Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Dick Flacks
UC Santa Barbara’s Missing Housing: The Mystery Continues
One reason that housing prices are so high in our region is that UCSB has not fulfilled its plans to develop more than 1,800 units of faculty and staff housing, while delaying for a decade the promised dorms to house 5,000 additional students on campus. The delay was due to the mistaken hope that billionaire Charley Munger’s dream of building the biggest student dormitory in world history would do that job.
Old Mole Variety Hour for July 13, 2026
Patricia Kullberg hosts this episode of the Old Mole, which includes the following segments: Left and the Law: Since spring of 2025, it has seemed that the pro-Palestine protests on campuses across the country had been resoundingly defeated. The largest anti-war movement since the 1970s, students’ call for ending their schools' support for Israel kept the genocide in Gaza in the national spotlight.
An Ethical Mandate for Affordable Housing in Santa Barbara
We have joined together to urge the Santa Barbara City Council to commit $5 million to the city’s Local Housing Trust Fund for each of the next two fiscal years. While this is but one stream of badly needed funding, in the short term it will provide a predictable source for affordable housing projects. Santa Barbara is facing an urgent decision point in terms of meeting essential housing needs.
The New McCarthyism
This conflict is not really about anti-Semitism. It is about the independence and autonomy of universities in the United States. Surveys of American Jews show a deep split about the Gaza situation. Sizable percentages support U.S. pressure on Israel to achieve a ceasefire and express positive attitudes toward the student protests.
Vote Wendy Santamaria
Vote Wendy Santamaria Why Voters Should Elect Her to Represent the People of District 1 By Dick Flacks, Sarah Alvarado, Juanita Colmenares, Stanley Tzankov, Rachel Sim, Stephen Sharp Queener, Daraka Larimore-Hall Fri Oct 25, 2024 | 10:32am Add to Favorites Many people were disappointed that the Independent left out District 1 in their Santa Barbara City Council endorsements — especially with such a stark divide between the two frontrunners in this race and with so much at stake for our...
UC Santa Barbara Housing Crisis: The Turning Point
UC Santa Barbara is maintaining official secrecy about its housing development, but really major news is out: Munger Hall, as Charlie Munger envisioned it, is not going forward. Instead, UCSB is signaling that a new planning and development process for student housing appears to be in the works. Along with this positive news, we learn that the private developer announced as UCSB’s partner in developing the Ocean Road faculty and staff project has withdrawn.
Progressive patriotism for July 4, 2023
Progressives understand that people can disagree with their government and still love their country and its ideals. This July 4 Americans can celebrate Independence Day by expressing their patriotism around a set of ideas and principles. To some, patriotism means “my country — right or wrong.” To others, it means loyalty to a set of principles, and thus requires dissent and criticism when those in power violate those standards.
Progressive Patriotism for July 4, 2023
This July 4 Americans can celebrate Independence Day by expressing their patriotism around a set of ideas and principles. To some, patriotism means “my country — right or wrong.” To others, it means loyalty to a set of principles, and thus requires dissent and criticism when those in power violate those standards. One version of patriotism suggests “Love it or leave it.” The other version embraces “Love it and fix it.” This is a longstanding debate in American history.
Dick Flacks
Dick Flacks is research professor of sociology at the University of California Santa Barbara. His books include: "Making History: The American Left and the American Mind;" "Beyond the Barricades: The Sixties Generation Grows Up;" "The Port Huron Statement: Sources and Legacies of the New Left's Founding Manifesto" His research and teaching centers on issues of political participation, commitment and protest.
Talking Strategy with DSA Leaders
Veteran leaders and members of DSA talk about the past, present and future of the leading democratic socialist organization in the US. by David Duhalde, Dick Flacks, Kristian Hernandez, Daraka Larimore-Hall - Spring/Summer 2023 DSA members David Duhalde and Kristian Hernandez recently appeared on an episode of Talking Strategy, Making History, a podcast hosted by DSA members Dick Flacks and Daraka Larimore-Hall.
The Voice of the Heartland
Woody Guthrie’s birthday — July 14 — has become an annual moment for remembering and celebrating his legendary life and legacy. In his native Oklahoma every year there’s a big Woody Birthday music festival; many smaller Woody songfests seem regularly to convene on what used to be Bastille Day. I myself have been doing Woody birthday radio bashes for most of the 40 years my KCSB show “Culture of Protest” has been on the air.
UC Santa Barbara Housing Mysteries
The Munger dormzilla scandal, combined with the fall flood of unhoused UCSB students, spotlighted the cascading housing crisis in the University of California, Santa Barbara. It’s an issue I’ve been involved with for more than a decade — a tale of hope and frustration, a mystery tale that deserves greater public telling and response.
Vote for Harmon - The Santa Barbara Independent
I’ve been actively engaged in Santa Barbara city politics for 50 years. My late life partner, Mickey Flacks, and I had worked hard to protect Santa Barbara’s always endangered beauty and the always threatened quality of our lives. We’d known numbers of good people who’ve served in public office over these years, while always trying to hold them accountable.
New Wave Of Anti-Protest Laws May Infringe On Religious Freedoms For Indigenous People
This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. Over four days in June 2021, thousands of protesters attended the Treaty People Gathering in opposition to Line 3, a crude oil pipeline slated to be built across traditional homelands of the Ojibwe peoples in northern Minnesota. To begin the gathering, Indigenous elders led a public religious ceremony. They said prayers and sang songs that blessed and sanctified the headwaters of the Mississippi River.
Progressive Patriotism For July 4
This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. This July 4 will be the first Independence Day of Joe Biden’s presidency. Americans can celebrate the holiday by expressing their patriotism around a set of ideas and principles instead of Donald Trump’s insistence that patriotism is about fealty to one man and his government. Trump has never understood that the ways Americans express their patriotism are as diverse as our nation.
Progressive patriotism in the age of Donald Trump
This article was paid for by AlterNet subscribers. Not a subscriber? Try us and go ad-free for $1. Prefer to give a one-time tip? Click here. July 4 is a good time to reflect on the meaning of patriotism, especially as President Donald Trump proclaims “America First” and “Make America Great Again.” As both a candidate and as president, Trump has consistently confused patriotism and nationalism.
Conservatives don’t have a monopoly on patriotism and nationalism
If the news stories leading up to July 4 are any indication, media coverage of our national Independence Day celebration will focus on the competing images of Donald Trump’s dictator-like display of American militarism and the efforts of an extremist lunatic to burn an American flag to protest Trumpism. Both of these endeavors are absurd distortions of patriotism and should be condemned by Americans across the political spectrum, but especially by progressives.
Progressive Patriotism for July 4
If the news stories leading up to July 4 are any indication, media coverage of our national Independence Day celebration will focus on the competing images of Donald Trump’s dictator-like display of American militarism and the efforts of an extremist lunatic to burn an American flag to protest Trumpism. Both of these endeavors are absurd distortions of patriotism and should be condemned by Americans across the political spectrum, but especially by progressives.
Happy Birthday, Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger, one of the most influential artists in American history, would be 100 on May 3, were he still alive. Pete provided much of the soundtrack for the political awakening of several generations of activists.
Too Many Communists in the Kitchen
Thirty years ago, Richard Flacks wrote Making History: The American Left and the American Mind. Flacks had been a leader of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), a 1960s leftist activist organization that had folded almost 15 years earlier. He had helped to write SDS’s 1962 Port Huron manifesto, a document widely credited with inaugurating the New Left.
The Darker Truth of “Shithole-Gate”?
SOME PEOPLE are defining “Shithole-Gate” as a minor scandal involving a president’s use of an exceedingly vulgar epithet. That would, however, hardly count as a scandal; we assume that all his predecessors used profanity. Even the seemingly prudish Richard Nixon — we know from his tapes — was freely profane, particularly when it came to Jews.
Supporting Cathy Murillo for Mayor
I’m frustrated by the lack of deep scrutiny of the candidates running in the current city election. We no longer have a daily print paper in town, and the worthy news sources that are covering the city lack enough resources to do the best job, I think. Personally, I’ve been among those trying, since the News-Press mess a decade ago, to encourage more investigative and in-depth reporting of the local scene. Results have been mixed.
Trump's Phony Patriotism Clashes With the Radical Roots of America the Beautiful and the Pledge of Allegiance
Trump's Phony Patriotism Clashes With the Radical Roots of America the Beautiful and the Pledge of Allegiance The ways Americans express their patriotism are as diverse as our nation. “We all salute the same great American flag,� President Donald Trump told an enthusiastic crowd at a rally of evangelical Christians and military veterans at the Kennedy Center on Saturday. Wearing his flag label pin, Trump appeared on a stage decorated with a massive American flag.
The Radical Roots Of America's Songs (And Pledge!) Rebuke Trump's 'Patriotism'
“We all salute the same great American flag,” President Donald Trump told an enthusiastic crowd at a rally of evangelical Christians and military veterans at the Kennedy Center last Saturday. Wearing his flag label pin, Trump appeared on stage decorated with a massive American flag. The audience — many of them decked out in red, white, and blue — waved miniature American flags.
Sorry, right-wing xenophobes: Patriotic radicals and progressives are what made America great
July 4 is an occasion for Americans to express their patriotism. But the ways we do so are as diverse as our nation. To some, patriotism means “my country—right or wrong.” To others, it means loyalty to a set of principles, and thus requires dissent and criticism when those in power violate those standards. One version of patriotism suggests “Love it or leave it.” The other version means “Love it and fix it.” Former President George W.
Progressive Patriotism—Not an Oxymoron
Much of our patriotic culture was created by people with decidedly progressive sympathies. July 4 is an occasion for Americans to express their patriotism. But the ways we do so are as diverse as our nation. To some, patriotism means "my country—right or wrong." To others, it means loyalty to a set of principles, and thus requires dissent and criticism when those in power violate those standards.
Patriotism’s Secret History
Many Americans believe that the left is “antipatriotic” (and even anti-American), while the political right truly expresses the American spirit and reveres its symbols. Particularly since the late 1960s–when the movement against US intervention in Vietnam gained momentum–the terms “progressive” and “patriotism” have rarely been used in the same sentence, at least in the mainstream media. It has become conventional wisdom that conservatives wave the American flag while leftists burn it.
Folk Music and Movements: The Tradition Continues
This article is cross-posted from The Huffington Post. A version of this article appeared at New Labor Forum.
Celebrating Progressive Patriotism on the 4th of July
July 4 is an occasion for Americans to express their patriotism. But the ways we do so are as diverse as our nation. To some, patriotism means “my country — right or wrong.” To others, it means loyalty to a set of principles, and thus requires dissent and criticism when those in power violate those standards. As Martin Luther King said in a speech during the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955, “the great glory of American democracy is the right to protest for right.” Former President George W.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Dick
Contact Dick, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack