Brent Ranalli

Humanities scholar at the Ronin Institute.

Trump’s Crossing the Rubicon

When faced with his own Rubicon moment, will Trump provoke a crisis or will he stand down?

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Donald Trump, Not Your Grandfather’s Caesar: The Big Differences

Julius Caesar’s and Donald Trump’s outsized ambition and lack of scruples turned them into dangers to republican values and institutions. But how were they different?

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Trump and Caesar: Two Men Above the Law

In their ruthless pursuit of power and self-aggrandizement, both Caesar and Trump run roughshod over laws and norms.

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Donald Trump as Julius Caesar: The Curtain Raiser

Why Donald Trump resembles Julius Caesar more than does Obama or practically any other figure in recent history.

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Trump: Jimmy Carter Redux

Is Donald Trump poised to learn the lessons that Jimmy Carter learnt in 1976?

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Thomas Paine’s Climate Solution: Would He Recognize It?

Paine’s revolutionary proposal to “share the wealth” from land and natural resources may help solve the climate crisis.

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Carbon Permits: Paine’s Social Dividend

The issue that is poised to bring common-wealth dividends into the mainstream today is climate change.

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Disappearing Jobs? Our Thomas Paine Moment

As automation eliminates jobs, Paine’s proposal to share wealth from the commons shows a way forward.

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After Paine: Henry George’s “Single Tax”

Nearly a century after Thomas Paine’s proposal, reformer Henry George popularized a similar scheme.

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Thomas Paine’s Agrarian Justice and John Locke

Both Locke and Paine sought to create a middle class.

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