Nation Topics - Barack Obama | The Nation

From Cuba to climate change to criminal justice, progressives must push the president to act—and forge a better future.

Nation readers provided good ideas—and a bit of wariness—when asked how Obamas should use his presidential authority.

In his second inaugural address, the president stood for collective action, solidarity, social justice. Now let’s make him act on it.

President Obama’s symbolic recognition of minorities isn’t a substitute for policy, but it does matter.

Cases like that of Weldon Angelos, who was given a fifty-five-year sentence for selling marijuana, cry out for mercy. But calls for clemency have fallen on deaf ears.

Twenty twelve was the hottest year on record—and far past time for the president to lead on climate change.

Here are just a few things the Foreign Relations Committee should be asking Obama’s nominee for secretary of state.

What remains of the initial Obama drive to reach out to Iran with an “engagement that is honed and grounded in mutual respect”?

How did a community organizer and a constitutional law professor become an extrajudicial, drone-happy president? 

As the infrastructure of many U.S. cities crumbles, the Pentagon continues to pump over a billion dollars into military bases throughout the Middle East.