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Vol. 22 No. 3March 2011
Columns
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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
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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.
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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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. -
Wisconsin and Beyond
How far will the backlash against union-busting go? -
Conservative Jihad
Grover Norquist takes on the right's Islamophobic conspiracy theorists.
Special Report
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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. -
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.
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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Southern Discomfort
Democrats no longer need the South, but the region needs them. -
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.
Culture
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Moral Combat
Why do liberals play computer games like conservatives? -
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.
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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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. -
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.
Features
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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. -
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?
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Vol. 22 No. 1December 2010
Columns
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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. -
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.
Culture
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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 -
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?
Departments
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Up Front
The Dialogue, The Question, and The Parody -
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
Special Report
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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. -
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
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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Vol. 21 No. 10November 2010
Columns
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Language of Truth
On reading Gjertrud Schnackenberg -
Fighter, Conciliator, or Scold?
With a conservative Congress, Obama can invoke Truman, Clinton, or Carter. -
The Ideas Deficit
If "ideas have consequences," as conservatives like to say, what's the consequence of having none? -
Straight Talk
We shouldn't assure gay teens that their lives will get better without also pledging to make equality a reality.
Culture
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Virtuality Bites
On the Internet, society's most intractable issues with race and class are increasingly prominent. -
Why the Winners Lost
In the rise of the right, culture and economics have always gone hand in hand. -
ACORN's Fall
Community organizing survives, but it is a balkanized, weakened field. -
Frustrated by His Own Party
FDR eventually did what many wish Obama would do -- challenge the troublemakers in the party. -
Drawn to the Mud
Jack Anderson's obsessive coverage of Nixon marked the beginning of our modern scandal culture.
Departments
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Ann Coulter, Drag Queen
Conservative gays search in vain for a diva icon of their own. -
Up Front
A note from Executive Editor Mark Schmitt, "The Parody," and "The Question" -
Noted
Reader responses to Adam Serwer, Sarah Garland, and Jacob Hacker's pieces in our November 2010 issue
Special Report
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Bonds of Steel
Can alliances with unions in Mexico and Europe return the United Steelworkers to its former strength at home? -
Slumming in America
Human-rights arguments are effective tools for shaming European companies into good labor practices in the U.S. -
Can the Workers of the World Unite?
The state of unionism in the era of globalization -
Translating Solidarity
As SEIU organizes on a global scale, it must adapt its approach to accommodate cultural differences. -
Globalization, Union-Style
The challenge is to raise U.S. workers' rights to the level that European workers enjoy -- not to lower their rights to our level. -
Closed Circuit
Could opening juvenile court hearings and records help uncover systemic abuse and corruption?
Features
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Green Job Search
Unless America changes its energy policies, it will continue to train workers for jobs that just aren't there. -
What We Don't Know Can Hurt Us
Information is the life-blood of public policy, but there's a lot of it missing. -
The Limits of Smart Power
Can the U.S. military end the epidemic of sexual violence in Congo without getting involved in another endless conflict? -
The Vacancy Crisis
Obama has made fewer judicial nominations than any president in recent history -- with disastrous consequences. -
Too Big To Be Governed?
Financial reform will fail if industry writes the rules.
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Vol. 21 No. 9October 2010
Columns
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Back to Deadlock
Come next January, the great American impasse will be back in all its toxic splendor. -
Winning Ugly
The Obama presidency is far from over, but little survives of the original theory behind it. -
The Experience Gap
Obama's base still wants a positive political experience -- not just a set of policy positions. -
Steal This Author
In a few years, we'll be able to do without publishers.
Culture
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Changing Faiths
Religious Americans are far more diverse, tolerant, and compassionate than the image of an evangelist upsurge would suggest. -
The Return of Keynes
There's more to John Maynard Keynes than the idea that government spending can end depressions -- but that's a good place to start. -
Higher Expectations
What are colleges for? Research, economic advancement, or making students more interesting? -
Lucky Louie
Why liberals love the acerbic comedian Louis C.K.
Departments
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The Return of Keynes
There's more to John Maynard Keynes than the idea that governemtn spending can end depressions -- but that's a good place to start. -
In the Loophole
Even with moderate tax increases, the rich find ways not to pay. -
Noted
Responses to "Gatekeepers" and "Uncertainly Wrong" -
Up Front
A note from the executive editor, the Parody, and "The Question" -
Is Obama Too Calm Before the Storm?
His staid reaction to the financial crisis may have won him the presidency, but too much complacency could cause him to lose it. -
The Enforcement Paradox
With their failure to enact immigration reform, Democrats risk turning their "emerging majority" into a permanent swing vote.
Special Report
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The Debate We Should Be Having
Austerity is perverse economics and self-defeating politics. Here are sensible alternatives. -
The Bipartisan Attack on Medicare
To fix Medicare, fix the larger inefficiencies in America's health-care system. -
The Investment Deficit
An economic recovery will bring down our fiscal deficit -- but the more important deficit is the shortfall in our commitment to the future. -
Social Security and the Deficit
Social Security is not part of the federal deficit: Even with no policy changes, it will be in balance for the next 26 years. -
Austerity: The False Cure
The formula of the deficit hawks will bring us a deeper recession, stunted social outlay, and a much tougher road back to fiscal balance. -
Deficit-Attention Disorder
What voters really think about deficits, debts, and economic recovery -
Economic Recovery and Fiscal Balance
We can finance both long-term fiscal balance and adequate investment -- without increasing taxes on the working middle class. -
On the Economics of Deficits
Most of the federal deficit is caused by the recession itself. To cure the slump, fix the financial system. -
The Federal Reserve We Need
It's the Fed we once had -- when a more democratically accountable bank was enlisted to patriotically finance America's war debt. -
Budget Cuts and Our Children's Future
Deficit hawks invoke the next generation, but an austerity program would balance the budget on the backs of America's most vulnerable parents and children.
Features
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The Stalemate State
Those who argue that gridlock is a good check on partisanship haven't examined its policy consequences. -
Put to the Test
Genetic screening is more accessible than ever, and health-care providers are scrambling to catch up. -
Repeat Performance
When charter schools hold students back, is it helping them succeed in the long term -- or does it just improve short-term test results?
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