Singing the Praises of James Bond
This Populist Moment
by Akim Reinhardt Last week, Barack Obama got beaten up on social media and called out by the press for accepting a $400,000 speaking fee from a Wall Street investment firm. It was the day's major kerfuffle, the non-Trump story of the week, and reactions to it by many of my smart, well reasoned friends…
April Fools
by Akim Reinhardt Donald Trump's first hundred days as president are nearly tallied. Enough time has passed that we can now divide people who voted for him into two groups: 1. Those who: never liked Trump (but made a calculated decision to vote for him); have more recently developed doubts; or will soon become disillusioned…
American Regicide
by Akim Reinhardt Donald Trump is going down. His house of cards will collapse at some point. The leaks will keep flowing and eventually his position will become untenable. Conflicts of interest. Connections to Russia. All of it will become too great a weight to carry, especially since The Donald has very few genuine allies…
A Call to Arms
Why I’m Not Writing this Essay
by Akim Reinhardt I've been writing 3QD Monday columns for over six years now. Never missed a deadline. Not a one of ‘em. Every fourth Monday: Bang! 2,000 words. More like 2,500. I enjoy it. I look forward to it. Each December, when the city of Baltimore mails every resident a Baltimore City Department of…
The Counter Revolution
by Akim Reinhardt The United States boasts a deeply conservative economic tradition. From its origins as a colonial, agricultural society, it quickly emerged as a slave holding republic built on the ethnic cleansing and occasional genocide of Indigenous peoples. After the Civil War (1861-65), it reshaped itself in the crucible of unfettered laissez-faire capitalism straight…
This Is Not About White People
Throw Your Vote Away
by Akim Reinhardt To say this has been an interesting presidential election season would be an understatement. Regardless of who is declared president after the polls close three weeks from tomorrow, this is almost certainly a tussle that historians will pick over and analyze for decades to come, if not centuries. They're apt to do…
An Open Letter to Trump Supporters
Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Ronald Reagan, Clintonista, Trumpatista, Wile E. Coyote and Roadrunner, Jesus, John Kasich, Old man George Bush, Democrats, Republicans, James Garfield, Chester Arthur, Ali-Frazier, Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, Samuel Tilden, Rutherford Hayes, Abraham Lincoln, The People’s Party, William Jennings Bryan, William McKinley, Herbert Hoover, Al Smith, Franklin Roosevelt, The New Deal, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Colin Powell, Fortune Magazine, Dwight Eisenhower
On Not Having Children
by Akim Reinhardt During your 20s and 30s, when you don't have any children, it is inevitable that people will periodically ask you: “Do you want to have kids?” It never mattered who asked. Family, friends, or lesser acquaintances, men or women, married or single, parents themselves or not. I always had the same answer.…
The Two Party System is Officially a Nightmare
by Akim Reinhardt Much has been made of the fact that Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are the two most loathed presidential candidates since the birth of polling. Each of them has managed to alienate roughly half the country. About a quarter of Americans despise both of them. They make Barry Goldwater, Michael Dukakis, and…
Why You’re Going to Vote for Trump and How You Can Win a Free Ticket to Mexico
Hotter
by Akim Reinhardt Hotter. I need it to be hotter. I'm sitting in the backyard of my sister's carriage house apartment in Orange, California, a circle of jolly boutique and micro brew quaintness amid the sprawling shit hole that is Orange Country. Of course nowadays, most any place in America afflicted by people is a…
Prince, Bowie, and Glenn Frey: 21st Century Public Mourning as a Rejection of Cold War Culture, or, Why Nobody Really Gives a Shit About that Guy from the Eagles
by Akim Reinhardt David Bowie was a white Englishman. Prince was a black American. Bowie was deeply rooted in the riffs, major/minor chords, and melody of rock-n-roll. Prince was grounded in the syncopated rhythms and arrangements of funk and R&B. Prince's and Bowie's careers did overlap to a degree. Their biggest selling albums, Bowie's Let's…
Some of the People All of the Time (On Trump’s Legion)
On Writing a Coffee Table Book
From Andrew Jackson to Donald Trump: Chasing the White Working Class
by Akim Reinhardt Progressives, moderates, and even many conservatives are aghast at Donald Trump's populist appeal. As this cantankerous oaf flashes ever brighter in the political pan, they fret that his demagoguery might land him the Republican presidential nomination, and perhaps even carry him all the to White House. I'm not worried about the prospect…
No Solace For Children
by Akim Reinhardt I sat on a friend's living room couch, waiting for her to emerge from her bedroom contraptions. I had arrived at the time and date requested. However, my initial visit to her room had been cut short amid the beeps and whirring of machinery. After some brief exchanges, she began to raise…