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Paul Starr

Paul Starr is co-editor of the The American Prospect. His most recent book is Remedy and Reaction: The Peculiar American Struggle over Health Care Reform. Click here to read more about Starr.

Recent Articles

The Realignment Opportunity

Conservatives say that America remains a center-right country and Obama won only because of special circumstances, while some liberals claim that the election marks a historic realignment. Neither is the right way to read the returns.

Paul StarrNov 21, 2008

In the immediate aftermath of the election, two interpretations began circulating about its implications. The first came from conservatives who insisted that America remains a "center right" country and that the voters gave Barack Obama and the Democrats a majority only because of the financial panic and the limitations of the McCain campaign. The second interpretation came from some liberals who promptly declared this to be one of those critical elections that mark a historic political realignment. Neither is the right way to read the returns.

The American Collision

A presidential race between Obama and McCain was supposed to bring a less-polarized politics, so why hasn't it worked out that way?

Paul StarrSep 18, 2008

Earlier in this election cycle, many observers suggested that if Barack Obama and John McCain became their parties' nominees, they would each moderate the polarizing tendencies in American politics. In the wake of the two parties' national conventions, that notion seems like a frail hope. Something is driving polarization, and it isn't the personalities.

It also isn't trends in public opinion. As Morris P. Fiorina argues in his book, Culture War?, public opinion surveys show that on most issues Americans are still bunched in the middle, contrary to the widespread belief that they are more deeply divided than they were a generation ago.

The Year of Passion

In this year's primaries, for the first time in many election cycles, Democrats were carried by inspiration, rather than political calculation.

Paul StarrJun 19, 2008

Now that Barack Obama has secured his party's presidential nomination, it is a good moment to assess the extraordinary and improbable thing that the Democrats have done. It was not intuitively obvious, particularly to those who saw the party's central task as winning back the Reagan Democrats, that the best way to retake the presidency would be to nominate an African American with an Islamic-sounding name. In the abstract, before Obama emerged, that concept had not suggested itself, and some political insiders may be excused for not immediately grasping its genius.

Freedom's Future Online

In his new book, Jonathan Zittrain argues the very qualities that make the personal computer and the Internet so valuable are the source of their vulnerability and possible undoing.

Paul StarrJun 19, 2008

The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It by Jonathan Zittrain, Yale University Press, 352 pages, $30.00

The delirium and delusions that surrounded computing and the Internet in the 1990s have given way to a sentiment just as dangerous--complacency. It's not just that yesterday's wonders have so quickly become routine; most of us also take for granted the basic workings of the digital environment, including the freedom for experimentation that it affords. Countries like China may control the Internet, but in our society don't the free market and the open, untamed wilds of cyberspace make it nearly impossible to clamp down on innovation?

VICE PRESIDENT GORE? AGAIN?

Paul StarrJun 12, 2008

James Carville says Obama should pick Al Gore for vice president. Here are some reasons Democrats are likely to take this option seriously, unless Gore himself rules it out.

  • Gore answers the need for "experience," but unlike Nunn and various others who've been mentioned, he doesn't contradict the message of change or raise any tensions or conflicts with Obama's views.

  • Gore could help Obama govern, and he would be fully competent--and perceived as fully competent--to become president should something happen to Obama.

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