Editor's Cut

Fair Elections Now (Or a Donor Strike?)

By Katrina vanden Heuvel

At this perilous moment, as we face key battles on the economic crisis, climate change, healthcare, and a slew of other issues, it's important to recognize that these fights will not be settled in one fell swoop this year or next, but will play out over the coming decade or more. Working against bold, progressive solutions on all of these issues is a constant problem: big money donors hold sway, shifting the policy debate and shafting the common good. Only through real campaign reform will we level the playing field so that the voices of ordinary people are heard loud and clear inside the Beltway.

That's why it's so important that the Fair Elections Now Act has been introduced in both the House and Senate with bipartisan support, and that a savvy coalition is rallying public support for it, including: Change Congress, Public Campaign, Common Cause, Public Citizen, US PIRG, Brennan Center for Justice, Americans for Campaign Reform, MoveOn, and others.

Change Congress -- an organization launched by Lawrence Lessig and Joe Trippi to reduce the influence of money in politics -- has taken the lead on organizing an online strategy. Lessig said, "My view is it's finally time for us to do what Teddy Roosevelt suggested we do about 102 years ago, which is to bring about an election system where what's driving the results is fear about how voters in the district will respond, rather than fear about how the funders will respond."

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April 9, 2009

A Soldier’s Soul Screams ‘Get Out’

By Katrina vanden Heuvel

Last week, the Congressional Progressive Caucus held its second of six scheduled forums on Afghanistan. It was the first non-classified public forum on Capitol Hill to address the Obama Administration's newly released Afghanistan/Pakistan strategy. Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson (Ret.) -- a Vietnam Veteran and former chief of staff for Secretary Colin Powell -- offered some powerful words of caution.

"My soldier's soul screams at me to get out," Wilkerson said. "Part of that is some 38,000 names on a Wall that I do not fail to visit twice a year every year for the last 25 years….Counterinsurgency is not a very optimal experience. It rarely is won, it rarely results in what we might call a viable civility, prosperity and dignity. Look at Iraq right now… We never solved the problems in the Gulf."

He spoke out against the use of bombs and predator drone strikes. He said that killing "a few" Al Qaeda or Taliban targets "coupled with 20 to 25 civilian deaths" was only helping the enemy's recruiting efforts.

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April 6, 2009

Around The Nation

By Katrina vanden Heuvel

I'm just back from a whirlwind trip to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where I debated the editor of The National Review, Rich Lowry, about President Obama's policy agenda. It was a spirited conversation and I'm thankful to the Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies for the opportunity. We'll have audio and video of the event up later this month; in the meantime here is one (very generous) recap from a local blogger in Grand Rapids.

Before we head into another busy week I wanted to briefly note three things in our orbit you may have missed:

(1) In December, we published journalist A.C. Thompson's exposé about vigilante violence in New Orleans, which also raised serious questions about New Orleans Police Department conduct in the death of resident Henry Glover in the days following Hurricane Katrina. Last week the F.B.I. announced a full inquiry into the death of Glover. This news offers some hope that justice may prevail in the incidents exposed by Thompson; you can read an update here.

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April 5, 2009

No to War, No to NATO

By Katrina vanden Heuvel

With President Obama announcing his new strategy for US/NATO escalation in Afghanistan, the April 3-4 NATO Summit in Baden-Baden and Kehl, Germany, and in Strasbourg, France, takes on added urgency -- as will the demonstrations by thousands of protestors from over 20 European countries and the US.

Member states will attempt to use the summit as an occasion to celebrate the alliance's 60th anniversary, France's return to NATO, and perhaps offer a new "Strategic Concept" as an interventionist force around the world. Activists will articulate an alternative vision focused on securing global peace and confronting domestic challenges at home, including a call for the dissolution of NATO.

Beginning April 1, a diverse coalition of activists will participate in training camps, demonstrations, conferences, workshops, and non-violent blockades. At a moment when international cooperation on economic and human security interests is needed more than ever, the protestors view a US-led, expansionist NATO as destabilizing and dangerous. What was originally designed as a defense alliance against the Warsaw Pact has taken on a very different post-Cold War, global interventionist role.

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March 30, 2009

A Progressive Victory In New York

By Katrina vanden Heuvel

Governor David Paterson and the leaders of the Legislature have struck a deal to create two new tax brackets for those earning above $300,000 and $500,000. The new tax structure would raise an estimated $4 billion annually.

This is largely due to the work of State Senator Eric Schneiderman, the Working Families Party, and others who responded to the state's $15 billion budget deficit by asking the wealthy to pay their fair share and demanding an end to the injustice of people earning $20,000 per year paying the same tax rate as Bernie Madoff, Donald Trump and the hedge funders -- 6.85 percent. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was instrumental in making progressive tax reform part of the final budget negotiations.

Initially, Gov. Paterson proposed the same tired conservative economic policy that has dominated the past thirty years--$9 billion of harsh cuts in education, healthcare and social services, and $5 billion in new taxes that would hit the struggling poor and middle-class the hardest. No sacrifices for the wealthy. Although there are still cuts that will cause a lot of pain for working people and the poor, this budget will be vastly improved.

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March 30, 2009

William Polk on Afghanistan

By Katrina vanden Heuvel

With reports that the Obama Administration will unveil its Afghanistan strategy as early as Friday -- and one senior Senate staffer telling me that Obama's special envoy to Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, will hold a Senators-only briefing on Afghanistan/Pakistan today -- it was good timing that yesterday the Congressional Progressive Caucus kicked-off its six-part forum, Afghanistan: A Road Map for Progress.

In his opening remarks, Caucus Co-Chair Raul Grijalva described the significance of this forum: "We felt that it's very important for staff, community organizations, and Members of Congress to begin to have this vital discussion on Afghanistan and Western Pakistan and the policy direction in which we're moving… One of the best ways [to do this] is to listen and allow ourselves to get information from very learned individuals…."

One of the "learned individuals" on yesterday's panel -- which focused on a "Historic Perspective on Afghanistan, its People and their Cultures" -- was Dr. William Polk, a former history professor and State Department Middle East expert who served in the Kennedy Administration. Polk traced his personal involvement with Afghanistan back to 1962 when he took a 2000-mile jeep trip around the country. He was on assignment to speak with the provincial governors and tribal chiefs about a series of programs under the Eisenhower Administration that had nearly all resulted in "disastrous failure." Polk said during the trip he "fell in love with" the country.

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March 26, 2009

Obama Rallies Nation

By Katrina vanden Heuvel

No president can perform miracles.

In his second press conference, President Obama acted as the nation's chief counselor--as well as its commander in chief. He spoke of the virtues of patience. He cautioned that there are no silver bullets, quick fixes or easy ways out of this deepening recession. There will be bumps on the road. But he also spoke of recovery with a "renewed sense of common purpose, a renewed determination, and most importantly, a renewed confidence that a better day will come."

After a week of righteous anger about Wall Street greed and bonuses, President Obama confronted the challenge of putting budgets and bailouts into a human context for people. Did he sell the idea that helping banks is about helping people, as he'd told us in his first address to Congress last month? Not clearly enough. But the President did make the case for the importance of passing his budget which, even with its flaws, is an audacious plan to transform America. If passed, it will mark a new era of progressive governance.

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March 25, 2009

Awards Season

By Katrina vanden Heuvel

The Nation was honored this week with two National Magazine Award nominations. Columnist Naomi Klein was recognized for "Columns and Commentary" for her work in 2008. Our Contributing Writer William Deresiewicz was nominated for the second straight year for his reviews and criticism in the Books & the Arts section. Both Naomi and Bill represent the best of The Nation: provocative, courageous commentary; insightful, intelligent analysis; thoughtful and informed debate. They reflect what we try to do every week, in every issue. Congratulations to both of them and to their Editors; winners will be announced in late April. You can read their work below, and see who else was nominated in their categories here.

Columns and Commentary

Naomi Klein's three nominated works range in topic from the faltering economy to the 2008 election:

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March 24, 2009

Spitzer for Treasury?

By Katrina vanden Heuvel

Frank Rich is right. Firing Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner won't get us out of the economic disaster we're in. But at this time of righteous rage, deploying Geithner and Lawrence Summers as the administration's chief economic messengers displays an astonishing tone-deafness. These are men who, as Rich puts it, " are too marinated in the insiders' culture to police it, reform it or own up to their past complicity with it."

Or as The Nation's William Greider explains in Sunday's Washington Post, the anger roiling the nation could "devour his presidency." Yet Obama "does not seem to grasp that the tone-deaf technocrats are leading him into a dead-end."

Action, and action now, to restructure bank bailouts so they benefit taxpayers-- not preferred shareholders, and classes of creditors, ranging from foreign bondholders to the counterparties of exotic derivative contracts-- may be the only way to ensure passage of the administration's needed recovery and budget programs. That probably means some form of government receivership, supervision, short-term nationalization--call it what you will. The real danger is not nationalization but that Obama and his economic team continues to muddle through on the financial front. If they do, Obama's job-creation and public investment programs are at risk; they will be conflated in the public mind with deeply unpopular bank bailouts, bonuses and crony capitalist excesses.

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March 22, 2009

Ask the President

By Katrina vanden Heuvel

Of his many promises during the 2008 Presidential campaign, one of the most appealing was Barack Obama's pledge to make his administration "the most open and transparent in history." The democratizing tools mastered at MyBarackObama.com and the inspiring grassroots enthusiasm for the Obama campaign opened the door to a Presidency that--in stark contrast to the eight years before it--could be an honest conversation with the American people. This week we are launching a new project to continue that effort; more on that in a moment.

Like many of the issues that Barack Obama now confronts as President, prioritizing his campaign promise of open government and meaningful dialogue with citizens has proved challenging. After some interesting forays into interaction at change.gov during the transition, The White House itself has not yet found it's way forward on interactivity.

As newspapers struggle nationwide, and citizens demand more transparency in the wake of unprecedented government action on the economy, I believe this is a critical moment to advance participatory, bottom-up journalism and citizen engagement. Interest in our new President is at a peak, and instituting an independent and sensible way for the people to have a platform at the highest levels of government is essential to informed debate and progress on the changes many of us hope to see over the next four years.

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March 20, 2009