Feature / March 18, 2024

The Tragedy and Tenacity of Public Housing in America

A cartoon report on the only policy proven to actually address the housing shortage—and how racism, inept management, and systematic disinvestment led to long-term decline.

Eric Orner

Disobey authoritarians, support The Nation

Over the past year you’ve read Nation writers like Elie Mystal, Kaveh Akbar, John Nichols, Joan Walsh, Bryce Covert, Dave Zirin, Jeet Heer, Michael T. Klare, Katha Pollitt, Amy Littlefield, Gregg Gonsalves, and Sasha Abramsky take on the Trump family’s corruption, set the record straight about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s catastrophic Make America Healthy Again movement, survey the fallout and human cost of the DOGE wrecking ball, anticipate the Supreme Court’s dangerous antidemocratic rulings, and amplify successful tactics of resistance on the streets and in Congress.

We publish these stories because when members of our communities are being abducted, household debt is climbing, and AI data centers are causing water and electricity shortages, we have a duty as journalists to do all we can to inform the public.

In 2026, our aim is to do more than ever before—but we need your support to make that happen. 

Through December 31, a generous donor will match all donations up to $75,000. That means that your contribution will be doubled, dollar for dollar. If we hit the full match, we’ll be starting 2026 with $150,000 to invest in the stories that impact real people’s lives—the kinds of stories that billionaire-owned, corporate-backed outlets aren’t covering. 

With your support, our team will publish major stories that the president and his allies won’t want you to read. We’ll cover the emerging military-tech industrial complex and matters of war, peace, and surveillance, as well as the affordability crisis, hunger, housing, healthcare, the environment, attacks on reproductive rights, and much more. At the same time, we’ll imagine alternatives to Trumpian rule and uplift efforts to create a better world, here and now. 

While your gift has twice the impact, I’m asking you to support The Nation with a donation today. You’ll empower the journalists, editors, and fact-checkers best equipped to hold this authoritarian administration to account. 

I hope you won’t miss this moment—donate to The Nation today.

Onward,

Katrina vanden Heuvel 

Editor and publisher, The Nation

Eric Orner

Eric Orner is a former Capitol Hill staff counsel, and a cartoonist. His most recent graphic novel, Smahtguy, was an NPR Books We Love selection. He is a fellow at the New York Public Library Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, working on a book about Jimmy Carter’s presidency. Earlier in his career Eric wrote and drew a popular alt-weekly comic strip about LGBTQ life, called The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green.

More from The Nation

Norman Podhoretz

The Longest Journey Is Over The Longest Journey Is Over

With the death of Norman Podhoretz at 95, the transition from New York’s intellectual golden age to the age of grievance and provocation is complete.

Obituary / David Klion

The Fight to Keep New Orleans From Becoming “Everywhere Else”

The Fight to Keep New Orleans From Becoming “Everywhere Else” The Fight to Keep New Orleans From Becoming “Everywhere Else”

Twenty years after Katrina, the cultural workers who kept New Orleans alive are demanding not to be pushed aside. 

Feature / Larry Blumenfeld

A still from the video of the 1992 police beating of Rodney King. LAPD chief Daryl Gates defended the department’s racist police regime until he was forced out in the wake of King’s beating.

Breaking the LAPD’s Choke Hold Breaking the LAPD’s Choke Hold

How the late-20th-century battles over race and policing in Los Angeles foreshadowed the Trump era.

Feature / Danny Goldberg

Mayor of LA to America: “Beware!”

Mayor of LA to America: “Beware!” Mayor of LA to America: “Beware!”

Trump has made Los Angeles a testing ground for military intervention on our streets. Mayor Karen Bass says her city has become an example for how to fight back.

Feature / Gail Reed

Seattle, Washington, 2022.

Organized Labor at a Crossroads Organized Labor at a Crossroads

How can unions adapt to a new landscape of work?

Books & the Arts / Nelson Lichtenstein

The Epstein Survivors Are Demanding Accountability Now

The Epstein Survivors Are Demanding Accountability Now The Epstein Survivors Are Demanding Accountability Now

The passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act is a big step—but its champions are keeping the pressure on.

The Editors