Progressive Politics and, uh, …God
When I tell politically progressive friends that I’ve started teaching a course at Harvard about religion’s impact on American politics and public policy, I usually face one of two responses. The first is an awkward silence–and a quick change of subject. The second is also awkward but comes with an anxiously knowing, usually sotto voce,…
MicroJustice
In a surprise breakthrough in antitrust settlement talks, negotiators for Microsoft and the government have agreed on a plan by which the software giant will acquire the U.S. Department of Justice for $7 billion, sources close to the discussions said yesterday. Though no official announcement has been made, the parties are said to be working…
Seattle… and After
Dani Rodrik Five Simple Principles for World Trade With the Asian financial crisis barely over, the world economy stands at the brink of another major eruption–one with potentially much greater significance to the long-term health of the global economic system. The cause this time is not panicked bankers rushing for the exits out of developing…
The Ecumenist
On October 6, the crowd at the Manhattan Institute–a mostly white, clubby, conservative think tank–enjoyed one of those delicious pinch-me moments: hearing a speaker improbably introduce George W. Bush as “my homeboy.” But if the moniker seemed mismatched, even odder was the bestower, an urban African-American minister and lifelong Democrat, the Reverend Floyd Flake. Floyd…
Log Rolling?
Is George W. Bush gearing up to play the gay card against John McCain in South Carolina? Political pundits were genuinely perplexed on November 21 when Governor Bush told Tim Russert on Meet the Press that he would “probably not” meet with the Log Cabin Republicans, the gay Republican group that John McCain had met…
The Perils of High-Mindedness
Even before this campaign, he was a familiar figure in our public lifethe high-minded politician, detached from partisan passions, divorced from interest groups, devoted to higher purposes for the good of all, disdainful of image-making, fundraising, and negative campaigns. To varying degrees, Adlai Stevenson, John Anderson, and Paul Tsongas played the part; now it is…
The Real McCain
There is another side to John McCain. (And no, it’s not the volcanically unstable side alleged by GOP whispering campaigns.) Although best known for his heroism as a POW in North Vietnam and for his forthright stands on foreign and military policyand rightly celebrated for backing campaign finance reform and anti-tobacco legislationsince December 1996, McCain…
Smoking, Guns
If I had my way, there’d be laws restricting cigarettes and handguns. But this Congress won’t even pass halfway measures. Cigarette companies have admitted they produce death sticks, yet Congress won’t lift a finger to stub them out. Teenage boys continue to shoot up high schools, yet Congress won’t pass stricter gun controls. The politically…
Comment: Should Gore Do a Humphrey?
Does Al Gore need his own China policy? What do Republican kingmakers do if George W. bombs big-time?
The Taxonomist
Dept. of Boneheaded Studies In 1999, two states, New Hampshire and Tennessee, considered adopting a broad-based income tax. This sent antitax lobbying groups into a frenzy of “studies” purporting to show that such a step would be a disaster for the economies of the two states. The lamest of the reports was published in mid-October…
Let Them Eat Rates
Ever since George W. Bush announced that he subscribes to something called “compassionate conservatism,” people have been trying to figure out just what this slogan really means. There are two broad possibilities. The first is that conservatism is inherently compassionate, in which case the adjective simply points out one of conservatism’s lesser-known qualities. (The descriptive…
The 101st Senator?
In 1974 Congress created the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) “to provide the Congress with objective, timely, nonpartisan analyses needed for economic and budget decisions.” Over the last quarter-century, members of the minority party (be they Republicans or Democrats) have sometimes raised concerns about how the CBO’s numbers have been crunched. But, in general, the office…
Low Marx
In The New York Times Magazine for November 28, Jacob Weisberg wrote about “The Rehabilitation of Joe McCarthy.” The article partly drew on (and credited) Joshua Marshall’s earlier American Prospect article “Exhuming McCarthy” [March/April 1999]. Weisberg depicted the endless rehashing of who was right about communism as a kind of family co-dependency among leftists and…
Apocalypse Now
Some Democrats may have lost faith that they’ll be electing another president in the year 2000. But a host of evangelical novelists seem to think a liberal president in the new millennium is a near certainty. They just expect his stay in office will be a short one. And his downfall won’t come by scandal,…
Republic of Denial: Press, Politics, and Public Life
Works discussed in this essay: Republic Of Denial: Press, Politics, and Public Life, by Michael Janeway. Yale University Press; 216 pages. And now a word of discouragement. Abandon hopes, all ye who look to the nation’s journalists to lead the way through the valley of darkness. For the republic is in deep doo-doo, as…
What Are Journalists For?
Works discussed in this essay: What Are Journalists For? by Jay Rosen. Yale University Press; 338 pages. Jay Rosen chronicling the so-called public journalism movement in 1999 is a little like Gloria Steinem doing the same for women’s liberation in 1969. As a key intellectual architect of the movement, Rosen can hardly be expected…
The Trust: The Private and Powerful Family Behind The New York Times
Works discussed in this essay: The Trust: The Private and Powerful Family Behind The New York Times, by Susan E. Tifft and Alex S. Jones. Little, Brown; 870 pages. On the evening of June 26, 1996, there was a rare public display of the American Establishment. The setting was the Metropolitan Museum of…
Revolution Number 9
The 29-year-old holding the microphone, Zack de la Rocha, is issuing calls, in only mildly metaphorical language and in quick succession, for war against capitalists, death to racists, justice for the oppressed, and possession by the workers of the means of production. He is backed by a guitarist and a rhythm section. He’s watched by…
Hollywood Keeps Left
For better or worse, Hollywood loves to warble the plaintive song of lefty idealism. The unimpeachably affecting underdog dynamics make grade-A grist for the movie mill as it works around the clock to narratively confirm our most ardent hopes about ourselves. You can hardly blame the conservatives for their dudgeon about American movies, however ineptly…
Life: The Cliff Notes
Each fall at least one prime-time television show premieres to the much-hyped anticipation of critics and viewers that it will stand apart from the rest of the lineup and fit into–or, better yet, raise the standards for–that elusive category called “quality television.” This season, the burden of those expectations was reserved for ABC’s new drama…
Parochial Schools and the Court
Although it is frequently attacked as an elitist institution with no regard for the public will, the Supreme Court is hardly immune to cultural and political trends. Justices are, after all, appointed by presidents with particular ideological agendas, shaped partly by polls. Once they ascend to the bench, a few appointees may surprise and disappoint…
Hillary Was Right
When Hillary Clinton went on the Today show in early 1998 to defend her husband against the malefactions of a “vast right-wing conspiracy,” she was pitied and disparaged in roughly equal measure. Rightly so: Her husband, it turned out, was dallying with an intern less than half his age. And while the president has garnered…
End of the Open Road?
Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road, Healthy, free, the world before me … –Walt Whitman, Song of the Open Road With apologies to Walt Whitman, whose “barbaric yawp” anticipated Internet chat groups and the World Wide Web by well over a century, the information superhighway may turn out to be nothing like…
