View image | gettyimages.com Democrats unveiled their latest proposal to increase the minimum wage yesterday, and it shows not just how quickly the party’s consensus has moved on this issue, but what activists can accomplish by changing the terms of debate. We don’t know exactly when a bill to raise the minimum wage will pass […]
Paul Waldman
Paul Waldman is a weekly columnist and senior writer for The American Prospect. He also writes for the Plum Line blog at The Washington Post and The Week and is the author of Being Right Is Not Enough: What Progressives Must Learn From Conservative Success.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Photo of the Day, Socialism On the March Edition
View image | gettyimages.com Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, speaking to the press after announcing his candidacy for president. Here’s something I wrote about him earlier today.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Indulging the Lunatics on the Right
View image | gettyimages.com Ask a Republican about the elaborate conspiracy theories that are so popular with many on the far right, and she’s likely to respond that, sure, those people are there, but liberals have their wackos, too. But there is a difference, in not just how far to the center of Republican power […]
Posted inLaw and Justice
The Baltimore Police Department’s Extraordinary Explanation for Why Freddie Gray Is Dead
View image | gettyimages.com I can only imagine the kind of siege mentality that prevails within the Baltimore Police Department right now. Not only are the city’s residents protesting daily (and on one night those protests turned violent), but reporters from around the country are now examining the force’s less-than-stellar record when it comes to […]
Posted inPaul Waldman
Photo of the Day, Ridiculous Overreaction Edition
View image | gettyimages.com That’s Chris Davis of the Baltimore Orioles, hitting a home run in today’s game against the Chicago White Sox before an empty Camden Yards. The game was held as scheduled, but fans were barred from watching it because of fears that rioters would storm the stadium and massacre everyone inside, or […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Sheldon Adelson Will Not Be Ignored
View image | gettyimages.com Sheldon Adelson has never struck me as a brilliant guy, but I admit I don’t have much to go on in making that judgment. Maybe it’s the spectacularly ridiculous dyed-red combover that makes him seem like such a comical figure, but who knows. What we do know is that all-or almost […]
Posted inBooks, Arts and Culture
Why Do We Worry So Much About Cable News When Its Audience Is So Small?
View image | gettyimages.com The Pew Research Center’s latest State of the News Media report is out, and as usual it has all kinds of interesting data about things like the slow-motion demise of the newspaper industry (an exaggeration, but only slightly) and the diminished state of network news. But for the moment I want […]
Posted inPaul Waldman
Photo of the Day, Preparing for the Night Edition
View image | gettyimages.com Baltimore police preparing for more protests in the wake of Freddie Gray’s death.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Finding Meaning In Campaign Coverage
View image | gettyimages.com I have a confession to make: When the presidential campaign begins, I not only feel some excitement, as you might expect from someone interested enough in politics to write about it every day, but I also get a feeling you might call relief. For the following 18 months, I know that […]
Posted inCivil Rights in America
Photo of the Day, Mourning in Baltimore Edition
View image | gettyimages.com The casket with the body of Freddie Gray is taken from a hearse at New Shiloh Baptist Church prior to the start of his funeral service, April 27, 2015 in Baltimore, Maryland. Gray, 25, was arrested for possessing a switch blade knife April 12 outside the Gilmor Homes housing project on […]
