John Peeler

John Peeler is a retired professor of political science at Bucknell University, specializing in Latin American and international affairs. After growing up in Florida and Georgia, he moved north as a teenager, and began a lifelong leftward migration. He’s been writing primarily for LA Progressive since 2008. He continues to live in central Pennsylvania.

The Campaign from Hell

By John Peeler

John Peeler: Trump is disliked and distrusted by a solid majority of the electorate. And yet he is within reach of winning this election. Why?

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

By John Peeler

John Peeler: Everything about this life works to keep people down and encourages them to blame the government or big corporations for their plight. Most people succumb.

Donald Learns the Dog-Whistle

By John Peeler

John Peeler: In this case, we have Trump engaging in something Republicans have perfected since the days of Richard Nixon: dog-whistle appeals.

Turkey: Authoritarian Democracy Meets Democratizing Coup

By John Peeler

John Peeler: The twentieth century Turkish model of democracy was thus fundamentally flawed. It was marked from its Kemalist birth as a project to impose democracy on the Turkish people, and to transform their culture over decades to make them fit for a proper democracy.

Extremely Careless — What Clinton Must Do Now

By John Peeler

John Peeler: An indictment would have ended her campaign, but this outcome threatens to put a big enough hole in her hull to sink her in the course of the campaign.

Widespread Human Annihilation: The Solution to Our Problems

By John Peeler

John Peeler: The devastation from global warming is likely to be comparable in scope to what would result from a worldwide nuclear war, though the latter would happen in a matter of hours, while the former will take a century.

Facing Climate Change

By John Peeler

John Peeler: We must transform the way we relate to the natural world: stop seeing ourselves as separate from and superior to nature, and instead acknowledge that we are part of the natural world.

She Won! Now What?

By John Peeler

John Peeler: It was already true before Tuesday that Bernie’s slim chance of capturing the nomination depended on convincing hundreds of the hated superdelegates to switch, but he really can’t make that argument after losing California by such a decisive margin.