Two articles in The Washington Post on Sunday, February 20, by two of the paper’s best reporters, set the mind to roam yet again over the question of strategies for liberals and Democrats. First was Dan Balz’s report on Howard Dean’s first week as Democratic National Committee chairman. The piece was mostly devoted to letting […]
Michael Tomasky
Michael Tomasky is the American editor-at-large of the Guardian (UK). He was executive editor of the Prospect from 2003 to 2006.
Posted inArticle
The Philosophy Gap
Two articles in The Washington Post on Sunday, February 20, by two of the paper’s best reporters, set the mind to roam yet again over the question of strategies for liberals and Democrats. First was Dan Balz’s report on Howard Dean’s first week as Democratic National Committee chairman. The piece was mostly devoted to letting […]
Posted inFeatures
Against the Neocons
Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Carter’s national-security adviser and the author, most recently, of The Choice: Global Domination or Global Leadership, spoke with Michael Tomasky on January 31 about the Iraqi elections and plausible alternatives to neoconservatism. MICHAEL TOMASKY: Will the Iraqi elections validate the neoconservative view? ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI: I don’t think it’s going to be validated […]
Posted inAmerica and the World
The Liberal Uses of Power
It is a shame there will never be a debate about foreign policy between the George W. Bush who ran for president in 2000 and the one who now occupies the office. As a candidate five years ago, Bush said that the United States should act as a “humble nation” toward the rest of the […]
Posted inArticle
Venus and Mars, Cont’d
France had recently announced its first nuclear test, and the Sino-Soviet split made it clear that the Chinese would be acquiring nuclear technology. The world was getting worried about the possible spread of nuclear weapons. And so, in 1961, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution calling on all member states to sign an […]
Posted inArticle
First Principles
We’ve lately received a small handful of letters here complaining that we’re deviating a bit. Two recent print pieces in particular — Sarah Blustain’s “Choice Language” (which critiqued the rhetoric pro-choice groups have used to defend abortion rights) and Mark Leon Goldberg’s “Is Moore Less?” (which explored the question of whether the Democrats should do […]
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Spirit of ’48
In France, they called Danny Cohn-Bendit and the other leaders of the May 1968 student uprising the soixante-huitards — or, simply, the ’68ers. Now, it seems, American liberals are engaged in a conversation about our own quarante-huitards — our ’48ers, or the men who formed the nucleus of thought and action for postwar liberalism. It’s […]
Posted inColumns
You Better Think!
On February 12, the 447 members of the Democratic National Committee are to elect a new chairman to replace Terry McAuliffe. Four days later, an important new book — John Kenneth Galbraith: His Life, His Politics, His Economics, by Richard Parker — is due to hit bookstores. These two events actually have a lot to […]
Posted inArticle
Jack the Giant
The death of Jack Newfield from complications from kidney cancer at age 66 may not reverberate loudly across a conservative-dominated Washington, but he was a huge deal in New York City (which is to say, he was a huge deal), and his impact on American journalism was dramatic and deserves a moment’s appreciation. There have […]
Posted inArticle
Harry and Louise Redux
Every liberal in Washington, or in America, is sure that his or her argument about preserving the current Social Security system is the best one. (Readers of TAPPED, our blog, have read a handful of arguments, and those are just the ones emanating from this office.) So why should I be any different? Here’s how […]
