Features

Democracy How?
Robert Collier
Voices from inside Iraq show just how hard the transition will be.

Offshore Thing
Samuel Loewenberg
An easy way to slash the deficit and still finance social outlay: Go after the $300 billion in taxes that aren't collected each year. Unfortunately, the Bush administration won't.

Trading Down
Eamonn Fingleton
It's not whether record trade deficits will become a full-blown currency crisis. It's when.

Wake-Up Time
Eric Alterman and Michael Tomasky
Yes, Bush has bullied the national media. But are they really powerless? Only if they play along. Herewith, five suggestions for how the Fourth Estate can stop the charade.


Special Report

Contesting Values
Stanley B. Greenberg and Anna Greenberg
In 1988, the Democrats got clobbered in an election-year culture war. But that was then. The America of 2004 is a very different place, and the time is ripe to wage a new battle.

Forward March
Matthew Yglesias
Sure, Democrats lose some votes because of the stands they take on cultural issues. Funny thing, though—on policy, they usually end up winning. So why change?

On God and Democrats
Richard Parker
Will religion give Democrats the usual fits this election year? Maybe. But it shouldn't be forgotten that there is a

Queer and Present Danger?
Robert Kuttner
The wedge issue of gay marriage

Speech Impediments
Geoffrey Nunberg
After two decades spent trying to change the subject, Democrats finally seem to understand that they need to speak a language of values. A good first step: figuring out what they are.

The E-Word
Nicolaus Mills
No right-wing attack against Democrats is more electric than the charge of elitism. It can be buried, but that requires acknowledging the ways in which it has been -- let's face it -- true.

The New Case for Marriage
Margaret Morganroth Gullette
The first wave of feminism looked upon marriage with suspicion. But the institution has changed (partly because of feminism). So the point now is to embrace it for everyone.