Run left, govern right: the fraudulence of the Bush presidency
Robert Kuttner
Robert Kuttner is co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect, and professor at Brandeis University’s Heller School. His latest book is Notes for Next Time: Surviving Tyranny, Redeeming America. Follow Bob at his site, robertkuttner.com, and on Twitter.
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Got Plastic?
Americans are a liberty-loving people. Our earliest national motto was Don’t Tread on Me. Even after a sickening terrorist attack, we resist national identity cards. Yet we face an ever escalating assault on our privacy and liberty by both Big Brother and big business. And some of our most libertarian instincts turn our to be […]
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Comment: The Do-Something Senate
There may be some life in the Democrats yet, especially in the Senate. They killed drilling in Alaska. They blocked a wretched judicial nomination. They sidetracked President Bush’s outrageous effort to make the tax cut permanent, which would yield endless deficits and spell curtains for decent public services. And the sky didn’t fall. They even […]
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No Al-ibi:
Al Gore is back. At the Democratic state convention in Florida, Gore, newly shaven, declared that he was at last speaking out against George W. Bush because “I’ve had it.” At Vanderbilt University on Earth Day, Gore flayed Bush’s environmental record. But Gore may find that a lot of voters have had it — with […]
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Air Fair?
Here’s the latest twist from the annals of airline deregulation. Guess who gets the biggest bargain air fares? Not folks who plan way ahead and risk penalties or Internet bargain hunters willing to fly to Lauderdale by way of Laramie. No, the big bargains go to corporate travelers and government bureaucrats. And the rest of […]
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Comment: A Tipping Point?
Malcolm Gladwell has observed, in The Tipping Point, that trends sometimes build gradually but explode suddenly. As an editor of a liberal magazine, I wonder whether we are nearly at that point with the ascendance of conservatism. For more than two decades conservative media organs, think tanks, foundations, political donors, and politically engaged corporations have […]
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Where’s the Outrage?
The more we learn about Enron, the more it becomes an indictment both of our financial system and its toothless watchdogs. The real outrage is that Enron isn’t more of a scandal. In a new lawsuit filed recently by Enron shareholders, some of the country’s top banks and investment banking houses are accused of conspiring […]
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Social’s Security:
Pity the people who want to replace social security with private investment accounts. Their timing could hardly be worse. The stock market is flat, and many economists believe it will be fairly flat for a long time to come. A lot of people who were looking forward to comfortable retirements on inflated 401(k) plans have […]
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Wed Lock:
When the welfare reform program of 1996 comes up for renewal later this year, it will have a new emphasis — wedding bells. The Bush administration wants to spend $300 million of scarce welfare funds to encourage marriage and another $135 million promoting premarital chastity. Several governors have already jumped the (shot)gun with state programs […]
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Loyal Opposition:
In the 1990s, citizens sent Washington a message by giving one party the Congress and the other the presidency — intensified checks and balances two centuries after the founders thought of the idea. The voters didn’t quite trust either party to govern without the restraint of the other. This decade could be a variation on […]
