Editor's Cut

On 9/11/09

By Katrina vanden Heuvel

Eight years after the tragedy of 9/11, I am reposting my introduction to "A Just Response," a collection of The Nation's writings on terrorism, democracy, 9/11 and its aftermath.

As we extricate ourselves from Iraq, and escalate in Afghanistan, it is time to think hard about lessons learned -- and not learned. Why do we have a bloated war budget which could be redeployed, wisely, to fund the rebuilding of our economy and society? Why do we continue to use conventional -- and now counterinsurgency -- warfighting when the lessons of history tell us terrorism is a tactic best combated through common-sense counterterrorism measures, including policing, intelligence, and tough diplomacy. How is is that after some extraordinary media reporting, and brilliant work by CCR and the ACLU, we still debate terrorism's "efficacy"? How do we reclaim our moral compass after years of militarization and degraded discourse? How do too many in our political class justify spending trillions on war, yet balk at spending $900 billion, over ten years, on reforming a dysfunctional healthcare system?

These, and other questions, have and will inform The Nation's reporting, analysis and work. After all, as our esteemed editorial board member Eric Foner writes below, "In times of crisis, the most patriotic act of all is the unyielding defense of civil liberties, the right to dissent."

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September 10, 2009

Obama Must Reclaim the Debate

By Katrina vanden Heuvel

Barack Obama's genius was to run a campaign that understood how much Americans wanted change. On Wednesday evening when he speaks to a joint session of Congress President Obama will need to reclaim that genius. And he will need to reclaim the debate from those who would deny the urgency of real healthcare reform for the millions insured, underinsured and uninsured.

Obama will be most persuasive if he speaks with passion about his principles and priorities--and draws some lines in the sand. A key line is support of a strong public option--not as a liberal litmus test but as a critical part of expanding coverage, reining in costs and disciplining rapacious insurance companies. He must explain in clear and simple language that the alternative--a "trigger"--is a trap to kill healthcare reform; and that even if "trigger" conditions are met years from now, big insurance companies will start the fight all over again to stop the public option from going into effect. And by any reasonable measure conditions for triggering a public plan have already been met because insurance companies have failed to rein in costs and expand coverage! As for those ballyhooed nonprofit coops, Obama should explain why they won't have any real bargaining leverage to get lower prices because they'll be too small. Define the public plan for what it is: pragmatic, principled and all-American in how it privileges choice and competition.

Obama must invoke history. He should place himself squarely in the tradition of those reform presidents--Roosevelt, Truman, Johnson--who labored hard for universal healthcare. Remind people that the Democrats are the party which brought them the two most popular domestic government programs--social security and Medicare--which have improved the condition of their lives in the 20th century. Tell people: "We brought you Medicare. They opposed it. Now we're trying to fix the healthcare system. And--sound familiar? Once again, they are opposing it."

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September 8, 2009

Around The Nation

By Katrina vanden Heuvel

With President Obama set to address a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, the debate is raging over the healthcare endgame: Can President Obama regain momentum? Will he hang on to the public option as a critical part of healthcare reform, or throw the public plan under the bus? If he does, how should progressives react? I'll be discussing the President's final push this Sunday, as part of ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos. (10 AM in most markets but check local listings) I'll be joined on the roundtable by Matthew Dowd, David Sanger and George Will, so you can expect some discussion of Afghanistan as well. Will came out this week with a call for the US to leave Afghanistan, putting the conservative Will on the same page as The Nation.

We'll have full coverage of the President's speech at TheNation.com next week, and I'll be previewing it on two MSNBC shows on Wednesday: Morning Joe early; The Ed Show at 6PM, followed by a discussion at 1:30PM on Thursday with Air America's Jack Rice about how the president did and what comes next.

What do you think President Obama should say? Take our poll.

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September 4, 2009

Big Bucks for Bailout Barons

By Katrina vanden Heuvel

One year after the global banking system collapsed the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) 16th Annual Executive Excess report -- "America's Bailout Barons" -- shows that the perverse system of executive compensation which contributed to the financial meltdown is still thriving for top bailout recipients.

President Obama had it right in April when he delivered his "economic Sermon on the Mount " and said, "We cannot rebuild this economy on the same pile of sand. We must build our house upon a rock." And, as the IPS report notes, even earlier in the year Obama spoke out against excessive executive compensation, saying, "In order to restore our financial system, we've got to restore trust. And in order to restore trust, we've got to make certain that taxpayer funds are not subsidizing excessive compensation packages on Wall Street."

But the fact is we haven't learned -- or haven't acted on -- the lessons we must heed if we're going to build a more just, sustainable economy that works for the real economy rather than Wall Street. The IPS report focuses on the twenty banks that have received the most bailout money from the federal government and shows that the banks and bankers are still acting and being rewarded as if they are Masters of the universe -- abetted by a government that is failing to take on the status quo.

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September 2, 2009

Feingold Gets Afghanistan Right

By Katrina vanden Heuvel

Senator Russ Feingold was way ahead of the Senate curve in insisting on a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq, and last week he got it right again in calling for a flexible timetable to bring US troops out of Afghanistan.

In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Feingold writes that "we must recognize that our troop presence contributes to resentment in some quarters and hinders our ability to achieve our broader national security goals." He voices particular concern about the war destabilizing Pakistan--"a witch's brew of threats to our national security that we cannot afford to further destabilize." He also points out that this "nation-building experiment...may distract us from combating al Qaeda and its affiliates, not just in Pakistan, but in Yemen, the Horn of Africa and other terrorist sanctuaries."

Feingold lays out a compelling case for an alternative course--"a civilian-led strategy discouraging any support for the Taliban by Pakistani security forces, and offer[ing] assistance to improve Afghanistan's economy while fighting corruption in its government. This should be coupled with targeted military operations and a diplomatic strategy that incorporates all the countries in the region."

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August 31, 2009

Healthcare, History and Kennedy

By Katrina vanden Heuvel

I was writing this column when I heard of Senator Kennedy's death.

I am heartbroken.

For more than five decades, my father William vanden Heuvel was a close friend and political ally of Kennedy's. When I called him this morning he had been weeping. He'd just seen the footage on CNN of Kennedy's extraordinarily emotional visit to Ireland, one year after his brother John's assassination. My father traveled with Kennedy on that trip, as he would on many others in the years to follow. He also shared memories of sailing trips on the coast of Maine, and the good times, and tough times, and the campaigns waged and won.

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August 26, 2009

Around The Nation

By Katrina vanden Heuvel

The accusations keep flying so fast and furious about Blackwater that it's almost--almost--hard to be surprised by anything. The news the the CIA under President Bush was contracting out political assassinations in Afghanistan to a politically connected, dangerous private mercenary army is stunning, but it's hardly surprising. On MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann last night, The Nation's Jeremy Scahill explained the latest bombshell:

Is there any question that the US State Department, once and for all, needs to sever ties with Blackwater?

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August 21, 2009

What's Delay's Dance?

By Katrina vanden Heuvel

By 9 am on this hot and furious August, I had read everything about the pros & cons of the public option and the outcome of the Afghan elections. I'd even marked passages in relevant articles with my husband's favorite red Flair pen. (I read HARD copies.)

But then I got to the red meat. Gail Collins of the New York Times (and if I had any real blogging dexterity, I'd be linking to her column of 8/20) and I seemed to be obsessed with the same thing--Tom Delay's entrance into the world of reality show competitive dancing.

Ever since I learned, a few days ago, that DeLay was going to be a contestant on "Dancing with the Stars"--my daughter's favorite reality show (and that's a feat)--I've been wondering 1/ how do I get on? and 2/ what will this disgraced politician's favorite dance be? Well, I have no clue to #1 (hey, producers, I am in top shape after spin and core fusion classes) # 2 and I have a lot of ideas about DeLay's fave dance, thanks to palling around with my Twitter friends.

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August 20, 2009

Around The Nation

By Katrina vanden Heuvel

August used to be a slow month in politics. Instead we've seen simmering anger over healthcare, fiery debates over the future of the Democratic party, and breakthroughs in two major Nation investigations. Here are five items of note this week:

•Melissa Harris-Lacewell has been following the disturbing racial undercurrents to the healthcare town halls. Her segment from Tuesday's Rachel Maddow Show is a must-see:

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August 16, 2009

Let's Get Real about Obama

By Katrina vanden Heuvel

It's been a rough and tough few months. And this August is making a bid to replace the Ides of (is it?) March as the meanest month in our calendar. From a slew of intense late night and early morning calls, I know that many progressives are wondering: Who did we vote for? (And I won't pose the David Axelrod question: Are you Muhammad Ali or Sonny Liston? Though I confess I think it's one worth asking right now.)

Now, no one on the left with any savvy or knowledge of history believed we wouldn't live -- and learn -- through disappointment. Isn't that what politicians are for? And anyone who believed Obama was going to remain an idealistic community organizer, well -- I got a bridge to sell you.

Still, questions remain: Couldn't he have picked a cabinet filled with that real team of rivals? Why not include a Joseph Stiglitz along with a Larry Summers and let the sparks fly? It might have led to a kind of creative de/construction. Where is the organizing out of the White House -- committed to overtaking those who would undermine its message and policies? And couldn't Obama, like FDR, have used this moment of crisis, admittedly not as severe as 1933, but still as severe as many living have experienced, to restructure --not simply resuscitate --the smug financial sector? Couldn't he have used his pulpit and brilliant speaking skills to explain that what we need to fear is joblessness -- not deficits? Or as one of the great historians of the New Deal, David Kennedy, argued, Obama "will be judged not simply on whether he manages a rescue from the current economic crisis but also on whether he grasps the opportunity to make us more resilient to face those future crises that inevitably await us."

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August 13, 2009