himwhynot

Tim Fernholz says that even with moderate tax increases, the rich find ways not to pay. Don’t tax the rich. Jesus, don’t tax the rich. They’re making the economy go, they’re investing, they’re job-creating. So goes the refrain of Republicans, lobbyists, and other supporters of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, which will terminate […]

Sarah Babbage talks about the immigration-enforcement crackdown and its effect on life on the U.S.-Mexico border. So it’s a choice between corruption or a war between cartels and the army? You don’t see any kind of middle ground? There seems to be no left-wing opposition to the cartels in Mexican society, a sort of union […]

Tim Fernholz asks whether a green-energy dispute with China will start a real conversation about trade. Free-traders and Chinese officials are calling foul, blaming the investigation on partisan politics: Democrats in electoral peril need the unions on their side, and opinion polls indicate Americans pin our economic woes on free trade and outsourcing: 68 percent […]

Harold Pollack says genetic screening is more accessible than ever, and health-care providers are scrambling to catch up. In retrospect, these innovations were incredibly tame. Technological limits, cost, intrusiveness, and risk constrained the scope of screening efforts. Roughly one in every 200 amniocenteses resulted in miscarriage, which made the procedure too risky to justify screening […]

Cord Jefferson says that in his new book, Chris Lehmann takes the wealthy to task — and that means liberals, too. To put it simply, if you don’t like reading angry rants, Rich People Things is not for you. That’s not to say that the book is at all unfocused or belligerent — but it’s […]

Paul Waldman says come Nov. 2, the parties will continue their decades-long shift away from each other. This sorting-out of the two parties helped clarify their ideological identities, but the Republicans who got elected became more and more conservative. Something similar was happening with Democrats — but not nearly to the same extent. As Jacob […]

Courtney Martin says that in the wake of the recession, Americans are consuming less and communing more. And it’s not just objects that are getting smaller. Andy Hobsbawm, author of the upcoming book Small Is the Next Big Thing, explains, “We’re seeing a fundamental shift in the centre of gravity and balance of power from […]

Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson say those who argue that gridlock is a good check on partisanship haven’t examined its policy consequences. But, as we will learn next year, gridlock is not neutral. It is corrosive. The policy results that follow are neither centrist nor stable. Rather, stalemate in Washington leads to a slow and […]

Justin Snow talks to a legal scholar about what to expect from the Supreme Court this year. Are there any upcoming cases on the docket of particular concern to liberals? I think the Arizona-Christian Schools case on whether the government can, through its tax system, subsidize religious schools, and who has standing to challenge it, […]

Gershom Gorenberg says a proposed amendment to Israel’s citizenship law shows how far right Netanyahu’s government really is. Let me parse that. First, the amendment doesn’t apply to people coming to Israel under the Law of Return, which grants automatic citizenship to Jews or people with Jewish fathers or grandfathers. (The definition of being Jewish, […]