I would like to put in a kind word for Ralph Nader. To the extent that Al Gore has lately gained some traction by campaigning as a Trumanesque progressive, we have Nader substantially to thank. You don’t have to agree with all of Nader’s views, or even to think he is serious presidential timber, to […]
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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Ralph Nader: A Conversation
Robert Kuttner: I am sympathetic to much of your diagnosis of the dependence of both parties on corporations. But I am skeptical about what you can really accomplish tactically. Historically, what have American third parties accomplished in the past, and what do you hope to accomplish? Ralph Nader: Well, in the past, third parties have […]
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Comment: Dirty Windows
Every great political theorist from Aristotle to Madison to Martin Luther King, Jr., has understood the paradox that liberty requires rules and rules require governments. But Internet libertarians have assumed that the Net is a unique realm of benign, self-regulating anarchy. The problem with anarchy is less the inconvenience of chaos than the risk that […]
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Comment: O, Freedom
W hen father was a boy, freedom was much on the minds of college students. We marched for the civil rights of blacks and for the freedom of farm workers to join unions. Many of us resisted sacrificing our freedom to an unjust war. We asserted the freedom of women to transcend ancient, confining roles, […]
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Religious Right Hijacks Stem Cell Debate
I recently participated in a debate at the Harvard Medical School on the ethics of stem cell cloning. A co-panelist was Dr. Michael West, a Massachusetts biotech executive. His announcement a week earlier of a supposed breakthrough in human cloning nearly stampeded the Senate into banning cloning even for therapeutic purposes. There are indeed many […]
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Comment: Tax and Spend
President Bush insisted that we could afford botha tax cut and the shoring up of Social Security. He was dead wrong. So theDemocrats could hardly pick a better set of galvanizing issues. But as RobertBorosage points out in “The Austerity Trap” (see page 13), many Democrats aretaking surplus-worship to such an extreme that they are […]
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Rampant Bull
Are liberals failing to rise in defense of their greatest legacy? As calls for privatizing Social Security grow louder, the time has come for a bold new defense of universal social insurance.
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Comment: Different Strokes
Vice President Gore has unveiled a supplemental retirement plan. The government would match private savings put aside by working families, with a match as generous as three to one for families with incomes under $30,000. Families with incomes as high as $100,000 could qualify for a partial match. The plan works through refundable tax credits, […]
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Beware Bush Words On Benefits
Although his proposed tax cut has captured the headlines, President Bush’sbudget is also offering America a radically different path for its two best-lovedprograms, Social Security and Medicare. Until recently, these towering monuments ofsocial insurance were politically untouchable. Even President Reagan, who was at least honest about his conservative goals, did not dare messwith Social Security. […]
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Getting Over The Lock Box
For six decades, Democrats have been proud defenders of America’s most popular government program, Social Security. But the debate is now becoming so muddled that when the dust settles, Social Security may well end up partly privatizedwith George W. Bush getting credit for saving it. How could this have happened? Twenty years ago, it became […]
