The censorious centrists have been berating progressives for thinking too big. Medicare for All is impractical. Taxing the rich seems too socialistic. A drastically higher minimum wage might cost some jobs. Free higher education could help some affluent kids. A Green New Deal is over the top. Basically, an ideological preference is masquerading as tactical […]
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Big Business and Null Sets in American Politics
It’s not often that polls of American public opinion turn up positions that command roughly zero percent support. They don’t ask about collective farms any more, and have dropped the minuet from their surveys of popular dances. They do, however, ask questions about the preferred positions of big business, and it may be a sign […]
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Republicans Disgrace Themselves, Yet Again
You do have to wonder what it would take for Republican members of Congress to break with Trump. Republicans were clearly exasperated by Trump’s wall obsession, which cost them dearly politically. They were not prepared to appropriate more money for the wall, either during the two years when they controlled both houses of Congress, or […]
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AIPAC Welcomes Bibi. Bibi Welcomes Israel’s KKK
Among those determined to prove the questionable assertion that Zionism is racism, we now have to add Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Which raises the question of why some pro-Israeli American organizations—AIPAC, we’re looking at you—would want to marginalize Americans’ support for Israel by inviting Netanyahu to their conferences. (Bibi is scheduled to address AIPAC’s […]
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In case you missed it, Rep. Adam Schiff channels Pastor Niemöller
In the middle of a Washington Post opinion piece the other day, Rep. Schiff, who heads the House Intelligence Committee, wrote this: To my Republican colleagues: When the president attacked the independence of the Justice Department by intervening in a case in which he is implicated, you did not speak out. When he attacked the […]
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About that North Carolina Do-Over Election
As you have probably read or heard by now, the ballot fraud in North Carolina’s Ninth Congressional district was so brazen and so toxic that even the Republicans on the state election commission felt compelled to order a new election. Think about this for a moment. For years, Republicans have been justifying voter suppression measures […]
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The Two Emerging Types of Democratic Presidential Candidates
It’s still way early in the race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, with a mere ten major candidates having entered the race while another half-dozen are still making up their minds. But it’s not too early to divide the field into two categories: The Yes-We-Can Democrats and the No-We-Can’t Democrats. Leading the Yes-We-Cansters are […]
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Back to the Progressive Future
Elizabeth Warren keeps getting whacked by the right for proposing big, bold public programs. The latest is universal, high-quality child care. But take a close look, and you’ll see that Warren’s program is actually a bit more modest than the proposed Mondale-Brademas Comprehensive Child Development Act of 1971. That act was passed by both houses, […]
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Remind Me, Why Does Amazon Get to Own Everything?
Good for New York, especially for New York’s unions, for making it clear that the town was not for sale. But everything else seems to be. I admit that I patronize Whole Foods, now owned by Amazon. There’s one in my neighborhood, and if you shop carefully and also go to the supermarket, it needn’t […]
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Which Presidential Hopefuls Understand That It’s Progressive Breakthrough Time?
As Prospect readers have doubtless noticed, we seem to have entered a golden age of breakthrough progressive proposals. Democratic presidential candidates and members of Congress are advancing proposals for universal Medicare, wealth taxes and much more progressive income taxes, full employment, co-determination, more upper-bracket payroll taxes to fund more adequate Social Security payments, and a […]