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Vol. 21 No. 3March 2010
Columns
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Last Chance for Health Reform
Neither the progressive nor the anti-abortion House Democrats are making any sense in threatening to kill the Senate bill. -
Citizens Restarted
The Citizens United ruling may bring a new day in the effort to separate economic inequality from democracy. -
Whose Food Politics
The chasm between foodies and those relying on food stamps doesn't have to be so wide. -
Radical Realism
Ellen Willis' cultural libertarianism allowed her to navigate the feminist sex wars of the 1980s with a grace and good sense that still stands up.
Culture
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No Need to Sacrifice
American foreign policy has never been independent of politics, but in recent years, politics has come first. -
The Great School Delusion
An education reformer discovers that tests, standards, and other silver bullets are no substitute for hard teaching. -
The Curated Web
Tumblr, a relatively new blogging platform, just might be the future of the social Internet. -
Let's Be Rational About Sex
Opponents of gay rights have long relied on disgust to justify discrimination. Recent legal gains suggest this argument is losing its potency. -
Discovering Tocqueville
Tocqueville didn't get everything right about Americans, but understanding him as a real, flawed observer makes his achievement more impressive.
Departments
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Television Personalities
Meet the man who makes sure bloggers are ready for their close-up. -
Noted
Responses to Dayo Olopade's "Eric Holder's War," Paul Starr's "Underrating Reform," and a note from Prospect executive editor Mark Schmitt. -
Up Front
Larry King cracks the underwear bomber and The Question. -
The Fake Weed Fight
TAP talks to a former police chief who thinks drugs should be legal about new efforts to ban a pot substitute.
Features
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Daddy Issues
Obama is putting action behind years of talk about fatherhood and poverty. -
The Art of the Possible
Eight policy -- and political -- wins that are achievable for Obama right now. -
A New Southern Strategy
In South Carolina, an Obama campaign veteran puts his organizing strategies to work in government. -
The Recruits
Al-Qaeda knows how to appeal to young Western Muslims, but the United States still has a lot to learn. -
The Part-Time Bind
Mothers who need flexible work-from-home opportunities make easy prey for online marketing scams. -
Unintended Precedents
A Supreme Court ruling in a terrorism case is making it harder for many other important lawsuits to proceed. -
A Path to Peace
It's time to take America's Middle East policy off autopilot and change our approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
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Vol. 21 No. 2February 2010
Columns
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Swagger Like Us
Should women amplify their aggression to mimic successful men? Or should they play up what supposedly makes them different? -
Fiscal Folly
We need more deficit spending on public investment and jobs now, then deficit reduction once recovery comes. -
What Happened to Democracy?
Nobody seems to be talking about the reforms needed to clean up democracy. -
Fantasy-League Politics
The recurring dream of an independent candidate or party protects the status quo.
Culture
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Democracy's Faith-Based Troubles
Religion and rationality have been clashing for centuries. Is it possible to talk about this conflict without going nuts? -
American Taliban
The marriage between religious fundamentalism and market conservatism is as strong as ever. -
This Is How You'll Get There
Cars, roads, and parking could be transformed completely. The technology is there, but is society ready? -
Literature from the Underground
Does a new anthology devoted to a hip-hop classic elevate the genre to its rightful place as a literary form?
Departments
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The Bicycle Grief
In the quest for bike-friendly cities, are snobby cyclists their own worst enemies? -
Noted
Responses to Gabriel Arana's "Gay on Trial," Ann Friedman's "The Company We Keep," and a message from Prospect executive editor Mark Schmitt. -
Up Front
McCain on the stump; OMG, it's Peter Orszag; and The Question. -
The Chastity Ring-Around
The college abstinence-only movement sells itself as empowering and pro-woman. Too bad the usual rejection of marriage equality and reproductive rights still applies.
Special Report
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Reform Amid Fiscal Ruin
In some states, progressive leadership and grass-roots activism have turned crisis into opportunity for long-deferred tax reform. -
Buckeye Budget Blues
Ohio has all the reform elements in place -- except political will. -
Public Capacity and Public Trust
Can we reverse the vicious circle of frustrated citizens denying state government adequate resources -- and then resenting the lack of state services? -
Loosening Fiscal Straitjackets
Proponents say that caps on taxing and spending enhance democracy. In reality, they destroy accountable government -- but that can be changed. -
Digging Out, Planning Ahead
The federal government needs to do more to help states survive this downturn -- and plan for permanent anti-recession fiscal relief. -
California in Crisis
With a dysfunctional state government unable to act, the universities, schools, and roads that were once the model for the nation are crumbling -- if not collapsing. -
State Fiscal Gimmicks: A Budgetary Balancing Act
Phony budget accounting defers the day of reckoning -- but raises costs. -
A Tour of Six States
Snapshots of the fiscal crisis across the nation. -
Transparency For What?
The left, right, and center agree that they want more state budget data. But not all data improves policy.
Features
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Underrating Reform
Even with its compromises, health reform is the most ambitious effort in decades to reorganize a big part of life around principles of justice and efficiency. -
The Ultimate Test Case
Obama has said he wants to change our very mind-set about foreign policy. Afghanistan is where he must prove it. -
Germany's Economic Engine
For years, economists said Germany was doing everything wrong. But today it's thriving, even in the wake of the global financial crisis. -
Eric Holder's War
How the attorney general's relationship to his president, his adopted city, and his race are shaping the Justice Department.
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Vol. 21 No. 1December 2009
Columns
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Human Wrongs
With A Problem from Hell, Samantha Power changed the way we talk about liberalism and human rights. -
Listening to Afghanistan
The U.S. intervention has never been and won't become a force for humanitarianism. -
Obama Year One
Obama was right to take on a wide range of tough problems, and no one should be shocked at the obstacles in his path. -
Machinery of Progress
It's not just about the president. His successes and failures are tests of the progressive infrastructure.
Culture
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A Museum of One's Own
Can writers' former homes become tourist destinations? The odds are long and the payoff is low. -
Not Everything Has Changed
The women's movement may have changed everything for the American public, but in the home, the revolution has hardly begun. -
A Teachable Collapse
When it comes to understanding Wall Street, we need both narratives that show how it failed and analysis that makes clear there were alternatives.
Departments
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Up Front
2010 headline predictions; The worst tea party ever; Obama's secret reset button; and The Question. -
The Health-Care Ultimatum
Some progressives have called health-care reform without a public option worthless. Here's why they're wrong. -
New Year's Resolutions for Improving Political Dialogue
We've become a nation of screamers, not thinkers. Here's how to bring thoughtfulness back in 2010. -
I Love You, Man
Dueling "ex-gay" and gay-rights conferences have more in common than the attendees would like to believe. -
Noted
Responses to Gabriel Arana's "Gay on Trial," Ann Friedman's "The Company We Keep," and a message from Prospect executive editor Mark Schmitt.
Special Report
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The Great Industrial Wall of China
Beijing's mercantilism challenges America's market ideology and industrial future. -
Industrial Policy: The Road Not Taken
In the 1970s, Wall Street and its economists defeated manufacturing. -
Losing Our Future
If we don't develop a national industrial policy for clean-energy production, the strategies of other nations will displace American companies and jobs. -
FDR Had It Right
If the economy is going to come back, we need to buy -- and make -- American. -
Playing Ourselves for Fools
The trading system America sold the world is killing U.S. industry. Here's a better way. -
The Plight of American Manufacturing
Since 2001, the U.S. has lost 42,400 factories -- and its technical edge. -
The Politics of Industrial Renaissance
Business and government may waver, but the American people want more manufacturing.
Features
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On the Books
Could microloans help America's informal entrepreneurs become business owners -- and rescue urban economies in the process? -
The Ruse of the Creative Class
Cities that shelled out big bucks to learn Richard Florida's prescription for vibrant urbanism are now hearing they may be beyond help. -
The Work Around
How some supervisors of low-wage workers break the rules to make an unfair system a little bit fairer. -
Gentrification Hangover
Can a new era of affordable housing be created from the wreckage of failed luxury real estate?
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Vol. 20 No. 10November 2009
Columns
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The Company We Keep
If each liberal "special interest" group is actually just in it alone, what's the point of a common ideology? -
Faster, Please
Democrats in Congress should focus on enacting job measures and health reforms that show voters immediate progress. -
Changing the Tone
Most citizens want to be heard, but we can't let an angry minority speak for them. -
The 1960s, Refracted
While published decades ago, the works of writers like Stanley Crouch and Lisa Jones are still ferociously in the present.
Culture
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Hard Times Revisited
Two new books show how the gap between the rich and the poor shaped the culture of the 1930s. -
Hope Against History
Early conflicts over colonialism and genocide explain many of the United Nations' modern-day failures. -
Read Local
Small book publishers are looking to communities of loyal readers to support them.
Departments
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Debating the Public Option
The three founders of the Prospect discuss the perils and promise of a public-insurance option. -
Noted
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Lunchtime Lessons from New Orleans
As the Gulf Coast struggles to redevelop, its children build a thriving food-justice movement. Nutrition advocates in Washington would be wise to pay attention. -
Up Front
The circular logic of cap-and-trade; Amtrak's gun check; and The Question. -
The Mammogram Mess
Last week, new guidelines for breast cancer screening inspired a panic. Will we ever be able to discuss effective health care reasonably? -
The Persecution Complex of Sarah Palin
We all define ourselves by our enemies -- but it can be taken too far. -
Push Comes to .GOV
How federal agencies learned to stop worrying and love Web 2.0.
Features
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Is Democracy a Dirty Word?
Obama is distancing himself from Bush's pro-democracy agenda. Activists are worried about the consequences. -
Fed Up With Federalism
Why isn't the stimulus working? States are sucking up funding faster than the federal government is pumping it in. -
Wall Street Meets Its Match
If Congress ends up with effective financial regulation, Sen. Maria Cantwell will deserve a lot of the credit. -
Don't Blame the Billionaires
It's time for liberals to worry less about inequality. -
Gay on Trial
After state-level defeats, lawyers are taking the case for gay rights to federal court. -
One More Bubble to Go
We've relied on a robust dollar to see us through the crisis, but that cushion is about to disappear. -
Beyond Bars
The "tough on crime" era is coming to an end, leaving bloated prisons and blighted neighborhoods in its wake. But what's next? A parole agent uses a flashlight to inspect a GPS locater worn on the ankle of a parolee.(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
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Vol. 20 No. 9October 2009
Columns
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Title IX Dad
Title IX, with all its limits, was a nudge that set off a chain of social transformations. -
Lessons Overlearned
Affordable health care is important, but right now making a living is more urgent. -
The Polanski Paradox
The epidemic of violence against women is a public scourge, but respecting survivors' wishes must be paramount. -
Harry, Louise, and Barack
Instead of being a big winner politically for Obama, industry-dictated health reform will be a political wash, at best.
Culture
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Beyond No-Fault Finance
Restoring stability and fairness requires thinking about the whole economy, not just Wall Street. -
Will the Color Line Fade?
Racial distinctions may be blurring due to demographics and mobility, but discrimination and racism remain. -
Girls Just Wanna Have Fangs
A defense of the teen-girl fan base that has made the Twilight books and movies so wildly successful. -
He Kept the Flame
As his memoir reveals, the true Ted Kennedy emerged as he fought to keep the country from moving rightward.
Departments
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All These Governors
Do the gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey say anything about the Democratic Party's future? -
Noted
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The Canadian Way of War
Can we learn to fight from our staid northern neighbors? -
Up Front
Telling term papers revealed; The North American Nut Tree in Fall; and The Question -
Can Human Rights Win the War?
Top U.S. military officials are starting to sound like human-rights advocates when it comes to detention policy in Afghanistan. -
Can Reason Win the Drug War?
Stoner jokes aside, the debate over America's drug policy is sounding increasingly sane.
Special Report
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Ideas From the Other Washington
Policy reforms to increase student success. -
Grand Solution or Grab Bag?
Community colleges are being asked to provide everything from second chances to vocational education. Is America ready to help them succeed? -
Saying Yes in Syracuse
A battered industrial city is leading the way in preparing all schoolchildren to succeed in college. -
Rationing College Opportunity
Many more young people could succeed at college if given the chance. But public policy has been raising hurdles rather than increasing access. -
The Graduation Gap
America needs to do a much better job of increasing its college enrollment and graduation rates, especially for less advantaged students. -
Our Two-Class System
The recession has worsened already widening inequalities of access and affordability in higher education. Could it also trigger a new grand bargain? -
It's Not Just Education
If we want more economic opportunity and equality, a better-skilled work force is only one element among many. -
The High Cost of Working Hard
Why students need to work less and study more. -
Can Community Colleges Rise to the Occasion?
Yes -- with fundamental internal reforms and a new vision of their role in higher education.
Features
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Constant Comment
How Kathleen Parker became America's most-read woman columnist. -
The Obstacles to Real Health-Care Reform
How a series of roadblocks and compromises shaped the health-care debate -- and why the battle doesn't end when Obama signs a bill. -
The Myth of Too Big to Fail
Breaking up sprawling institutions won't be enough to clean up our financial mess. -
The Innovation Administration
The White House assumes that newer ideas are always better, but that's not necessarily the case. -
Twilight of the Op-Ed Columnist
Are syndicated opinion writers a dying breed? -
Let's Make a Deal
A look at the lobbying groups that shelled out the big bucks to influence health-care reform.
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