For liberals, it’s the lost crusade. For conservatives, it’s the emblematic case of overweening big government. Perhaps more clearly than in any other issue, federal action to achieve universal health coverage brings out ideological and partisan differences in America. In the early 1990s, health care became a defining conflict for the nation, and so it […]
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 inArticle
Vulnerable Washington
In Washington, it could have been much worse. As a military strike, while the terrorists’ attack succeeded in New York, it failed in the capital — but for reasons that we cannot depend upon to protect us in the future. The bravery of a few passengers on the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania prevented it […]
Posted inFeatures
The War We Should Fight
Let there be no doubt that America is justified in going to war against what President Bush describes as terrorism of “global reach.” After September 11, we have to assume that any group willing to kill thousands of people in the World Trade Center’s twin towers would be willing to use weapons of mass destruction. […]
Posted inAmerica and the World
Postcript to The Choice In Kosovo
When I wrote “The Choice In Kosovo” in early May, the failure of the United States and NATO to make a credible threat of a ground invasion seemed likely to result in a diplomatic settlement that fell far short of the legitimate aims of the war. A month later, these concerns have only partially been […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
An Emerging Democratic Majority
The 1994 election devastated the self-confidence of the Democratic Party, and 1996 only partially restored it. After narrowly escaping the “Republican revolution,” many Democrats have lowered their expectations and become resigned to the prospect of center-right government. And now President Clinton’s budget and tax deal with the Republicans in Congress has left his own party without […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Who Owns the Future?
They claim to be riding a wave of historical change. The wave is global in its reach and unstoppable in its force. Those who get in the way are representatives of an old, obsolete order; they may put up a fight, but they will be beaten in the inevitable transformation. So Newt Gingrich and other […]
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
What Happened to Health Care Reform?
Republicans killed it. The White House strategy misfired. Reformers couldn’t unite. The center failed. And the moment was lost.
Posted inBooks, Arts and Culture
The Disengaged
David Hackett Fischer’s new book, Paul Revere’s Ride, is a cautionary tale for Democrats who expect their heroes to produce results overnight. The story of Paul Revere has come down to us as a tale of individual daring. In our national memory, he rides through the night single-handedly spreading the alarm about the redcoats to […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
The Undertow
As the 1990s began, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. argued that America was due for a new era of affirmative government in keeping with the cycle of liberal and conservative periods that runs through our history. Uncannily, Bill Clinton’s election came right on schedule, roughly 90 years after Theodore Roosevelt became president, 60 years after Franklin Roosevelt, […]
Posted inEnergy and the Environment
Seductions of Sim: Policy as a Simulation Game
For those who always thought public policy was a game anyone could play, it finally is. But beware of what the game assumes.