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Mark Schmitt

Mark Schmitt is a former executive editor of The American Prospect. Previously he was a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, director of the Governance and Public Policy program at the Open Society Institute, and policy director to Senator Bill Bradley.

Recent Articles

When the Democratic Leadership Council Mattered

Glee over the DLC's demise misses the point of its founding and its sad history.

Mark SchmittFeb 10, 2011
Former President Bill Clinton takes the stage at the 2007 Democratic Leadership Council national convention. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

In the eyes of its critics, the Democratic Leadership Council, which announced Monday that it was closing shop, represented the "corporatist" wing of the Democratic Party. Ben Smith in Politico summarized the criticism as "a religion of compromise, lack of principle, and a willingness to sell out the poor and African-American voters at the party's base."

Southern Discomfort

Democrats no longer need the South, but the region needs them.

Mark SchmittFeb 07, 2011
(Flickr/CFaviar)

In his 2006 book, Whistling Past Dixie, political scientist Tom Schaller argued that the Democratic Party should learn to ignore the South. Presidential elections and congressional majorities could be won without the region, and the Mountain West was the land of political opportunity. Ignoring the South, and the reactionary politics of its white voters, would have the additional benefit of freeing the party to pursue a "non-Southern platform" of public investment and liberal social policies.

Post Literalism

The Republican majority intends to underplay its hand rather than take responsibility for governing.

Mark SchmittDec 06, 2010
House Minority Leader John Boehner (AP Photo/Harry Hamburg)

There's a malady that Washington liberals and media types are particularly susceptible to. I've got a chronic recurring case of it myself. Call it policy literalism -- the persistent belief that policy should have a rational, direct relationship to politics.

Here's a test: Does it come as a surprise to you that most voters think their taxes went up in the last two years? Obama cut taxes by $240 billion, and nearly every household got a tax cut in the 2009 economic stimulus, but a pre-election poll for Bloomberg found that 52 percent of likely voters thought middle-class taxes had gone up, and only 19 percent thought they were lower.

Armchair Populism

Mark SchmittDec 02, 2010

One reason I remain skeptical of advice that Democrats should sound more “populist” is that the audience for this advice always seems to be well-off liberals, and the people who tend to give this advice either aren’t in a position to practice it, or when they are, they flinch.

Wait for a Better Deficit Report

Mark SchmittNov 13, 2010

Jonathan Chait has modified his applause for the deficit-reduction plan released by Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles to make an exception for its cavalier treatment of domestic discretionary spending, which he calls the “gaping flaw” in the two men’s report.

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