The president must begin reaching out to Congress to build support on key social issues right away.
Columns
Our Capitalist Government
Economic crises force government to find entirely new ways to fix problems. These improvisations then live on as tools of policy.
The Competence Dodge
Liberals should not allow themselves to believe that the experience and competence of Obama’s economic team are substitutes for true progressivism.
Blaming History
Milan Kundera’s The Joke and the need for comic relief in political discourse.
Don’t Call it a Culture War
We will continue to lose battles like Prop. 8 until we can successfully relabel LGBT rights a civil-rights issue, rather than an issue mired in the culture-war swamp of moral controversy.
Mind the Map
Obama’s success proves that there’s no turning back from the reality that states, their governors, legislators, and parties will play a central role in our country’s political future.
The Realignment Opportunity
Conservatives say that America remains a center-right country and Obama won only because of special circumstances, while some liberals claim that the election marks a historic realignment. Neither is the right way to read the returns.
The Hardest Lesson
As the banking system collapses, politicians and journalists are ignoring one of the main causes of the crisis: massive inequality.
Battle of the Narratives
The final days of the 2008 campaign can be understood as a battle of narratives about the economy — and Republicans are having trouble figuring out just what theirs is.

