George W. Bush and John Kerry could agree on one point in the first presidential debate: Nuclear proliferation — specially the risk of terrorists obtaining nuclear weapons — represents the most serious threat we face. But the difference in how the two candidates approach the problem illustrates a more fundamental political divide that will stretch […]
Paul Starr
Paul Starr is co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect, and professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University. A winner of the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction and the Bancroft Prize in American history, he is the author of eight books, including American Contradiction: Revolution and Revenge from the 1950s to Now (Yale University Press, October 2025).
Posted inDepartments
A World Apart
George W. Bush and John Kerry could agree on one point in the first presidential debate: Nuclear proliferation — specially the risk of terrorists obtaining nuclear weapons — represents the most serious threat we face. But the difference in how the two candidates approach the problem illustrates a more fundamental political divide that will stretch […]
Posted inFeatures
Health Care’s Big Choice
The American health-care system is again at a point of critical change as a result of escalating costs and a gathering movement among employers, insurers, and policy-makers to revamp the structure of health insurance. Like the spread of managed care a decade ago, the new changes will be a bitter pill for many people. Most […]
Posted inDepartments
Prospects
It would have been a catastrophe for democracy itself if liberal leadership during the past century had been unequal to the challenges of national defense. But under Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the United States and its allies prevailed in both world wars. FDR and Harry Truman, advised by such “wise men” as George […]
Posted inSpecial Report
The Return of Energy
Mr. Kerry, after four years of slothful leadership, the American people may be ready for the quality that the Framers referred to as “energy in the executive.” That energy, of course, can’t be solely of your own making. Since the nation’s founding, the eras that have decisively advanced democratic purposes have been built around a […]
Posted inDepartments
Prospects
When other aspects of the Iraq War have long been forgotten, the images of American soldiers torturing Iraqis in Abu Ghraib prison will still be remembered. No, the soldiers who committed the abuse are not representative of Americans in Iraq, but the torture itself is representative of the perversion of American ideals and collapse of […]
Posted inDepartments
Step Back
How long is the United States going to be in Iraq? And in whose hands and what shape are we going to leave it? Recent events ought to force us all to re-examine these questions no matter whether we opposed or supported the original invasion. As this magazine goes to press (April 12), U.S. forces […]
Posted inBooks, Arts and Culture
Reclaiming the Air
This spring, if all goes according to plan, a new radio network with programs modeled after Saturday Night Live and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart will make its debut. The viewpoint of the venture is the big news. Air America Radio, as it’s now being called, promises to be the first commercial network with […]
Posted inColumns
Judicial Overreach
(February 10, 2004) It’s not clear who should have been celebrating when the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in early February that the state has to provide gay couples the right to marry and nothing less. The decision barred the Massachusetts legislature from adopting a law authorizing “civil unions” in which “spouses” would have “all […]
Posted inArticle
Afterword: Troubled Amendments
This article is a February 17 update of Paul Starr’s earlier column ‘Judicial Overreach’. Even if Massachusetts legislators pass a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage when they reconvene on March 11, their initial failure to reach an agreement in February points to a more general impediment in the way of a constitutional amendment at the […]