as an enabler of domestic terrorism…

2 years ago

Opinion: Media’s Inflation Coverage Obscures Promise of Biden’s Policies to Promote Real Economic Democracy

Media coverage blinds us to the fact that Biden’s Build Back Better plan contained the very policies that promise to…

2 years ago

Opinion: Jan. 6 And Uvalde Massacre Highlight How Violent Gun Culture Undermines Democracy

The gun, in many ways these days, has become the symbol and means of tyranny, a tool for taking down…

2 years ago

Opinion: If Americans Really Want to Address Gun Violence, It’s Democracy, Stupid

All of these issues—women’s right to choose, gun control, the rights of people to love how they want and marry…

2 years ago

Opinion: Advocating For Student Loan Forgiveness, AOC Highlights Key Obstacle To American Progress And Democracy

She expands the debate beyond student loan forgiveness to give us a broader lesson in civics and reality.

2 years ago

Opinion: Student Loan Forgiveness Is A Key Step In Promoting A Democratic Culture Of Mutual Aid

Forgiving student loans is an opportunity for the nation to create policy rooted in a recognition of the importance of…

2 years ago

Opinion: Want to Stop Inflation? Fighting for Global Democracy is the Answer

If we want to end inflation, we have to recognize how this dynamic is bound up in assaults on democracy…

2 years ago

Analysis: The Missing Person in Alito’s Draft Opinion Overturning Roe v. Wade

Less attention has been given, in discussions and analysis in the media, to the actual text of Alito’s opinion, especially…

2 years ago

Opinion: The Global Tortoise And The Genocidal Hare: A Parable Of How (Not) To Create Global Democracy

We hear—and can certainly observe—how the wheels of international justice turn with agonizing sluggishness or simply don’t move at all,…

2 years ago

Opinion: Will Inflation Worries Push Americans Toward Authoritarianism to Economic Detriment?

The surest way to secure a strong economy that works for the majority of Americans is to support—and vote—for democracy,…

2 years ago

Opinion: Obama’s White House Visit Underlines Story Democrats Need To Tell About Themselves And GOP

Democrats need to focus intensely on loudly telling the story of what life in America will really be like if…

2 years ago

Opinion: Amazon, Starbucks, and Other U.S. Workers Fight the Putins at Home, While Ukraine’s Fight for Democracy Rages On

We need to recognize the role of labor and collective organizing in achieving democracy.

2 years ago

Opinion: Putin Shows Us Where GOP’s Hateful Rule Will Take Us If We Don’t Defend LGBTQ Rights

We must recognize the authoritarian threat directly and clearly, and highlight the continuities between Putin’s anti-LGBTQ politics and those in…

2 years ago

Opinion: Why It Matters that We Call the Russian Invasion What It Is: Genocide, Not War

we shouldn’t refer to their acts of barbarism and wholesale mass murder as “war.” We need to call it what…

2 years ago

Opinion: Are We Avoiding Or Ensuring World III By Not Fighting Side by Side with Ukrainians?

I’m not just saying fighting alongside Ukrainian soldiers is the moral thing to do. I’m saying it’s the smart political…

2 years ago

Opinion: From Inflation to Authoritarianism, Democracy is the Answer

Want to stop autocracy? Want relief from inflation? Democracy is the theory of everything.

2 years ago

Opinion: Elect More Liberals: Biden And Democrats Need to Trumpet Manchin’s Advice to Save Democracy

Biden and the Democrats need to counter with the very true narrative that electing Republicans will hurt Americans

2 years ago

Opinion: NFL’s Hidden Hate Practices Help Explain Why It’s So Hard To End US Racism

The NFL that publicizes ending racism, presumably to sell its product, also deeply believes in the intellectual inferiority of Black…

2 years ago

Opinion: Media’s Amnesic Biden-Blaming Abets Authoritarian Movement

This amnesia threatens to push Americans back to the authoritarianism we so narrowly escaped--by a hair!--in the 2020 election.

2 years ago

Opinion: Right-Wing Week In Review Reveals GOP Politics Of Racism Toward African Americans

The past week has telescoped America’s history of racism and genocide in the intensest of ways, highlighting too that it’s…

2 years ago

Opinion: If America’s Headed In Wrong Direction, Biden Is the One Trying To Right The Ship

While Biden is trying to fix problems and steer the ship of state in the right direction, these substantial Republican…

2 years ago

Opinion: Why Labor Organization Should Be The Focus In The Fight For Democracy

We need to tell the story of unionization and collective action at least as much as we tell the story…

2 years ago

Opinion: Liz Cheney’s End Game Is To Make Republican Authoritarianism Palatable

Liz Cheney does not oppose the authoritarianism and anti-democratic impulses of the Republican Party.

2 years ago

Opinion: Manchin’s Betrayal Typifies Long-Standing Conservative Misinformation Campaign Against American Worker

The ongoing public negotiation among Manchin, Biden, and progressive Democrats has made clear that Manchin has been trafficking the same…

2 years ago

Opinion: Manchin Betrayal Provides Opportunity for Democrats to Prove They Represent White Working Class

Manchin’s betrayal has created an opening, an opportunity for Democrats to spur a much broader profound and urgent reflection on…

2 years ago

Coal Miners Plead with Manchin to Actually Represent West Virginians And Support Build Back Better

The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) on Monday urged Manchin to revisit his rejection of the planning, highlighting the…

2 years ago

Opinion: It’s Time for Democrats to Play Hardball and Jettison Manchin and Sinema

If they’re going to act like Republicans, then Biden and the Democrats need to treat them like Republicans.

2 years ago

Want to Save American Democracy? Then Care About Starbucks Workers’ Union Victory

It’s a huge deal—people standing up a declaring they want a voice at the table in their workplace, to participate…

2 years ago

Opinion: When Will Democrats Take Off Gloves In Fight For Civil and Human Rights?

For whom does the hangman need to come for moderate and conservative Democrats to care?

2 years ago

Opinion: How the Corporate Media’s Treatment of Inflation Abets America’s Authoritarian Turn

This type of coverage of the mere politics, as opposed to the underlying reality of inflation, constitutes in its own…

2 years ago

Opinion: Rittenhouse Verdict Consistent with Right Wing’s Effort of Destroy Democracy

The Rittenhouse verdict is one piece of this larger campaign to destroy democracy and energize white supremacy.

2 years ago

Opinion: Right-Wing “Uncivil Disobedience” Distorts American Revolutionary Traditions And Unleashes Authoritarian Terror

We are not seeing acts of revolutionary uprising. What we are seeing is the rise of terrorism and authoritarianism.

2 years ago

Opinion: Accepting Republican Frame about “Wokeness,” Conservative Democrats Play to White Supremacy

Elements of the Democratic Party have bought into this Republican framing, similarly deploying “wokeness” as a term of slander and…

2 years ago

Virginia Governor Race Reveals Dynamics of Republican Abuse, Voter Trauma

We see the media and many Americans giving the Republicans, who engage in abusive behavior by refusing to do anything…

2 years ago

Opinion: All That Americans Really Need To Know About The Human Infrastructure Bill

We know what’s in the bill: attempts to make a more equitable society that sustains and supports the health and…

2 years ago

Opinion:Defining Labor’s Role In Freedom Is Vital to Fighting Authoritarian Threats

As workers realize and assert their real power, rooted in the fact that we all depend on each other’s work…

2 years ago

Opinion: Moderates, Mainstream Media Have Their Heads in the Sand When It Comes to GOP’s Assault on America

Republicans are scary, indeed. But the moderates and mainstream media members who aid and abet them, living in denial, are…

2 years ago

Opinion: Republicans Unleash Vigilante Justice, Destroy Rule of Law

We are at a dangerous moment in America. Republicans have effectively sanctioned violent vigilante justice.

2 years ago

Opinion: How Anti-Socialism Fuels Anti-Science Extremism in America

A belief in science supports a socialist philosophy and worldview, and to slander or dismiss socialism may very well undermine…

2 years ago

Ongoing War on Women Highlights Extremism’s Roots in Mainstream U.S. Culture and Politics

Most disturbing about this evidence is the way it highlights just how widespread the acceptance of sexism, and of violence…

3 years ago

Far from “Jaw-Dropping,” Will Facebook Revelation Make Us Face Our Serious Systemic Sickness?

So, Facebook’s behavior is a symptom of alienation, and it shouldn’t be any kind of “jaw-dropping” surprise.

3 years ago

Opinion: On Labor Day, Let’s Recognize that Our Market Economy Does Not Properly Value Labor

The chief value-driving economic behavior, the U.S. economy itself, is not the meeting of human need, and thus it is…

3 years ago

Opinion: What the 1/6 Insurrection, Texas Anti-Abortion Law Reveal About GOP “Law and Order” ideology

For Republicans, freedom means they also get to impose their belief systems, their version of “law and order” on everybody…

3 years ago

Opinion: Democrats Must Redefine Fiscal Responsibility in Passing Infrastructure Bill to Address Climate Change and Americans’ Needs

What Republicans call “socialism” isn’t giving away free stuff; it’s smart short and long-term investing.

3 years ago

Opinion: Joe Scarborough’s Ignorant Anti-Socialism Exposes Dangers of Conservative Ideology

Scarborough’s logic is exactly that which also enables the anti-vaccination movement and, frankly, movements to undermine democracy.

3 years ago

Opinion: How Republicans Distort Founders’ Meaning, Mission of Freedom

The founders conceptualized freedom as a social mission, a social obligation, the chief goal of which was to serve the…

3 years ago

Opinion: Will “Enough Is Enough” Politics Eclipse Dems’ Futile Hopes for Bi-Partisanship?

“Folks [are] supposed to have common sense.” These are the now well-known words of Alabama’s Republican Governor Kay Ivey when…

3 years ago

Opinion: Republicans’ Endorsement of “White Rage” Undermines Americans’ Economic Well-Being

Understanding the role white rage has played historically in undermining the economic well-being of people of color as well as…

3 years ago

Opinion: Why Defending Democracy Means Taking on “Amazons” of America

We need large organizations that bring people and their power together to insist that people matter and deserve a voice…

3 years ago

Opinion: GOP Doesn’t Want You to Know American History, Just Repeat It with Racist Delight

Republicans promote an ignorance that delights in repeating history, even it results in deadly massacres.

3 years ago

Opinion: Republicans Continue War On American People By Seeking To Eliminate Unemployment Benefits

The war is formalized in legal proceedings as the people are fighting back against Republican governors who prematurely eliminated the…

3 years ago

Opinion: Sinema, SCOTUS, and the Filibuster: A Recipe for Mainstreaming Extremism

Sinema and the Supreme Court, empowered and enabled by the filibuster, have through the supposedly “democratic processes” Congress invented, extra-constitutionally,…

3 years ago

Opinion: Can Americans Survive Without “Radical Socialism”?

Again, we have to ask, where and in what shape would Americans and the U.S. economy be without the “radical…

3 years ago

Opinion: To Really Save Democracy, Democrats Must Rally Behind Biden’s Labor Advocacy

On the whole, as a culture, we don’t speak much of the nation’s failure to extend democracy and civil rights…

3 years ago

Opinion: Representation Without Taxation: How Traditional and Current GOP Policies Undermine America and Democracy

Traditional Republican policies do not put country over party but rather turn back the clock on the American Revolution.

3 years ago

Opinion: How Donald Trump’s Smallness Is Fueling the GOP’s Grandiose Master Plan

His belief that he is still president, or entitled to the presidency, is simply the most honest and overt expression…

3 years ago

Opinion: Yes, Liz Cheney and the Anti-Trump GOP Believe in Stealing Elections Too

Of course, these Republicans, strenuously posing as “principled,” remain quiet about their own election-stealing strategy, even as it sits ponderously…

3 years ago

Opinion: Big Lie of Stolen Election Obscures Cheney’s Bigger Longstanding Lie

Trumpism, in fact, has provided a fortuitous opening for the Republican Party establishment to salvage its own perfidious conservatism by…

3 years ago

Opinion: Don’t be Fooled By Liz Cheney’s “Stand”: There Is No Conservative Conscience In GOP

The problem Cheney and the other never-Trumpers have with Trump and the current Republican Party is that it has exposed…

3 years ago

Opinion: Why Biden’s Recognition of the Armenian Genocide Is so Crucial for Making American Lives Matter

The point is that where Trump’s policies furthered death, Biden has affirmed life in his policies, calling out and challenging…

3 years ago

Opinion: Will Chauvin Verdict Change How We White Americans See Ourselves?

We must hold white supremacy accountable and, in doing so, take a hard look in the mirror as white Americans.

3 years ago

Opinion: Republicans Expect Americans to Obey, Not Participate in Political Life of the Nation

The message they send to Americans is clear: “Stay out of politics and leave the destruction of you and your…

3 years ago

Would It be So Bad If Biden’s Focus on Americans’ Needs Makes Him a Little Bit Socialist?

We may be ready for this discussion as a nation, especially if Biden were to stop eschewing the socialist label…

3 years ago

Opinion:After More Mass Shootings Last Week, Can We Tell a Story to End Gun Violence in America?

We need to weave a cultural narrative that addresses the fact of the world we are making and helps us…

3 years ago

Opinion: Key Lawsuits, Trials Offer Hope For America Reversing Trump’s Culture Of Un-Accountability

What we need to recognize is that when returned these verdicts will not just tell us about these individual cases;…

3 years ago

Opinion: Remembering John Roberts’ Role in Enabling White Supremacist Voter Repression

John Roberts somehow believed it was his role to usurp Congress’s authority and make this call. He decided, based on…

3 years ago

Opinion: Biden Takes On Billionaire Class In Supporting American Workers And Democracy

Biden has thrown down the gauntlet, showing he will fight against corporate autocracy and for workers’ democracy and welfare.

3 years ago

From COVID Response to Infrastructure Bill, Biden Is De-Criminalizing Government to Support American Lives

Building back better, which is how Biden characterizes his agenda of running government to address American’s needs, is, indeed, an…

3 years ago

Opinion: Georgia Lawmakers Outlaw Humanity And Mutual Aid As Big Lie Becomes Big Law

This sweeping legislation isn’t just about suppressing the vote; it’s about prohibiting collective care and action, criminalizing any sense of…

3 years ago

The Controversy Over Eliminating The Filibuster Makes A Joke Of Democracy

The filibuster is another way Republicans turn reality and democracy and their heads to install a tyranny of the minority.

3 years ago

Grace Meng Sounds Battle Cry for New Ideal of American Justice and Democracy

Meng’s insistence that “We will not let you take our voice” encapsulates the impetus behind the multiple but absolutely connected…

3 years ago

Opinion: Why Biden’s Agenda To Make America OK Is More Ambitious Than Making America Great Again

It may not sound that catchy to say, “Let’s make American Ok.” In reality, though, it’s an incredibly ambitious and…

3 years ago

Opinion: Biden And Democrats Are Leading America Beyond Beltway Partisanship

Biden made many promises. First and foremost were those of leading us out of the pandemic and improving the lives…

3 years ago

Opinion: The One Question Never Asked And Answered About Re-Opening Schools

The call to get teachers back into schools has been more insidious than earlier Republican calls to re-open the economy…

3 years ago

Opinion: Biden’s Support For Labor Unions Is Unprecedented Promotion Of Democracy Itself

When President Joe Biden recently voiced support for unions, encouraging workers at Amazon currently involved in a vote to unionize…

3 years ago

Opinion: Addressing Khashoggi Murder, Biden Must Build Back Better In Foreign Policy To Safeguard American Democracy

For Biden to be effective abroad, he must set an example in his own nation. For him to set an…

3 years ago

Opinion: When It Comes To Gender And Sex, Marjorie Taylor Greene Is Wrong On The Science And The Poetry

Poetry can help us do that, as can a science supported by a poetic sensibility that seeks ever to bring…

3 years ago

Opinion: By Opposing Minimum Wage Increase, Republicans Scam Taxpayers and Endorse Poverty

While Republicans love to falsely claim that tax cuts for the wealthy pay for themselves through increased economic activity, in…

3 years ago

Opinion: To Save Democracy And Achieve Unity, Senate Democrats Must Kill The Filibuster

If Democrats want to save democracy and work toward unity, they must remove the obstacle of the filibuster.

3 years ago

Opinion: Texas Fiasco Highlights Need for What Biden Calls Unity: Mutual Care Modeled by Government Leaders

In a small sentence, Biden made a huge point. Let’s serve people, not presidents or politics.

3 years ago

Opinion: Despite Critics, Democrats Were Smart Not To Call Witnesses

These critics seem to want blood for their own sport. The House impeachment managers were not playing such games. They…

3 years ago

Opinion: Stacey Plaskett Reveals Key Party Differences, Larger Stakes of Impeachment for Nation

Plaskett and peers such as Haaland, Ocasio-Cortez, and Velazquez are making it clear the Democratic Party is evolving toward a…

3 years ago

Opinion: Biden Honors Science and Teachers, While Media Lambastes Teachers And Listens To Science Selectively

In listening to workers and science, Biden is providing an example of how we properly value lives and protect and…

3 years ago

Opinion: As Impeachment Trial Begins, Let’s Remember The Republican History Of Big Lies

The “big lie” is not unique to Trump but rather constitutes a long-standing Republican tradition and political practice that, far…

3 years ago

Opinion: Rob Portman’s Announced Departure Exposes Myth Of The “Principled Republican”

We keep hearing about splits in the Republican ranks between those who have sold their souls to the extremist arm…

3 years ago

Opinion: African Americans Continue To Lead Insurrections For Democracy In America

In the summer of 1800, Gabriel Prosser, an enslaved blacksmith, planned a slave insurrection in Richmond Virginia. Information about the…

3 years ago

Opinion: GOP Impeachment Strategy is a Policy of Appeasement, Inviting Nazism and Racism into Mainstream Politics

Senate Republicans are now gearing up to acquit Trump in an impeachment trial on the specious rationale that putting a…

3 years ago

Opinion: Let’s Not Lose Sight Of The Revolution That Is By Focusing On The Coup That Wasn’t

Too many in America, caught in throes of misinformation and conspiracy theories, are busy slaying mythical dragons rather than engaging…

3 years ago