University of California-Berkeley professor and former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich proposed the radical idea for a post-election commission to censor speech and name and shame every public figure who supported President Donald Trump’s rise to power.

'The modern-day robber baron blocked me, otherwise I'd reply to him directly,' Reich wrote on Twitter, referencing Musk. The modern-day robber baron blocked me, otherwise I'd reply to him directly. Robert Reich's latest book is 'THE SYSTEM: Who Rigged It, How To Fix It.' He is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center.

He wrote on Twitter over the weekend that “when this nightmare” — or Trump’s presidency — “is over, we need a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It would erase Trump’s lies, comfort those who have been harmed by his hatefulness, and name every official, politician, executive, and media mogul whose greed and cowardice enabled this catastrophe.”

Read plainly, it appears Reich is envisioning a committee that would oversee a massive censorship campaign of things purported to be “lies” by the president and a massive blacklist campaign of Trump supporters. Both of which sound like characteristics of dictatorial transitions of power that occur in third-world countries.

Robert Bernard Reich (/ r aɪ ʃ /; born June 24, 1946) is an American economist, professor, author, and political commentator. He served in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, as well as serving as the United States Secretary of Labor from 1993 to 1997 under Bill Clinton. He was a member of President Barack Obama's economic transition advisory board. 2 days ago  Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of “The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It.” Tags Policy.

Leftists on Twitter salivate

In response to the tweet, several Twitter followers agreed and even raised the stakes of his proposal.

“I am thinking more of using the postwar Nuremberg Trials as a template,” one Twitter user wrote, speculating that criminal trials should be in order. “Felonies were committed as were treasonous behaviors. The guilty should be arrested, tried, convicted and forced to do time.”

“Prosecute them all,” another said. “The [Justice Department] will hire new attorneys, the media will be fed by the trials, and Biden and his administration can focus on policy and government reform. We are broken and need to be restructured so this can never happen again. Or it’s a lot harder to repeat.”

Another added Supreme Court-packing and the abolition of the Electoral College to the commission’s list of to-dos in order to “ensure that this can never happen again.”

Still another suggested the commission be named the Truth and Consequences Commission and argued that “at the very least, there need to be a lot of people banned from government service for life, including all federal LEO’s who committed crimes or abused authorities because they thought the admin would cover for them.”

Someone else suggested the commission should “review all of the federal judges that have been appointed [by Trump], and kick those out that aren’t qualified.” So much for the president’s constitutional authority to appoint judges.

Anything else?

In a subsequent tweet responding to some Twitter users who rejected his proposal, Reich posted an article that laid out arguments for a truth and reconciliation commission.

“As long as unresolved historic injustices continue to fester in the world, there will be a demand for truth commissions,” the article stated. “The goal of a truth commission … is to hold public hearings to establish the scale and impact of a past injustice, typically involving wide-scale human rights abuses, and make it part of the permanent, unassailable public record.”

In the article, the author points to Canada’s recent commission to address “historic injustices perpetrated against Canada’s Indigenous peoples” and South Africa’s commission to address apartheid as models.

Robert B. Reich is currently the Carmel P. Friesen Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and a senior fellow at the Blum Center for Developing Economies. He has served in three national administrations, including as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. He has written eighteen books, including the bestsellers The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, The Common Good, Saving Capitalism, Aftershock, Supercapitalism, and The Work of Nations, which has been translated into twenty-two languages. He is co-creator of the 2017 Netflix original documentary Saving Capitalism and of the award-winning 2013 film Inequality for All. He is co-founder of Inequality Media, co-founder of the Economic Policy Institute, and co-founding editor of The American Prospect. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. .

In 2003, Reich was awarded the prestigious Vaclav Havel Vision Foundation Prize, by the former Czech president, for his pioneering work in economic and social thought. In 2008, Time Magazine named him one of the ten most successful cabinet secretaries of the century. He received his B.A. from Dartmouth College, his M.A. from Oxford University where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and his J.D. from Yale Law School.

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Areas of Expertise

• Industrial Policy
• Labor and Employment
• Leadership and Management
• Politics
• Poverty & Inequality
• Leadership and Social Change
• Macroeconomic Policy
• Social and Economic Policy

Curriculum Vitae

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Research

Working Papers

Selected Publications

In the News

Articles and Op-Eds

Loophole Lets Money Pour Into CEOs' Wallets

San Francisco Chronicle, August 2, 2013

There's No 'I' in 'We the People'

San Francisco Chronicle, July 12, 2013

Why Republicans Want to Tax Students and Not Polluters

California Progress Report, July 7, 2013

A Revolutionary Strategy for Reviving the Economy

San Francisco Chronicle, July 5, 2013

The Truth About Immigration Reform and the Economy

Huffington Post, June 26, 2013

2 Reasons Americans Should Worry

San Francisco Chronicle, June 21, 2013

Robert Reich Explains America's Inequality Problem In 150 Seconds (VIDEO)

Huffington Post, June 19, 2013

Inequality is Real, It's Personal, It's Expensive and It Was Created

June 18, 2013

Answer Sheet Blog: A New 'Education Declaration' for Genuine School Reform

Washington Post Online, June 9, 2013

Economic Storms Brewing

San Francisco Chronicle, June 7, 2013

Congress Paralyzed by Conservatives

San Francisco Chronicle, May 15, 2013

Change is Never Easy, But It's Possible

San Francisco Chronicle, April 29, 2013

Delamaide: Economists Thrash Banks for Their Excesses

USA Today, April 21, 2013

Bi-Partisanship We Don't Need: The President Offers to Cut Social Security and Republicans Agree

Huffington Post, April 8, 2013

Is the Tougher Workplace Slowing Down the Economic Recovery?

Los Angeles Times, April 6, 2013

The Morality Brigade

Baltimore Sun, March 25, 2013

'It's Still a Bear Market for Workers'

San Francisco Chronicle, March 13, 2013

Why There's a Bull Market for Stocks and a Bear Market for Workers

Huffington Post, March 3, 2013

What Obama Should Do Now

Huffington Post, March 2, 2013

Professor Robert Reich discusses the Minimum Wage

NPR's Talk of the Nation, February 23, 2013

Immigrants May Be The Best Hope For Desperate Baby Boomers

Business Insider, February 19, 2013

The Minimum Wage and the Meaning of a Decent Society

Baltimore Sun, February 18, 2013

Labor Unions Raise Prosperity for All

San Francisco Chronicle, February 6, 2013

America Faces Catastrophic Levels Of Inequality

Business Insider, January 27, 2013

Obama's Debt-Ceiling Strategy Unclear

San Francisco Chronicle, January 23, 2013

The Washington Connection

Wall Street Journal, January 20, 2013

Entitlement Cuts Won't Solve Deficit

San Francisco Chronicle, January 9, 2013

Debt Ceiling and Guns: Using Presidential Authority to the Fullest

Huffington Post, January 8, 2013

From Hurricanes to Health Care: What's Government For?

KQED Radio, October 31, 2012

Economic Recovery Hinges on Election

San Francisco Chronicle, October 10, 2012

Analyzing Presidential Candidates' Economic Plans

Wall Street Journal Live, October 1, 2012

Mitt Romney Down But Not Necessarily Out

San Francisco Chronicle, September 27, 2012

Republicans Alienating Majority of Voters

San Francisco Chronicle, September 19, 2012

How Republicans Reinforce Campaign of Lies

San Francisco Chronicle, September 6, 2012

Paul Ryan Represents Political Dark Age

San Francisco Chronicle, August 16, 2012

The Problem: Big Business Doesn't Care About American Well-Being

Christian Science Monitor, July 17, 2012

Recovery Depends on Middle-Class Spending Power

San Francisco Chronicle, June 20, 2012

Reich: Super PACs Must Face Accountability

San Francisco Chronicle, June 15, 2012

Looking Beyond Election Day

New York Times, November 22, 2011

We the People, and the New American Civil War

Huffington Post, November 3, 2011

The Limping Middle Class

New York Times, September 1, 2011

Vicious Cycles: Why Washington Is About to Make the Jobs Crisis Worse

Huffington Post, July 23, 2011

Once the Stimulus Kicks In, the Real Fight Begins

Washington Post, January 30, 2009

Media Citations

Health Care Law Raises Pressure on Public Unions

New York Times, August 2, 2013

Webcasts

What’s Next for Democracy: Social Safety Net in America with Robert Reich

Robert Reich

Date: December 4, 2020Duration: 18 minutes

The Coming Wave?

Henry E. Brady, Dean, Goldman School of Public Policy, Janet Napolitano, President, University of California, Robert B. Reich, Professor of Public Policy

Date: October 30, 2018Duration: 53 minutes

Taxes, Trade, Tariffs and Trump with Robert Reich and Stephen Moore—Point/Counterpoint

Henry E. Brady, Stephen Moore, Robert B. Reich

Date: March 20, 2018Duration: 73 minutes

Truth as a Common Good with Robert Reich

Robert Reich

Event: Spring 2017 Board of Advisors Meeting

Date: March 29, 2017Duration: 51 minutes

Into the World of Work

Date: May 15, 2016Duration: 23 minutes

Saving Capitalism with Robert Reich

Robert Reich

Event: 2015 Michael Nacht Distinguished Lecture in Politics & Public Policy

Date: December 1, 2015Duration: 53 minutes

Economic Inequality and the Future of Progressivism with Bill de Blasio and Robert Reich

Robert Reich, Bill de Blasio

Event: Economic Inequality and the Future of Progressivism

Date: May 14, 2015Duration: 16 minutes

The Great Divide with Joseph Stiglitz and Robert Reich

Joseph Stiglitz, Robert Reich

Date: April 29, 2015Duration: 57 minutes

50th Anniversary Free Speech Movement

Bruce Roberts, Robert Reich, John Gage

Date: October 6, 2014Duration: 23 minutes

‘Inequality is bad for everyone’: Robert Reich fights against economic imbalance

Robert Reich, Paul Solman

Date: October 11, 2013Duration: 6 minutes

Trailer for Inequality for All

Date: August 1, 2013Duration: 0 minutes

Political Civility Should Not Be an Oxymoron

Robert Reich

Event: Cal Day 2012

Date: April 21, 2012Duration: 59 minutes

Class Warfare in America

Professor Robert Reich Twitter

Robert Reich

Event: Mario Savio Lecture

Date: November 19, 2011Duration: 18 minutes

2009 Wildavsky Forum Panel Discussion: Changing Inequality: What produces and changes levels of inequality?

Dr. Rebecca M. Blank, Lee Friendman, Mike Hout, Steven Raphael, Robert Reich

Event: 2009 Wildavsky Forum - Dr. Rebecca Blank

Date: March 13, 2009Duration: 117 minutes

Last updated on 04/15/2021