Jesse Helms, American Bigot
Lisa Duggan : Racism & Discrimination
In death it's easy to dismiss Jesse Helms as a colorful buffoon or a relic of the bad old days of segregation and sexism, but that doesn't do his bigotry justice.
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Out of Place
Corey Robin
How conservatives have turned a sense of exclusion into a powerful philosophy of self-styled truancy.
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Who Are They Calling Elitist?
Eric Alterman : Progressives, Liberals, & The American Left
Why do conservatives continue to feel oppressed by the "liberal elite"?
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The Spitzer Sting
Alexander Cockburn : Sex & Sexuality
Was there a medium-sized right-wing conspiracy to nail Eliot Spitzer?
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Squire Willie
Robert Sherrill : Journalists & Journalism
Surveying the life and accomplishments of the "late" William F. Buckley Jr.
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Who Would Jesus Vote For?
Bob Moser : Religion
The new evangelicals are rejecting the religious right and embracing a broader social gospel.
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Hedges Vs. Hitchens
Chris Hedges & VideoNation : Religious Fundamentalism
The so-called "new atheists" may be as extreme as Christian fundamentalists, if not more.
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Conservative Cannibalism
Eric Alterman : Media Analysis
Dumb and dumber: reviewing new books by David Frum and Jonah Goldberg.
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Wanted: More White Babies
Kathryn Joyce & VideoNation : Feminism & Women
A look at a cynical Christian Conservative effort to export the U.S. culture wars.
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'Love Me, I'm a Liberal'
Eric Alterman : Media Analysis
Thanks to a cowed media, scaremongering is the only remaining area of conservative competence.
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The Huckabee Factor
Sarah Posner : Presidential Election 2008
With talk of a possible VP slot and a dedicated core of supporters, the former Arkansas governor's popularity shows the Christian right's not done yet.
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Return of the Swift Boaters
Christopher Hayes : Presidential Election 2008
As conservatives stare into an electoral abyss, the shadowy group that smeared John Kerry in 2004 has reorganized and stands poised to do its dirty work again.
2007
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A Hoax Exposed at Princeton
Max Blumenthal : Higher Education
When a strait-laced Princeton student claimed he was attacked by liberal thugs, the conservative establishment rallied around him--until it turned out to be a lie.
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Deal Breakers
Kim Phillips-Fein : Economic Policy
Two new books seek to galvanize progressives at a key political moment: Paul Krugman's The Conscience of a Liberal and Jonathan Chait's The Big Con.
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Judging Thomas
A close look at Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas reveals a deeply conservative and increasingly bitter man.
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Cracking the Code
Thom Hartmann : Progressives, Liberals, & The American Left
How can the left be as adept as the right-wing spin machine at communicating its political agenda? Learn how to use the tools.
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David Horowitz, Feminist?
Katha Pollitt : Feminism & Women
The oppression of Muslim women is a major theme among the Islamofascistly aware. If only they felt the same about other women on earth.
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Bobby Jindal: Not Much to Celebrate
Some herald the election of an Indian-American Republican governor as a milestone, but the poor and black citizens of Louisiana aren't among them.
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The Liberal Hawks' Lament
Eric Alterman : Media Analysis
Consider the plight of the embattled liberal hawks and their lonely struggle to discredit the left.
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A Values Voters Schism
Sarah Posner : Presidential Election 2008
The Christian right is embroiled in an internal culture war, pitting true believers against pragmatists looking for a candidate to satisfy the antitax and neoconservative wings of the GOP.
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The Coming 'Stab in the Back' Campaign
Eric Alterman : Journalists & Journalism
Bush and the neocons are trying to save their crumbling reputations by blaming critics of the war for the debacle.
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Fred Thompson, Neocon
David Corn : Presidential Election 2008
He has a strong claim on the neoconservative heart, and if he ends up in the White House, the moribund neocons will rise again.
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The Swift-boating of Mitt Romney
Max Blumenthal : Religious Fundamentalism
Christian conservatives play the porn card in an attempt to discredit Mitt Romney and advance the cause of Fred Thompson.
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Poison for Profit
David Goldstein : Globalization
We're sickened by tainted food because our government is unwilling to eat into the profits of the corporations our regulators serve.
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The Medicare Privatization Scam
Trudy Lieberman : Health Care Policy
Will an upcoming vote in Congress signal the end of Medicare?
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The Abstinence Gluttons
Michael Reynolds : Sex Education
Meet the religious conservatives at the faith-based feeding trough who are getting rich controlling sex education in America.
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Potemkin Paper?
Eric Alterman : Journalists & Journalism
The New York Sun's alleged success is a figment of its conservative owners' imaginations.
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Morality Gets a Massage
Randall Tobias isn't the first abstinence czar to run afoul of the moral agenda he promoted. It's time Congress stopped this dangerous crusade.
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The Scum Also Rises
How else to explain why arrogant incompetents like Paul Wolfowitz rose to power in the Bush Administration?
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Edwards Gets a Boost
Robert Scheer : Electoral Politics
Thank you, Ann Coulter, for reviving the principled but media-neglected presidential candidacy of John Edwards.
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CPAC: The Unauthorized Documentary
VideoNation's report from this year's Conservative Political Action Committee meeting in Washington reveals the ugly side of right-wing politics.
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McCain Mutiny
Max Blumenthal : Electoral Politics
Outraged by his failure to stick to a far-right agenda as he pursues the presidency, Senator John McCain's conservative base in Arizona is abandoning him.
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Ayatollah D'Souza
Katha Pollitt : Progressives, Liberals, & The American Left
Dinesh D'Souza revs up the Republican base with a book arguing that lifestyles of the decadent left triggered Muslim anger that led to 9/11.
2006
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Hooray for Right-Wing Hollywood
Max Blumenthal : Media Analysis
Right-wing culture warriors gathered in LA to praise ABC for its flawed 9/11 docudrama, talk up a conservative version of The Daily Show and release a thriller fueled by a nativist agenda.
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'Arrows for the War'
Kathryn Joyce : Religious Fundamentalism
The Christian "Quiverfull" movement measures a mother's spiritual resolve by the number of children she raises, each one an arrow in the quiver of God's army.
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Rick Santorum's Beastly Politics
Max Blumenthal : Electoral Politics
Dogged by a history of crude responses to abortion, euthanasia and gay marriage, Pennsylvania Republican Senator Rick Santorum is trailing his Democratic foe. But a cadre of influential Catholic conservatives are already crafting a post-Santorum, post-Bush strategy.
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Weldon's Wild Ride
Ari Berman : Electoral Politics
The wheels are falling off Curt Weldon's electoral wagon, as the wacky Pennsylvania Republican finds himself mired in a criminal investigation.
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Hell of a Times
Max Blumenthal : Media Analysis
A nasty succession battle is brewing at the conservative Washington Times, its newsroom abuzz with allegations of racism, sexism and unprofessional conduct.
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Locked and Loaded
Susy Buchanan & David Holthouse : Immigration to the US
The Minutemen have been transformed from an extremist "citizen border patrol" to part of the neocon establishment. Has their leader sold out, or bought in?
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Reading the Reed Rout
Bob Moser : Electoral Politics
Two Republican primaries in the Deep South expose potentially serious cracks in the party's religious-right foundation.
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Burning Cole
Philip Weiss : Higher Education
Politics trumped academic integrity when a neocon network torpedoed the appointment of Mideast scholar and blogger Juan Cole to a faculty position at Yale.
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Target Ford
When the Ford Foundation came under pressure, it revised its grant-making standards, restricting the political activities of its grantees.
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Inside Man
Perry Anderson : Cultural Criticism & Analysis
In America at the Crossroads, Francis Fukuyama critiques the neoconservative movement and its disastrous defense of the Iraq War. But he remains fully committed to the unchecked use of American power.
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Princeton Tilts Right
Robert George, the conservative movement's favorite professor, exerts his influence.
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The New Face of the Campus Left
Sam Graham-Felsen : Student Movements
Since the 1970s Republican conservatives have been the dominant political force on American campuses. But groups like Campus Progress, better groomed and better organized than their predecessors, are pushing back.
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Newt's New Con
David Sirota : Corporate Influence in Washington
No voice rings as hollow as Newt Gingrich's on the GOP culture of corruption. Incredibly, the media are swallowing his story.
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Shame of the Once-Young Republicans
What irony that Jack Abramoff and other once-young Republicans, who hectored their elders about defending the nation's taxpayers and security forces, should now be accused of deeply betraying both.
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The Case Against Alito
Samuel Alito would swing the Supreme Court to a right-wing authoritarianism that is out of step with the public and the Constitution.
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Abramoff's Sordid World
The unfolding Jack Abramoff corruption scandal exposes the hypocrisy of the GOP "revolution," which promised to restore morality to Washington but instead sank deepinto a cesspool of corruption.
2005
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Democracy for Sale
Robert Scheer : Republican Party
A trove of new documents detailing the corruption and influence-peddling by Jack Abramoff, Ralph Reed and Tom DeLay is sweeping the high-minded prophets of the Republican revolution off their pedestals.
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Killing the Messenger
Patricia J. Williams : Journalists & Journalism
It's one thing for our State Department to plant phony stories in the media or jam broadcasts in Cuba. It's quite another for conservative policy analyst Frank Gaffney bolster's George Bush's grudge against Al Jazeera by arguing that it was "imperative that enemy media be taken down."
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The Fall of the One-Party Empire
Jonathan Schell : Republican Party
Jonathan Schell writes that unmaking the fraudulent empire that the GOP has created will not be done quickly and the outcome is unclear. But historians may one day write that the fake American empire was the Achilles' heel of the one-party state the Bush Administration failed to build.
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Dictionary of Republicanisms
Katrina vanden Heuvel : Republican Party
Compassionate conservativism n. An expensively cultivated phrase created by a decades-old and well-funded Radical Right program of Orwellian doublespeak.
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The Real McCain
Ari Berman : Campaigns & Elections
John McCain is a war hero, a sometime Democratic ally, a crusader for campaign finance reform. But the centrist maverick will most likely take a turn to the right if he wants to get to the White House.
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Genes, Genius, Genies
Patricia J. Williams : Reproductive Rights
The right has ushered in a moment of cult celebrity for the pre-born. But let's not be seduced by this idea of personhood. Remember the poor and not-so-perfect post-born children of America? Aren't they persons, too?
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All the King's Media
William Greider : Media Analysis
The scandals suffocating the Bush Administration seem less like Nixon and Watergate and more like Louis XV and pre-Revolutionary France. They are harbingers of a potent cultural event that may jolt the public out of complacency.
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Final Days: Only 39 Months to Go
On Capitol Hill there's open warfare among various factions of the Republican Party. With midterm elections looming and Bush's approval ratings tumbling, the collapse of discipline will only accelerate amid the general panic.
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Another Miracle From Bill Frist
The doctor who proved himself a master of distant diagosis has one more trick up his sleeve.
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Conservative Crackup
Bush's lavish subsidies and reckless attempts to export democracy through the barrel of a gun violate conservative principles. Republican realists are finally catching on.
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Hitler in Virginia
Max Blumenthal : Gubernatorial Campaigns & Elections
Two offensive attack ads in the Virginia governor's race have backfired on Republican candidate Jerry Kilgore and his attack-dog media consultant. Does this mean GOP smear tactics are a spent force?
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Wrong About the Right
Jean Hardisty & Deepak Bhargava : Voters & Voting
Progressives lack a common set of that tie a movement together. But they can build on conservatives' proven strategy of slowly creating a broad consensus.
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Corrupt, Incompetent and 'Off Center'
Eric Alterman : Media Analysis
With leading Republicans facing the slammer and Bush in a tailspin, fate has given liberals a huge opportunity. Americans already share our values--we need a new language to help connect peoples' deepest needs to the liberal vision.
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Reassuring the Right
Calvin Trillin : Supreme Court
Though her style is not dramatic, Harriet Miers is definitely enough of a fanatic to sit on the Bush Supreme Court.
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Is the Terminator in Free-Fall?
Once seen as the vehicle of hope and reform, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger looks increasingly like an oil-burning jalopy of politics-as-usual.
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The Young Chickenhawks
Clarisse Profilet : Student Movements
Young Republican activists on campus love George W. Bush and zealously support the war. But are they willing to fight? Not really.
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With Friends Like This...
An endorsement from James Dobson is scary enough, but the vituperative attack on Harriet Miers by the right raises other questions about why some conservatives are agitated about her nomination.
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A *Real* Contract With America
Robert L. Borosage : Progressives, Liberals, & The American Left
The Gulf Coast hurricanes could dislodge decades-long conservative domination of US politics, but only if Democrats offer an alternative vision of government and society to voters.
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The Little Black Book of Virtues
Patricia J. Williams : Racism & Discrimination
The Wicked Witch stomps in his defense and the wise old tortoise explains his reasoning. But Mother Courage knows the truth behind William Bennett's racist comments.
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'The Hammer' Gets Hit
Ari Berman : US Politics & Government
Tom DeLay's indictment on criminal conspiracy charges comes at a moment of acute public awareness of the culture of corruption the GOP has created. What happens next is up to the Democrats.
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Prez on the Precipice
The waning political power of the Bush Administration poses a huge opportunity for Democrats to revitalize the party and challenge the President's flawed vision of hurricane recovery and continuing involvement in Iraq.
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The Red Cross: A Question of Competence
Linda Heller : Health & Disease
The Gulf Coast hurricanes have raised new questions about the integrity and competence of the American Red Cross to respond to national emergencies. In this report from The Nation archive, Linda Heller raised early alarms. July 1, 1996, issue
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A 'New' New Deal
William Greider : Progressives, Liberals, & The American Left
The reconstruction of New Orleans could set the stage for a comprehensive legislative initiative akin to the New Deal.
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The Many Faces of Dr. Coburn
He's a far-right baby doctor. His own chief of staff says he's clueless about the law. Meet Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn, who'll help shape the US Supreme Court.
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William Rehnquist
William Rehnquist showed little regard for the social consequences that followed his unrelenting application of conservative legal theory.
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FEMA: Confederacy of Dunces
FEMA enjoyed bipartisan praise during the 1990s under President Clinton. By the time Hurricane Katrina roared into the Gulf, the Bush Administration had dismantled it.
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The Disaster President
: Politicians & Political Leaders
The incompetence revealed by the response to Hurricane Katrina can be traced to a twenty-five-year project, begun in the Reagan era, of discrediting government.
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Pat Robertson's Katrina Cash
Max Blumenthal : Religious Fundamentalism
Pat Robertson's shadowy relief organization, Operation Blessing, is prominently featured on FEMA's list of charities to receive donations for hurricane relief.
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The Real Costs of a Culture of Greed
Robert Scheer : Economic Policy
The affluent mask of the United States has been torn away by the storm, exposing a nation that has become progressively poorer under the leadership of the party of Big Business.
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Roberts, Without Illusions
As confirmation hearings open, we already know a great deal about John G. Roberts Jr. He's ethically challenged, ideologically rigid and unfit for the Supreme Court.
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The Red State Times, Continued
Eric Alterman : Corporate Media & Consolidation
The so-called liberal New York Times bashed Bill Clinton every chance it got, and whitewashes Ed Meese. Go figure.
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Preaching Justice, Slaying Demons
Max Blumenthal : US Politics & Government
As the Christian right gathered in Nashville for Justice Sunday II, they demonized their enemies and offered lukewarm praise for John G. Roberts.
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Lobbyist for the Lost Cause
Max Blumenthal : Racism & Discrimination
Meet Richard Hines, GOP lobbyist, front man for weapons makers and hidden hand behind the extremist agenda of the neo-Confederate movement.
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Louisiana Purchase
A program in Louisiana that was founded to discourage teens from having sex encourages them to engage in politics.
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Press Watch
Scott Sherman : Attorney General
The public broadcasting system remains an easy target for Republican deception, demagogy and mischief.
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M is for Moronic
Inside the CPB's Mann report, one of the strangest government documents ever produced.
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Generation Chickenhawk
Getting the party started at the College Republican National Convention.
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A Short Summary of the Questions Being Asked About Governor Jeb Bush...
What's the deal with Governor Jeb Bush?
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Sam Brownback's Blind Ambition Tour
Max Blumenthal : Reproductive Rights
The Kansas senator has been grandstanding for the right for years, and now he has his sights set on the White House.
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In Re Newsweek: Which Side Are You On?
Eric Alterman : Media Analysis
In its campaign against Newsweek, the Bush Administration seeks to undermine already faltering public confidence.
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Good Cop, Bad Cop
Max Blumenthal : Reproductive Rights
In 1992, Tony Perkins violated his oath to uphold the law. Now he lectures Democrats on the constitution.
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Moyers Fights Back
Republican aides and allies must not be allowed to control PBS.
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Virginity or Death!
Katha Pollitt : Reproductive Rights
Is the threat of cervical cancer at age 60 really keeping teenage girls virgins?
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Dr. Hager's Family Values
Ayelish McGarvey : Reproductive Rights
Should Dr. David Hager be advising President Bush on women's health?
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Practice What You Preach
Katha Pollitt : Republican Party
Forget common ground--it's time to divide up the country.
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Justice Sunday Preachers
Max Blumenthal : Radical Religious Right
If their struggle is like the civil rights movement, why do Christian-rightists like Tony Perkins have so many racist friends?
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In Contempt of Courts
Conservative activists want to eliminate unsympathetic judges--by any means necessary.
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Schiavo as Prologue
The Terri Schiavo case goes to the heart of political choices confronting the country.
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The Minister of Minstrelsy
Max Blumenthal : African-Americans
Meet Jesse Lee Peterson, who says what the right would like to, but can't.
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A Student Bill of Fights
Kevin Mattson : Higher Education
The right takes aim at the ivory tower--brandishing a new legislative agenda.
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PNAC's Happy Warriors
The neocon think tank's recent call for an increase in troop strength is myopic.
2004
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From Birmingham to Baghdad
Patricia J. Williams : Condoleezza Rice
It was Halloween night and I, Patricia J. Williams, had gotten myself up in the guise of the soon-to-be Secretary of State.
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Earthly Rewards for the Christian Voter
Katha Pollitt : Feminism & Women
Has the Christian right really so little to show for its self-sacrifice?
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Follow the Money
Esther Kaplan : Reproductive Rights
The Christian right's comeback has been fueled by Bush Administration grants.
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True Conservatives Would Back Kerry
Robert Scheer : Economic Policy
A century's worth of conservative ideals are tossed out the window for political expediency.
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Press Watch
Scott Sherman : Journalists & Journalism
It's time for William Kristol to say he was wrong about Iraq.
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Searching for Spin
Ari Berman : Presidential Election 2004
Trying to get inside the GOP's Boston war room.
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Neocon Riots Rock DC
Eric Kenning : George W. Bush Administration
Areas of the nation's capital were in ruins as protests continued against a bill that would revive the military draft, but only for neoconservatives.
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Out With Gerrymanders!
Herman Schwartz : Supreme Court
Many problems with our electoral system are not easily remedied, but gerrymandering can be.
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Hawks Eating Crow
Eric Alterman : Jails & Prisons
The Bush Administration has not made it easy on its supporters.
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Straight, Not Narrow
What my straight friends refused to understand was that my fight was also a fight against the right.
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Neocon Man
Daniel Pipes has made his name inveighing against an academy overrun by political extremists. But he is nothing if not extreme himself.
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Pregnant and Dangerous
Katha Pollitt : Feminism & Women
This is what we've come to in America: failure to produce a live, healthy, non-drug-exposed baby can land you in prison.
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Klayman Watch
A conservative provocateur turned Senate candidate may have tried to skirt campaign finance rules.
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More Bad Judges
Karl Rove's White House laboratory has shipped another batch of extremist nominees to the Senate for its members' consent, after not asking for their advice.
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Lord Knows What Robertson Wants
Robert Scheer : Radical Religious Right
When televangelist gloated about a Bush 'blowout' delivered by God, perhaps it was a heaven-sent warning.
2003
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Republicans Relaunch the Antigay Culture Wars
Doug Ireland : Gay & Lesbian Issues & Activism
The GOP embrace of homophobia is more than simply a sop to the far right.
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Endangered Species of the American South
What the Democrats must do to survive.
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After You, My Dear Alphonse
Katha Pollitt : Republican Party
What's the matter with conservatives? Why can't they relax and be happy?
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Where's the Compassion?
Joe Conason : George W. Bush Administration
Bush's "compassionate conservatism" is a deft--and dishonest--strategy.
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ALEC Meets His Match
John Nichols : Progressives, Liberals, & The American Left
Challenging the right's powerhouse.
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Bah, Humbug
Bashing moral laxity was a popular and profitable line of tripe that made Reagan's Education Secretary and Bush Sr.'s drug czar a millionaire many times over.
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Rolling Back the 20th Century
William Greider : George W. Bush Administration
The right-wing ideologues are dead serious about dismantling government.
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Partying on the Right
Many liberals think of the loony right as ill-educated denizens of the backwoods. But the POR is strong evidence to the contrary.
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Bush's Terrible Twos
Iraq is truly Bush's project. It could undo his presidency, or it could solidify his standing.
2002
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Wanted: A Few Good Girls
Karen Houppert : Feminism & Women
Right-wing foundation seeks eligible young women for meaningful relationship.
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Fighting the Gay Right
Richard Goldstein : Gay & Lesbian Issues & Activism
Homocons pose as free thinkers fighting the orthodoxies of the left and right. In fact, they are neither independent nor individualistic.
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The Mullahs of Marriage
Bill Berkowitz : Marriage & Divorce
Thanks to an effective campaign by right-wing foundations, conservative family politics has gone mainstream.
2001
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The Right in the Classroom
Marianne Manilov : Environment
John Stossel's recent ABC feature was a part of a rightwing effort to discredit and defund environmental education.
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Stossel's Heroes
The Department of Energy is pondering the most expensive environmental clean-up in world history.
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Bush's Hit Man
Louis Dubose : Karl Rove
Some wonder to what extent Karl Rove will use the power of the government against those who would cross Bush. Rove's past suggests such worries are not unfounded.
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George Bush's Democrats
Jesse Jackson Jr. : George W. Bush
The legacy of the conservative bipartisan coalition underscores the need for a progressive alternative.
2000
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Vesuvius
Jonathan Schell : Republican Party
Whoever wins the legal battles over the election, recent events will cast a long shadow over American political life in the years ahead.
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States' Rights Rise Again
No issue is more vital in the race between Al Gore and George W. Bush than the makeup of the next Supreme Court.
1999
This week: A look at the advocacy group MoveOn.org at 10. Plus: Controversy in Africa over the indictment of the Sudanese President; Amy Alexander and Chris Rabb on the challenges facing minority journalists in their transition to the web; and The Nation's new sex column. (13mb mp3)
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