The Spirit of ’56
America turns 50 this year — the America, that is, that we recognize as ours. It was half a century ago that our new founding fathers made their debut on the national stage: Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy, Elvis Presley. The latter, per Life’s August 27, 1956, issue, was “Elvis — A Different…
October Issue PDF
To download the October 2006 issue in PDF format, click here.
The Way of the Hammer
It was a summer of odd political valedictories. On the night of August 8, Joe Lieberman bade farewell to his career as a Democratic senator, kicking off of his independent bid by blaming the “politics of partisan polarization” for doing him in. He asked citizens “fed up with the petty partisanship in Washington” to support…
A Slight Oversight
When Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson became vice president in 1961, he persuaded his protégé and successor, Senator Mike Mansfield of Montana, to let Johnson continue running the Senate Democratic caucus. The vice president, constitutionally and ceremonially, is Senate president, voting only to break ties. However, no vice president had ever proposed to function as…
Do This for Mom
The Motherhood Manifesto: What America’s Moms Want — And What To Do About It by Joan Blades and Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner (Nation Books, 248 pages, $14.95) Leaving Women Behind by Kimberley A. Strassel, Celeste Colgan, and John C. Goodman (Rowman and Littlefield, 215 pages, $21.95) Kiki, a single mother of two and a legal secretary, had…
A Speech We’d Like to Hear
My fellow Americans: The decision to invade Iraq in the spring of 2003 divided the country and divided my party. People I respect found themselves on both sides of that controversy. But three and a half years later, it’s clear that the invasion was a serious error. The president told us the invasion was necessary…
Desperation Time
On the recent fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, President Bush visited all three sites of the mayhem — the field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where the courageous passengers took down United Flight 93; the Pentagon, long since rebuilt; and Manhattan’s ground zero, earth onto which New York’s bickering and feeble Republican politicians have managed…
Whatever It Takes
On a sweltering Saturday morning in August, on the grounds of the old Rutherford County Courthouse just outside Nashville, where a Bible in a glass case is permanently turned to John 3:16, a young politician of considerable urbanity is convincing a crowd of his fellow Tennesseans that he’s just a New Age version of a…
The Test Case Race
The world headquarters of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. is still in Akron, Ohio, but all they make there now are decisions. Except for a few specialty racing tires, Goodyear hasn’t made tires in Akron in years. Industry here is dead, dead, dead, and there is nothing we can do to revive it. Apparently,…
Political Earthquake
Imagine stepping into a polling booth and voting for candidates who, instead of being bought and paid for by corporations, unions, or wealthy donors, are financed by public funds, and accountable to you and other citizens. Sounds utopian, doesn’t it? Well, clean-money elections already exist in Maine and Arizona, states too small to challenge the…
Reluctant Radicals
It is conventional wisdom that the new democratic activists of the “netroots” are strong on political tactics but don’t have much to contribute to the war of ideas. Matt Bai, writing in The New York Times Magazine, charged disparagingly that “leaders of the netroots … will tell you that Big Ideas are overrated.” This isn’t…
Anger Mismanagement
The House of Representatives of our era doesn’t lack for camp spectacle. There’s Indiana’s Dan Burton, who shot at melons in his backyard to “prove” that the Clintons had Vince Foster murdered. Tom Tancredo of Colorado once advocated that America “take out” Muslim holy sites. The list goes on. But that list, lengthy as it…
Mommy Dearest?
Next month, South Dakotans will vote on whether to uphold the most radical abortion ban in the nation. Allowing for abortion only “to prevent the death of a pregnant mother,” the ban was enacted last March in the belief that the changing membership of the Supreme Court made timely a direct challenge to Roe v.…
College Dropouts
Somewhere, Samuel J. Tilden may be smiling. The 1876 Democratic presidential nominee — who won the popular vote but lost the presidency to Rutherford B. Hayes — would surely approve of the movement afoot to entrust the American people with the direct election of their president. Though the outcome is far from certain, increasingly energized…
Mr. Blackwell’s Designs
Hundreds of voters mysteriously “dropped or displaced” from registration rolls when master lists were electronically merged. Absentee ballots invalidated because voters didn’t receive a flier telling them not to remove a security stub. Poll workers who didn’t show up to work on Election Day. Polling places unable to open on time because computer memory cards…
After the Fall of the Right
The Plan: Big Ideas for America by Rahm Emanuel and Bruce Reed (Public Affairs, 224 pages, $19.95) Whose Freedom?: The Battle Over America’s Most Important Idea by George Lakoff (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 277 pages, $23.00) Being Right Is Not Enough: What Progressives Must Learn from Conservative Success by Paul Waldman (John Wiley and Sons,…
How Ambitious Can We Be?
Ethical Realism by Anatol Lieven and John Hulsman (Pantheon, 224 pages, $22.00) The American Way of Strategy by Michael Lind (Oxford University Press, 304 pages, $24.00) Anyone who doubts that the Bush Revolution in foreign policy has ended should check the shelves at a bookstore. Hagiographies about the man from Midland are out. Impassioned critiques…
