A Supreme Court case highlights how religious conservatives tend to forget that the separation of church and state protects religion from government — not the other way around.
Gabriel Arana
Gabriel Arana is a contributing editor at The American Prospect. His articles on gay rights, immigration, and media have appeared in publications including The New Republic, The Nation, Salon, The Advocate, and The Daily Beast.
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John McWhorter’s Silly Analysis of ‘Palinspeak.’
John McWhorter has an analysis of “Palinspeak” at The New Republic that has gotten quite a bit of attention. As a trained linguist (by happenstance I was a PhD candidate at Cornell, where McWhorter taught, before switching to journalism), I think his take is refreshingly devoid of cliché alarmism over the “decline of the English […]
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They Doth Protest Too Much
These days, what’s a good old-fashioned street demonstration worth?
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Downplaying Nativism
Responding to my piece about the souring prospects for immigration reform, Ezra Klein makes the odd statement that nativism is the “dog that didn’t bark” (Kevin Drum has a good response to this here). Ezra writes: The Tea Parties haven’t been very focused on immigration, and while abortion and socialism both became major issues during […]
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Better Path to Citizenship.
Dara Lind responds to my critique of the Schumer–Graham blueprint for immigration reform. Her primary point is that the 800-word-or-so piece published in the Post is bound to exclude the full details of their proposal, especially those that are still being hammered out. However, I don’t think I missed the importance of the Schumer-Graham plan […]
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The Slow March Toward Immigration Reform
Since the last push for reform in 2006, America has become a much harder place to be an immigrant.
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For First Time, Majority of Californians Support Gay Marriage
For the first time since the Public Policy Institute of California started keeping track, a majority (50 percent) of Californians favor allowing same-sex marriage. In their statistical samples, the number had never risen above 45 percent. This is consistent with Nate Silver‘s statistical prediction showing California would “turn” in 2010 — and also good news […]
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How Likely is Immigration Reform This Year?
Yesterday’s major immigration-reform demonstration on the National Mall took a backseat to the 11th-hour wrangling over health care in the House of Representatives – and the histrionics of the much smaller Tea Party crowd yelling racial and homophobic slurs at members of Congress. That seemed to underscore the very reason the pro-immigration crowd is so […]
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The Little Picture: ‘Americans’ Call for DADT Repeal.
On Freedom Plaza in downtown Washington, D.C., gay-rights supporters hold a moment of silence to call for the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell holding American flags distributed by Human Rights Campaign staffers. Notably absent was the rainbow banner that gay-rights proponents generally wave at rallies. Implicit message: We’re Americans first, gay people second? The […]
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After Health Care, Immigration
Addressing immigration is the best way to ensure health care reform is truly effective — and score big political points with Latino voters.
