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Vol. 22 No. 5May 2011
Columns
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The Demise of the Moderate Republican
As the GOP presidential field shapes up, it's become clear that any moderate restraints on the party are now gone. -
Mitt Looks the Part
Why Mitt Romney still poses the greatest challenge to Obama in 2012 -
Running Away From "Mama Grizzly"
After the 2008 election, conservatives learned to talk about race and gender -- but not race and gender equality. -
Feelin' Bad
The American people will be in a funk until we fix the economy.
Culture
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A Way to Win the Climate Fight?
Bringing business and greenies together -
Masked Identity Politics
Comic-book creators have grappled with how to handle race for decades -- but don't expect this summer's superhero flicks to reflect that struggle. -
The Real Significance of WikiLeaks
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The Contradictions of Common Sense
Politicians rely on the idea that what is popular is right -- except when it's not popular, it's still right.
Departments
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The Bell Swerve
Charles Murray surveys the crisis in white America and isn't sure whom to blame. -
Noted
Special Report
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Designed to Fail
The Obama administration's mortgage-modification program was created more to help lenders than homeowners. It's time to reverse priorities. -
A Needless Housing Collapse
The success of a pioneering program for moderate-income buyers proves that the subprime disaster was not the fault of homeowners. -
Restoring the Dream
The collapse of the housing bubble need not destroy homeownership as the anchor of the middle class. But we need much bolder government action. -
Restoring the Dream
The collapse of the housing bubble need not destroy homeownership as the anchor of the middle class. But we need much bolder government action. -
Fannie, Freddie, and the Future
The secondary mortgage market worked better when it was a true public institution. -
Cleaning Up the Subprime Aftermath
Welcome to the Kafkaesque world of mortgage loan servicing. -
Not With My Home
Homeowners have been at the mercy of banks since the foreclosure crisis began. A network of activists and organizers is trying to change that. -
Reform that Hurts Homebuyers
Features
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Barack Obama's Theory of Power
Why the president's bipartisan, detached use of power hasn't worked. -
Fancy Talk
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Gone With the 2010 Win
White Democratic elected officials have vanished from Dixie. Can Southern Dems rebound as a black-and-brown party? -
Why Movements Matter
Paradigm-shifting elections don't shift paradigms if there aren't corresponding social movements for change.
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Vol. 22 No. 4April 2011
Columns
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In the Streets
Old-fashioned street demonstrations and picket lines are enjoying their most popular moment since the late 1960s. -
What's in a Word?
A philosophical defense of blogging
Culture
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Green and Gold
Why environmental policies and healthy bottom lines go together -
The Lash or the Eyelashes
Amy Chua and Peggy Orenstein explore and illustrate the pitfalls of parenting. -
The Waning of the American World
America's recent assertive unilateralism may not be much of a departure from past American practice. -
A Liberal's Guide to Middle Earth
HBO's new show Game of Thrones goes beyond the black and white of good versus evil and delves into the gray.
Departments
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Why Aren't You Married Yet?
Apparently, I'm responsible for the jerks I've dated. -
Don't Ask, Don't Play Identity Politics
Republicans have gotten the memo about diversity, but that doesn't mean they want to talk about it.
Special Report
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The Greening of Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart’s new green-washed image is deflecting attention from the drag the company continues to inflict on workers’ wages and communities’ quality of life. -
Wal-Mart -- It's Alive!
If Wal-Mart is a person, as the Supreme Court contends, it's a behemoth terrorizing the countryside. But when it comes to workers' rights, it remains curiously immune from lawsuits. -
Fighting Back
What the unions have learned—and what they may still need to learn—about fighting Wal-Mart's expansion -
Wal-Mart’s China Connections
From production to retailing, Wal-Mart’s China operations display a dystopian collaboration between low-wage employer and autocratic state. -
Wal-Mart Tries to Go to Town
America’s mega-retailer can’t boost profits unless it gains entry to America’s largest cities. Against stiff resistance, it’s still trying. -
Which Path for Europe?
Wal-Mart couldn’t cut it in Germany. But while neighboring Scandinavia still pays retail workers well, the low-wage model is making inroads into other European countries. -
How Wal-Mart Shapes the World
Will the economy follow Wal-Mart’s race to the bottom—or will social counterweights and other business models demonstrate a better way?
Features
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The Test Generation
What happens in the classroom when a state begins to evaluate all teachers, at every grade level, based on how well they "grow" their students' test scores? Colorado is about to find out. -
A New Union Contract
While public-sector unions fight for survival, Bob King proposes to rebuild the United Auto Workers for a new, and more vexing, century. -
Life on the List
Does publicly posting names of convicted sex offenders actually reduce the number of sexual offenses? -
Books Behind Bars
What are wardens thinking when they censor magazines and books?
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Vol. 22 No. 3March 2011
Columns
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The Myth of Triangulation
Obama must resist the Republican push to cut federal spending or else face voters in 2012 with continued high unemployment. -
Compromised Rights
Recent, radical attacks on abortion rights are the legacy of decades of compromise. -
Where Is the Party of Recovery?
By kowtowing to the deficit hawks, the president is snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory. -
Reshaping the Electorate
Culture
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The Divide Over Education
As Obama touts his overhaul of the No Child Left Behind Act, progressive reformers are divided between those who think you can close the achievement gap just by focusing on schools -- and those who don't. -
Rebels With an Attitude
Nobody has definitively identified the reasons behind the new kind of ferment that took hold in the 1950s. -
Reading Red
What the new books by Republican presidential hopefuls tell us about the state of the conservative movement -
Deep Globalization, Deep Trouble
Globalization has cost us more in instability than it's benefited us in efficiency. -
The Roots of the Vaccine Panic
Two books tell the story of the panic over vaccines.
Departments
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Wisconsin and Beyond
How far will the backlash against union-busting go? -
Conservative Jihad
Grover Norquist takes on the right's Islamophobic conspiracy theorists. -
The Segregated Workplace
Some workplaces are far more racially diverse than they were decades ago, but striking disparities still exist. -
The Healthy Fallout From Fukushima
The nuclear disaster in Japan might show the safety risks of nuclear energy, but the costs don't stop there.
Special Report
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Polling Prejudice
Public opinion on race is often inconsistent. Does political science have the tools to capture all forms of racism? -
Race Talk in the Obama Era
The paradoxical reticence of America's first black president and how progressives must fill the vacuum -
The Right Messengers
With NPR embroiled in another controversy, it's time to ask again whether the media can ever responsibly cover race. -
Blind Spot
How reactionary colorblindness has infected our courts -- and our politics -
White Fight
White Americans must embrace racial justice as their own cause if we hope to achieve widespread equity. -
Home Disadvantage
A small Seattle community battles health disparities that disproportionately affect the poor and people of color. -
Toward Racial Healing
We must work together as a nation to confront and defeat racism. -
Q&A: Revisiting Race-Neutral Politics
The sociologist and scholar William Julius Wilson revises his stance on whether Democrats should put race on the agenda. -
The Melting Pot
How anti-immigrant sentiment can divide a community -- and what can be done to unite residents -
Our Town
A Chicago suburb proves that America's neighborhoods don't have to be drawn across racial lines.
Features
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Signing Away Our Rights
Increasingly, corporations trick workers and consumers into giving up their legal rights by forcing arbitration of disputes -- and they are getting help from friendly courts. -
The Serfs of Arkansas
Immigrant farmers are flocking to the poultry industry -- only to become 21st-century sharecroppers for companies like Tyson. -
Before the Revolution
For the past half-decade, Egyptian workers, journalists, and bloggers have increasingly, and bravely, been standing up to their government.
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Vol. 22 No. 2February 2011
Columns
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Beyond Intellectualism
On becoming an anti-intellectual intellectual -
Troubled States
The recession will take its biggest toll on the states this year. We could fix that. -
What's Civility Worth?
It's not that the political conversation is poisoned with violent rhetoric. It's that it's not a conversation at all. -
Southern Discomfort
Democrats no longer need the South, but the region needs them.
Culture
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The Constitution in Danger
It's Congress, not the president, that is a threat to democracy. -
Web of Light or Web of Darkness?
The Internet is not always the friend of democracy -- oppressive regimes can use it for their own ends. -
Unequal to the Moment
The president doesn't matter as much as you think. But this one could have done so much more. -
Moral Combat
Why do liberals play computer games like conservatives?
Departments
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Up Front
The Dialogue, The Question, and The Parody, plus a note from the Executive Editor.
Special Report
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The Collapse of Secure Retirement
The dream of a modestly middle-class retirement is fading. -
Reclaiming Middle-Class America
If progressives want a winning theme that the right can't match, this is it. -
Champions of the Middle Class
Can organized labor lead a movement to restore broad economic security? It's hard to imagine who else will. -
The Overselling of Education
We need a better-educated citizenry, but the cure for increasing inequality lies elsewhere. -
Time for National Greatness Liberalism
Our national economic fortune depends on reclaiming a credible role for large-scale public investment. -
Tax Tricks: Time to Go on Offense
Our current tax system rewards unproductive speculation and punishes the working middle class. -
A Message for Progressives
It's time we started growing the economy and stopped shrinking the middle class. -
The Politics of the New Middle America
In 2010, disaffected voters didn't embrace the Republican vision. They looked in vain for the Democratic one. -
Backward Mobility
The recession is wiping out the jobs, homes, and dreams of the African American middle class. -
America's Trade Policy of the Absurd
Saving middle-class America will require a radically different conception of trade and the national interest.
Features
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Business Is Booming
America's leading corporations have found a way to thrive even if the American economy doesn't recover. This is very, very bad news. -
Dems to Watch
A rising crop of Democrats looks to the middle. -
The Rent Trap
In the wake of the foreclosure crisis, should we be encouraging people to abandon the dream of homeownership? -
When Should We Retire? Two Views
With so much focus on the deficit, many assume entitlement programs should be cut. But there is a progressive argument for raising the retirement age, and one for lowering it. -
Blame It on Blue
Everything, apparently, is Democrats' fault.
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Vol. 22 No. 1December 2010
Columns
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Post Literalism
The Republican majority intends to underplay its hand rather than take responsibility for governing. -
The Republicans' Senior Moment
Seniors depend more on federal spending than any other group, but that did not deter a majority of them from voting for candidates who deplored "big government" and "socialized medicine." -
Year of the Same
Women's representation in Congress has actually decreased for the first time in the past three decades. -
Telling Tales
The story that must be told isn't one of big government and deficits but of power and privilege amassing at the top.
Culture
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Culture Before Politics
In freeing creativity, progressives can once again capture and carry forward our national imagination. -
The New Together
When is a creature deemed alive enough for people to experience an ethical dilemma if it is distressed? -
The President's Movie
Like most liberals, Obama resists entering the darkened theater that Reagan mastered. -
A Long-Distance Runner
Joseph L. Rauh, liberal MVP
Departments
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The Tea Party Troubadours
Meet the artists providing the soundtrack to patriotism. -
Noted
Readers' comments to our last issue, and a note from the executive editor -
Up Front
The Dialogue, The Question, and The Parody
Special Report
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Smarter Punishment, Less Crime
Why reducing incarceration and victimization should be complementary goals -
Eyes on the Prize
Our moral and ethical duty to end mass incarceration -
Permanent Lockdown
Forcing ex-offenders to pay for their incarceration is yet another perverse policy that makes successful re-entry next to impossible. -
May It Please the Court
Problem-solving courts have a track record of lowering recidivism and incarceration costs, but they still don't reach enough offenders. -
On the Block
A pilot program in Oakland, California, combines community policing with social services and gets at-risk young men off the street. -
The New Jim Crow
How mass incarceration turns people of color into permanent second-class citizens -
Bipartisan Justice
Fixing America?s punitive penal system has politicians crossing party lines. -
Indefensible
Five decades after a landmark Supreme Court case establishing the right to a public-defense lawyer, the poor still lack adequate legal representation. -
Education vs. Incarceration
More money must go to schools than to prisons before high-crime neighborhoods can truly be reformed.
Features
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Too Small to Save
Did the nation's largest community bank collapse because of its social-justice mission -- or its financial ambitions? -
The Next Banking Crisis
The foreclosure mess may force a solution to the deeper economic drag of underwater mortgages and zombie banks. -
The Progressive Agenda Scorecard
This magazine declared the dawn of 2009 "Our Moment," but how much was achieved before the 2010 election?
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