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America's Trade Policy of the Absurd

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

American Prospect - By Jeff Faux - Feb. 08 (Opinion) - Saving middle-class America will require a radically different conception of trade and the national interest.

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Forbes Embraces Birtherism Lite.

Mon, 13 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

American Prospect - By Adam Serwer - Sep. 13 (Opinion) - For whatever reason, elements of the right have chosen not to evaluate Barack Obama based on his actions or his policies but through the kind of postmodern literary interpretation that wouldn't make it through the vetting process of a freshman bong circle at Wesleyan. In these retellings of Obama's personal history, the president's life is an epic, Marxist, sinister version of a Joseph Campbell-style heroic journey, with its hero ultimately falling, like Anakin Skywalker, to the dark side of the force.

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The New Culture War

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

American Prospect - By Adam Serwer - Aug. 20 (Opinion) - When Andrew Sullivan first wrote "Goodbye to All That," believing that the candidacy of Barack Obama could be the beginning of a "truce" in the culture war, he was largely placing the blame on the narcissism of the baby-boomers. The culture war as Sullivan was writing about it is largely over, (not to dispute the ongoing salience of abortion rights or marriage equality) but as Ben Smith and Jonathan Martin write today, a different kind of culture war has taken its place, one over what it means to be an American.

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The Senate Kills International Relations.

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

American Prospect - By Tim Fernholz - Jul. 14 (Opinion) - A situation where it is impossible for the United States to enter into formally binding international agreements is one where the president has one hand tied behind his back anytime he seeks to engage with another country, friend or foe -- how can any president assert U.S. leadership abroad if world leaders realize that there is no way his political opponents at home will allow him or her to make a deal? While the president's unfettered authority to act destructively in foreign affairs merits a rethinking of the executive's legal authorities, the reverse situation -- the inability of the president to act constructively abroad -- is just as worrisome.

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The Virtual University

Wed, 21 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

American Prospect - By Anya Kamenetz - Apr. 21 (Special Report) - The higher-education system has a lot in common with another great challenge our country is confronting: health care. Colleges, like hospitals, have little incentive to conserve resources or compete on price. They can actually gain prestige by raising tuition. They shift costs to students to make up for gaps in state funding and then hand out grant money to the applicants they want the most, not the ones who need the most help. Community colleges dedicated to serving the poorest get a fraction of the public money that goes to flagship state universities.

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Don't Judge the Budget by Its Cover

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0800

American Prospect - By Tim Fernholz - Feb. 03 (Opinion) - This is Obama's opportunity to teach responsible economic policy to the American people -- heck, to teach responsible economic policy to the American Congress. No, it's not an easy lift, and it may not bear political fruit right away, but Obama's mandate is to advocate for greater progressive investment now, smarter deficit reduction in the midterm, and a health-care reform bill that would create jobs and reduce the deficit over the long term. Instead of articulating these goals, Obama is telling Americans that a spending freeze that exempts the bloated defense budget will fix the deficit problem. And when the labor market doesn't improve and deficits remain high, it's unclear what the political benefits will be, especially with conservatives happy to attack whatever proposals the administration offers. (Republicans sat on their hands during the State of the Union when the president called for small-business tax cuts!) Without short-term results or an argument to differentiate Obama's approach from what Republicans are offering, the benefits of the administration's strategy are not apparent. The risks, however, are unambiguous.

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Is It Time for Malpractice Reform?

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

American Prospect - By Joanne Kenen - Nov. 20 (News Analysis) - Year after year, Republicans try to pass legislation that would limit medical malpractice awards. Fix the tort system, they argue, and we fix rising health-care costs. And year after year, Democrats resist placing arbitrary caps on awards to people who may have suffered from an egregious medical error. The fight plays out like a predictable old Western -- good guys versus bad guys. Depending on your politics, the villain is either the greedy doctor or the greedy trial lawyer.

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Can California Be Fixed?

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

American Prospect - By Pema Levy - Sep. 27 (Interview) - In the coming weeks, the coalition Repair California will begin the official process of calling a state constitutional convention, submitting ballot-initiative language to Attorney General Jerry Brown's office. Repair California proposes to restructure government through a state constitutional convention. The Prospect talked to John Grubb, official spokesperson for Repair California, about the crisis in California and the emerging movement to reform government.

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What will health reform mean for reproductive rights?

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

American Prospect - By Dana Goldstein - Jul. 09 (Opinion) - As the House and Senate produce and mark-up various health reform plans, reproductive health care is emerging -- surprise, surprise -- as a political football. Both the House bill and the Senate HELP committee proposal mention "family planning," but contrary to yesterday's scare-mongering Washington Times op-ed by the Family Research Council's Tony Perkins, "family planning," under federal law, has never included abortion services. Indeed, health reform will do nothing to repeal the Hyde Amendment, which prevents the federal government from directly funding abortions.

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The Other Black President

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

American Prospect - By Adam Serwer - Feb. 23 (Special Report) - Jealous is part community organizer, part savvy financial operator, and part tech geek. In less than a year as president, he has made converts out of his critics both within the NAACP and outside it, and he has modernized the organization by drawing young, gifted and black talent. In advance of the presidential election, Jealous developed a new online system to help the NAACP register thousands of voters. And he has used his fundraising connections to resolve the fiscal crisis left by his predecessor. "He knows just about everyone," says Tammy Tanner, an administrative assistant at the Rosenberg Foundation, the philanthropic organization Jealous ran before leaving for the NAACP. "He says, let's have wine and sit down and talk, and people are writing $10,000 checks for him." When several donors pulled out of an NAACP fundraiser in San Francisco over the chapter president's opposition to the Proposition 8 gay-marriage ban, Jealous jumped on a plane to California and raised $19,000 to fill the gap.

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Getting Real on Climate Change

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

American Prospect - By Ted Nordhaus, Michael Schellenberger - Dec. 01 (Special Report) - Obama faces the deepest recession the United States has seen in decades, a failing health system, and a crumbling infrastructure. His top priority will be to get the U.S. economy back on its feet. Yet there is little evidence that greens have come to terms with this reality. Like conservatives who see tax cuts as the solution to all problems, greens are now offering carbon auctions and energy taxes as the answer to the economic crisis. "Capping global warming pollution and auctioning off the pollution rights will inject $150 billion into the economy each year," Krupp of EDF told his members in an Oct. 24 e-mail.

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The Coming Conservative Crack-up

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

American Prospect - By Paul Waldman - Oct. 01 (Opinion) - Bumping abortion and other social issues to the top of the Republican agenda isn't how things are supposed to work -- those issues are supposed to be the opiate for the Republican masses, doled out generously at campaign time with the understanding that they'll have little importance once power is obtained. Palin, in fact, is the first Republican vice-presidential nominee drawn from that wing of the party obsessed with what other people are doing with their dirty parts. Look at the GOP running mates since Watergate: Dick Cheney, Jack Kemp, Dan Quayle, George H.W. Bush, and Bob Dole. All may have had the appropriately conservative positions on social issues, but each was far more concerned with economics and foreign policy.

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Rachel Maddow: Political Game Changer

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

American Prospect - By Sam Boyd - Sep. 24 (News Analysis) - Maddow has broken the broadcasting mold. She has succeeded as an avowed liberal on television precisely because she is not a liberal version of conservatives like Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck. Unlike so many progressive media figures who sought to replicate the on-air habits of the aggressive shock jocks of the right, she stumbled upon a workable style for the left.

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The Demise of the Washington News Bureau

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

American Prospect - By John McQuaid - Sep. 22 (News Analysis) - The most valuable traditional D.C. journalism is the daily and weekly coverage of Congress by reporters who know individual members and their staffs, go to hearings, and develop detailed knowledge of their issue terrains. This is an instrument of accountability and understanding. And it can't really be done remotely, without prowling the hallways of Capitol Hill, chatting people up in elevators -- though papers that shutter their bureaus usually say they're going to try. Without coverage of individual members and local issues, the federal government seems -- is -- more distant and abstract. And when nobody's watching, members of Congress and bureaucrats get away with more questionable stuff.

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The Conservative Case for Urbanism

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

American Prospect - By Dana Goldstein - Sep. 05 (News Report) - Policies in favor of dense development shouldn't be viewed on a left-right spectrum and certainly needn't be filtered through culture-war rhetoric, the panelists said. In fact, one doesn't have to be concerned about climate change at all in order to support such policies; values of fiscal conservatism and localism, both key to Republican ideology, can be better realized through population-dense development than through sprawl.

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John Kerry, Foreign Policy Warrior

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

American Prospect - By Matthew Yglesias - Aug. 29 (Opinion) - It sounds like a strange thing to say about a political attack speech, but last night Kerry showed the moral courage that made him famous in the first place. Freed from the curse of his own predestination for the White House, one of the politicians most-loathed by the press assailed the media's favorite son.

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McCain: Noun, Verb, Terrorism

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

American Prospect - By Paul Waldman - Jul. 03 (Editorial) - McCain continues to embody Bush's worst impulses on terrorism, not least his stubborn refusal to grasp even the most basic facts about terrorist organizations. So let's ask: What would al-Qaeda like America to do in the next few years? What would serve its goals? A few things are obvious. It would like us to stay in Iraq, both because it offers its members a place to practice planning and carrying out terrorist acts, and because it sustains anti-American feeling in the Muslim world. Al-Qaeda would also like the American government to maintain as bellicose a posture as possible, rattling its sword and threatening further military actions against Muslim countries.

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Can Identity Politics Save the Right?

Tue, 27 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

American Prospect - By Mark Schmitt - May. 27 (Special Report) - The recent resurgence of the British Conservative Party is a reminder that even after a decade of futility, a new leader, a vision, and impatience with the incumbent party can turn things around quickly. But for now, with Republican state parties in shambles, with no chance of reclaiming a congressional majority any time soon, and suffering, as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich warned, "a catastrophic collapse of trust," the GOP could be hitting that bottom, and grabbing desperately onto a frayed lifeline--the identity politics of American-ness--in a last bid for survival.

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Losing Lebanon

Wed, 14 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

American Prospect - By Gershom Gorenberg - May. 14 (News Analysis) - The Bush administration's Middle East policy of confrontation, of trying to isolate opponents, is in tatters. In particular, the administration's resistance to peace talks between Israel and Syria has only served to strengthen Iran. And time is working in Teheran's favor.

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Israel at 60

Fri, 09 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

American Prospect - By Daniel Levy - May. 09 (Opinion) - Not 20 kilometers from liberal Tel Aviv is a reality that is unforgiveably ignored. In the West Bank, Israel imposes one of the longest, last remaining and most dehumanizing of occupations in the world on Palestinian population. Worse, the Palestinian-Arab citizens of Israel are not part of this nation-building exercise, subjected to ongoing and structurally-embedded discrimination.

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The Meltdown Lowdown

Fri, 02 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

American Prospect - By Dean Baker - May. 02 (News Analysis) - Now that takes real courage -- he's telling tens of millions of Americans with serious medical problems to vote for him so that he can dismantle the health-insurance system and then to trust him to put something workable in its place. Maybe he should rename his campaign bus the Crazy Talk Express.

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Knockin' You Out Like Rocky Balboa

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

American Prospect - By Ezra Klein - Apr. 23 (Opinion) - Obama has failed to land the knockout blow. He has not overwhelmed her in any of the psychologically critical battleground states -- not in Pennsylvania, not in Ohio, and not in Texas. Insofar as Clinton's argument is that Obama is weak among the white ethnics who populate the critical Midwestern swing states, he has not proven capable of delivering the decisive electoral rejoinder that would transform her losing but close candidacy into a mere vanity project that the superdelegates would have every right and reason to abandon. Viewed one way, Rocky made it 15 rounds because he was determined. Viewed another, he got there because Creed never laid him out.

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There's Nothing Funny About Prison Rape

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

American Prospect - By Ezra Klein - Mar. 31 (Special Report) - Prison rape occupies a fairly odd space in our culture. It is, all at once, a cherished source of humor, a tacitly accepted form of punishment and a broadly understood human rights abuse. We pass legislation called the Prison Rape Elimination Act at the same time that we produce films meant to explore the funny side of inmate sexual brutality.

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Health Care's Odd Couple

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

American Prospect - By Ezra Klein - Feb. 15 (Special Report) - Rather than patching up the employer-based system and offering alternatives that individuals would maybe migrate toward, as both Clinton's and Obama's plans do, Wyden-Bennett end the employer-based system. They force employers to account for every dime and dollar they spend on employee health care and, the year after the bill's passage, redirect that cash into employee paychecks. So if your employer is spending $7,000 a year for your health insurance, your paycheck gets a $7,000 boost as soon as their bill passes. You have the money they spent on your health care, but you are no longer dependent on them for that health care.

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The FundamentaList

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

American Prospect - By Sarah Posner - Feb. 06 (News Analysis) - It will be interesting to watch and see, in the coming weeks, whether the religious right leaders start to coalesce around Huckabee, something many of them have resisted for months, in order to put pressure on McCain, who many of them still view with suspicion. Surely any rallying around McCain would be accompanied by pressure on him to pledge fealty to their core issues, especially a federal gay marriage amendment and judicial nominations. If McCain makes amends with the old guard -- people like James Dobson and the Southern Baptist Convention's Richard Land -- and they also see Huckabee as a viable running mate, McCain could draw together different strands of the Republican-leaning evangelical vote.

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