Archive
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Green Herring
Is the Green Party the worst threat to progressive politics since Reagan or its best hope since the New Deal?
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Lynne Cheney, Policy Assassin
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Exhuming McCarthy
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The Storm Amid the Calm
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Mississippi Waltz
Trent Lott, Money Conservative
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Forty Acres and a Sheepskin
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Investor Illiteracy
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We Are All Third Wayers Now
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Is He a Soul Man?
On Black Support for Clinton
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Muddy Waters
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Care and Trembling
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Devil in the Details
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Rush from Judgment
How the Media Lost Their Bearings
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Recasting the Stones
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The Feminism Gap
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Devil in the Details
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From Purity to Politics
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Clinton's Darkness At Noon
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Taking Liberties
The New Assault on Freedom
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Of Our Time: The Age of Trespass
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Secrets and Lies
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One Pill Makes You Larger
The Ethics of Enhancement
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Policing the Police
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Arresting Developments
When Police Power Goes Private
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Power Play
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Bull Market Keynesianism
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The Indelible Color Line
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Global Warming and the Big Shill
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Choice Options
School Choice, Yes-But What Kind?
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The Prosecutorial State
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State of the Debate: The Case Against "Civility"
Can't we all just get along? Not when "civility" is just a genteel way to mask the inevitable tensions and antagonisms of democratic society.
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Will Libraries Survive?
Rumors of the death of the brick-and-mortar library have been greatly exaggerated. Yes, the digital age has transformed the nature of data storage. But the public library will be a chief agent in providing access to digital information.
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State of the Debate: Defining Democracy Down
Must the Catholic Church admit women as priests? Must families with children or pets be allowed to live in every homeowners' association? These questions are even more complicated than they first appear.
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Elephantiasis
Republicans spent a generation bludgeoning Democrats with those dreaded "wedge issues." Maybe it's time to give the GOP some of its own medicine.
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Of Our Time: The Bankers' Regime
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Hearings Loss
It has been a long time since congressional hearings investigated real corporate and government abuses or serious social problems. But since 1994, the situation has gotten far worse: the oversight machinery is used for partisan purposes or simply left to rot.
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The Successor Generation
If the profusion of legacy candidates this election season is any indication, having a political pedigree can do wonders for your electoral chances. As we hurtle toward the possibility of the first all second-generation presidential race, it's time to ask: Do dynastic advantages trample democratic fairness?
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Why Americans Go Broke
America's high bankruptcy rates suggest the recent economic boom is less than it appears. Changing bankruptcy law, which is what Republicans in Congress are threatening to do, won't help.
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Controversy: Charters and Choice
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Behind the Numbers: The Treadmill Economy
Even before the swooning of the Dow, the current economic expansion was less robust than it appeared. Is this a new economy? Or just people working harder to stay in place?
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Essay: Look at Me! Leave Me Alone!
Which is stronger, the craving for publicity or the desire for privacy? The Truman Show demonstrates how tightly married these impulses are.
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Rape of the Appalachians
Strip mining is carving up broad swaths of West Virginia's hillsides and valleys. Are we willing to pay higher energy prices to stop it?
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Sovereign Myopia
American values of internationalism, the rule of law, and human rights are finally being enshrined in a permanent world court. So why is the United States leading the charge against it?
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Controversy: The Black-White Test Score Gap
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The Still-Industrial City
In Chicago, like most other big cities in America, manufacturing was once the core of the urban economy -- until recent decades, when most of it moved out to suburban areas and beyond. But while much smaller today, manufacturing still makes a vital contribution that cities should work hard to maintain.
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What Japan Teaches Us Now
Japan's economic crisis is a case study in the long-term costs of protecting inefficient industries. Yet it also shows how the pressures for protectionism become irresistible without a strong safety net and policies to aid displaced workers.
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Essay: Web of Paradox
The language of our emerging digital culture suggests adventure, daring, and unprecedented novelty, while we sit comfortably at our desks, alone, communing with our computer screens. Are we being taken in by our own metaphors?
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Below the Beltway: New Labor, New Democrats -- New Alliance?
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Of Our Time: Constraining Capital, Liberating Politics
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State of the Debate: Lessons of Right-Wing Philanthropy
It is well known that the conservative movement has for years enjoyed a decided financial advantage on the battleground of ideas -- they have far more corporate and foundation support than liberals. But conservatives don't just have more money; they spend it better, too.
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Rooting the Home Team
All over America, owners are demanding extravagant subsidies and tax breaks for new stadiums. If communities want to keep their teams, there's often a cheaper solution than giving way to these demands. Follow the example of Green Bay.
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The Great Carjacking
Public outrage about auto insurance costs -- which almost derailed Christine Todd Whitman's re-election in New Jersey -- is symptomatic of a deeper problem that reforms typically fail to confront.
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A Fast Track for Labor
Saying no to trade agreements won't stop trade. Labor's advocates need to support realistic proposals for modifying NAFTA and other pacts.
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Controversy: The Rhetoric of "Corporate Welfare"
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State of the Debate: The Rise and Fall of Racialized Liberalism
Liberalism took a fateful turn in the 1960s by redefining reform in racial terms. Two new books on urban politics sometimes overstate their case against recent liberal policies, but they help clarify what went wrong.
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How Low Can You Go?
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America's Next Achievement Test
Despite significant improvement in recent decades, blacks still score consistently lower than whites on tests of academic performance. But recent studies show that the gap is not genetic in origin and suggest how it can be closed.
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The Myth of the Supermayor
A new breed of supermayor is supposed to be revitalizing the nation's cities. So let's visit the city and mayor often held up these days as a model for America.
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Storylines: Tough Chat
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Devil in the Details
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No Dumping
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State of the Debate: The Color of the Law
Race and crime commingle dangerously in the American psyche. Now that crime rates are declining, might color-blind justice finally be achievable?
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The Care Equation
Women used to do all the unpaid work of caring for the kids of aging parents. Although career barriers have fallen, women won't have real equal opportunity until America recognizes its crisis of caring.
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Screening Out Sex
When the Supreme Court overturned the Communications Decency Act, it was a triumph for civil liberties. Now new forms of censorship threaten to cut off young people's legitimate access to sexual information in cyberspace.
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Rampant Bull
Are liberals failing to rise in defense of their greatest legacy? As calls for privatizing Social Security grow louder, the time has come for a bold new defense of universal social insurance.
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After Genocide
The fate of one town, Brcko, almost derailed the Dayton Accords. Now Brcko's reconstruction has become one of the most daunting ventures in peacekeeping ever attempted by the United States.
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The Turnout Imperative
Low voter participation favors conservatives. If liberals want to avoid a reprise of 1994 in 1998, they have to make turnout a top priority -- and fortunately some are already hard at work.
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Ballot Blocks
Poor people are typically democracy's missing persons. But the patterns of low-income voting show what really motivates the voters on election day.
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The Clash of the Samuel Huntingtons
It's one of the fundamental dilemmas of foreign policy: Should American democracy be for export? Samuel P. Huntington makes a powerful case -- for both sides.
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Devil in the Details
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Le Sueur-Henderson: Minnesota New Country School
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Essay: Age of Irony
Taking irony seriously may seem like missing the point. Today's ironic sensibility is never serious. But the old masters of irony had serious fun cutting through cant and pretension.
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Sacramento: Bowling Green Elementary
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Boston: Renaissance Charter School
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Charter Conundrum
In exchange for autonomy from school districts, charter schools promise to achieve measurable progress in children's performance. But the movement is based on a dubious premise.
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How Low Can You Go? Viagravated Assault
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