Author

Bruce Barry

Bruce Barry

Bruce Barry is a professor of management at Vanderbilt University who teaches and writes about ethics, conflict, rights, politics, policy, and other things that pop into his head.

COMMENTARY
(Photo by Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images)

Commentary: When cult meets crisis

By: - June 16, 2020

The cult of Trump is something that many of us have been trying to make sense of for the better part of the last four years. Conventional wisdom has it that around a third of the electorate harbors unbridled and unconditional political lust for Dear Leader, with another tenth pretty consistently disposed to like him […]

COMMENTARY
Mayors from U.S., Mexico and Canada during the North American Climate Summit in Chicago in 2017. The group included leaders of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Commentary: Future Shlock

By: - May 28, 2020

To judge by recent polls, Tennesseans are generally satisfied with how their leaders have handled the coronavirus pandemic, though marks are a lot higher for Nashville’s response than for the state’s. It is to be expected that political leaders will find their approval ratings juiced in times of crisis as long as they keep a […]

COMMENTARY
President Donald Trump speaks at a Wisconsin rally in January. (Joshua Lott, Getty Images)

Commentary: Let it Bleed

By: - May 11, 2020

Since the 2016 campaign, MAGAheads at Trump rallies have been regaled with the Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” as Dear Leader’s post-bloviation anthem (over the Stones’ objections, but that’s how it goes). Whatever the song’s merits as a musical coda for the assembled agitations of red-capped masses, it turns out to […]