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Who Deserted the Democrats in 1994?
Analysts have pronounced 1994 an ideological election because the economy was growing overall. But look who was swinging Republican.
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After the Republican Surge
On the heels of a major conservative surge, Republicans have overplayed their political hand and created an opportunity the Democrats can seize.
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Devil in the Details
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Constitutional Amendmentitis
The rash of amendments being proposed by Republicans has profound -- and dangerous -- implications for our system of government.
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Between a Swing and a Lock
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The Smoldering Electorate
Three books about American politics help illuminate the deep frustration of voters -- and suggest how much of a change Democrats must undertake to reach them.
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Political Snipers
The National Rifle Association knew its stance on assault weapons was unpopular, so in 1994 it went underground, took advantage of loopholes in the campaign finance laws, and waged a stealth campaign to unseat Democrats in vulnerable districts.
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Can't Touch This?: The Pentagon's Budget Fortress
Defense experts with impeccable conservative credentials say we could cut the Pentagon budget without endangering our security. So why is no one listening?
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Rising Tides, Sinking Wages
The economy has grown, productivity is up, profits are soaring. There's just one problem: Americans' standard of living.
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Nice Work If You Can Get It: The Software Industry as a Model for Tomorrow's Jobs
Some high-tech firms are redefining the relationship between employer and employee.
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How Low Can You Go?
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The Ideologically Invested
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Delusions of Charity
Conservatives say that if we reduce government spending on the poor, charity will fill the gap. The evidence shows they're wrong.
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The Future of Black Representation
Good riddance to racial gerrymandering. The Supreme Court's ruling against race as the predominant factor in districting is good news for blacks and Democrats.
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Affirmative Actions' California Afterlife
The debate about affirmative action at the University of California isn't over yet.
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Do Ask, Do Tell: Freak Talk on TV
Daytime television has become a "freak show," but it's also an opportunity (and not an entirely bad one) for gays and others with nonconforming lives to talk directly with the public.
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The Job Ghetto
Competition in the inner city even for fast-food jobs is so great that welfare recipients will have trouble getting them.
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Computing Our Way to Educational Reform
The new technology may not only make progressive educational ideas more appealing; it may also help them work.
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How Low Can You Go?
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Backfire on Campus
In their efforts to enforce multiculturalism, university administrators have unwittingly created a new breeding ground for conservative rebellion.
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Of Our Time: A Pile of Vetoes
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Fight Smoke with Fire
Why taking on Big Tobacco in the name of children's health is a winning issue for Democrats.
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You're Being Robbed
A few simple ideas on how to revive labor and liberalism.
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Housing Policy's Moment of Truth
In Washington these days, HUD is about as popular as mosquitoes. But there's a way to make housing more affordable without the old bureaucracy.
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Is Violent Speech a Right?
Advocacy of illegal violence to kill people is not necessarily constitutionally protected speech.
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Senator Dole's Greatest Harvest
How long-cultivated interests help advance the Majority Leader's political fortunes -- and circumvent campaign finance limits.
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How the Pie is Sliced: America's Growing Concentration of Wealth
When a rising tide lifts only a few boats.
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Not Just the Economy, Stupid
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The Flat Taxers' Flat Distortions
Several leading Republicans now claim that a flat tax can lower most taxpayers' burden, close loopholes, and avoid revenue shortfalls. Wrong on all counts.
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Paralysis by Analysis: How Conservatives Plan to Kill Popular Regulation
Simply revoking laws that protect clean water, air, or food wouldn't be popular, so Congress is passing procedural changes that sound neutral but bias the outcome in favor of corporate interests.
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The Community Is Their Textbook: Maryland's Experiment with Mandatory Service for Students
At its best, service learning enriches both students and their communities. But creating good programs isn't easy.
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Backfire on Campus
In their efforts to enforce multiculturalism, university administrators have unwittingly created new breeding grounds for conservative rebellion.
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Should Journalists Do Community Service?
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Liberalism's Third Crisis
This isn't the first time liberals have faced reverses and needed to reframe their ideas.
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A New Conversation: How to Rebuild the Democratic Party
Let's face it: The Democratic Party got into some bad relationships. It doesn't need a new message so much as a whole new conversation with the American people.
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Clinton's Not-So-Good Deeds
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Devil in the Details
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How Low Can You Go? Shoot Now, Think Later
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Who Owns the Future?
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Abandoned Surgery: Business and the Failure of Health Reform
Business once seemed a potential ally in national health reform. Then it turned around and became instrumental in reform's defeat. The inside story of what happened and why.
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Hidden Kingdom: Disney's Political Blueprint
Walt Disney dubbed one of his attractions the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT), but the name might better describe his design for private government.
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Our NAIRU Limit: The Governing Myth of Economic Policy
It's now a familiar story: The Fed raises interest rates to slow the economy. But new research suggests that we are needlessly sacrificing prosperity on the altar of false economic assumptions.
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The Contract and the Consumer
The conservatives haven't made "tort reform" a crusade to stop a flood of products liability litigation. There is no such flood. This is a straight payoff to their benefactors.
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Gingrich's Time Bomb: The Consequences of the Contract
Did anyone read the fine print? The Contract with America has been devilishly constructed with provisions that will set off a fiscal -- and social -- explosion years from now.
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Behind the Numbers: Class Dismissed?
The Democrats have hinged their political strategy upon the empirically shaky notion that most Americans consider themselves middle class. The consequences are not just rhetorical.
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State of the Debate: The Sale of a Generation
Generation X is a hot marketing concept, used as a hook to sell everything from condoms to cars. Can right-wingers use it to sell their ideas?
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Health Reform, Meet Tax Reform
The current tax treatment of health benefits makes no sense. A feasible strategy for health reform should now put tax reform at its center. But which kind?
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Sex, Lies, and The Scarlett Letter
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Perrier in the Newsroom
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Friends of Bill? Why Liberals Should Let Up on Clinton
In Clinton's first two years, myopic liberals complained about his compromises and disparaged his accomplishments. Now there will be fewer accomplishments and bigger compromises. Insisting on purity could only make things worse.
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Up From 1994
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Devil in the Details
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Who Killed Campaign Finance Reform? (and How To Revive It)
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Bank Failure: The Financial Marginalization of the Poor
In poor areas across the country, banks have been replaced with check-cashers and pawn shops. While both liberals and conservatives extol the virtues of savings, the recent trend encourages just the opposite.
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Cracking Open the IQ Box
The Bell Curve has given genetic determinism new currency, but the science on which it rests is even less persuasive today than it was a century ago.
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The Inequality Express
While the trend toward greater inequality is no longer in doubt, recent work in the social sciences suggests a number of possible explanations. We can now begin to sort them out.
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What Happened to Health Care Reform?
Republicans killed it. The White House strategy misfired. Reformers couldn't unite. The center failed. And the moment was lost.
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How Low Can You Go?
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The New School Wars: How Outcome-Based Education Blew Up
It seemed like a conservative idea; then progressive educators got hold of it. Now a firestorm has erupted that could jeopardize the effort to raise national curriculum standards.
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Do Poor Women Have a Right to Bear Children?
The current movement to reform welfare implies an uncomfortable thought: Perhaps poor women don't have the right to bear children. Are we really prepared to say that?
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How Money Votes: An Oklahoma Story
Bill Brewster, junior member of the House Ways and Means Committee, works hard on behalf of the money that elected him. Unfortunately, he is emblematic of a system that skews politics away from the people.
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The Disengaged
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The People Vs. the Parties
Could either party nominate a full-menu libertarian or populist? Our national political logjam explains why artifice has become endemic.
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Did the U.S. Military Plan a Nuclear First Strike for 1963?
Recently declassified information shows that the military presented President Kennedy with a plan for a surprise nuclear attack on the Soviet Union in the early 1960s.
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Reviving Community Development
Critics have called for abandoning the struggle for community development just as some of the most promising initiatives are being launched.
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What I Really Say about Balancing the Budget
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Voting Rites: Why We Need a New Concept of Citizenship
In the primal act of citizenship, we face the ballot alone, face to face with our own ignorance.
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Is The American Economic Model the Answer?
The financial elites that favor the "American" model -- deregulation, weak unions, and a minimalist welfare state -- ask the wrong question: how to compete against countries with lower wages and living standards.
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Diary of the American Nightmare
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Incredible News
The rise of infotainment and tabloid TV news reflects popular acceptance of the summons to turn news into play -- which people are willing to do when they have given up on public life.
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