Around The Nation
  • February 27, 2009

Around The Nation

Around The Nation

Katrina vanden Heuvel
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I’m on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopolous on Sundaymorning. The topic? President Obama’s proposed $3.5 trillion budget. Inour lead editorial this week we offered cautious support for the President’s agenda, lauding thedomestic priorities set out in the budget but warning that gettingbogged down in Afghanistan could quickly sink our hopes at home. I’ll bepart of This Week‘s roundtable with columnist George Will and Republicanstrategist Karl Rove. Rove this week excoriated President Obama’sbudget, predicting irreparable harm to the country and defending theBush tax cuts. I’ll be pushing back, arguing that America rejected taxcuts and trickle-down in November, and that this moment in history callsfor a bold investment in priorities like health care and education.

Forums like This Week are difficult; you get a sound byte here and30-seconds there. There is little room for nuance and any panelist cantake the discussion off in unexpected directions. Surely we’ll begrading Bobby Jindal as well as debating fiscal policy. With just a fewminutes to make a progressive case, what points would you press? Anyadvice? I welcome your suggestions (and any Karl Rove intel if you’vebeen watching Fox News) in the comments.

Also this weekend The Nation‘s sports correspondent Dave Zirin is on The Rachel Maddow Show. Dave has touched off debate withhis column aboutThe US vs Barry Bonds. A case based on garbage both literally andfiguratively, Zirin writes that the continuing prosecution is a shamefulmoment for the justice system.

Finally, if you’re in New York City next Friday please join us forMeltdown: The Economic Collapse and a People’s Plan for Recovery, aforum featuring Barbara Ehrenreich, Naomi Klein, Joseph Stiglitz, BillFletcher Jr. and Christopher Hayes. The details are here. Itshould be a lively debate and a good time to hear from some of ourstrongest voices on the economy. If you’re not in New York City, not tofear! We’ll have a full podcast of the event the week after, along withvideo highlights and interviews. The event will also air on C-Span,schedule TBD.

Support independent journalism that does not fall in line

Even before February 28, the reasons for Donald Trump’s imploding approval rating were abundantly clear: untrammeled corruption and personal enrichment to the tune of billions of dollars during an affordability crisis, a foreign policy guided only by his own derelict sense of morality, and the deployment of a murderous campaign of occupation, detention, and deportation on American streets. 

Now an undeclared, unauthorized, unpopular, and unconstitutional war of aggression against Iran has spread like wildfire through the region and into Europe. A new “forever war”—with an ever-increasing likelihood of American troops on the ground—may very well be upon us.  

As we’ve seen over and over, this administration uses lies, misdirection, and attempts to flood the zone to justify its abuses of power at home and abroad. Just as Trump, Marco Rubio, and Pete Hegseth offer erratic and contradictory rationales for the attacks on Iran, the administration is also spreading the lie that the upcoming midterm elections are under threat from noncitizens on voter rolls. When these lies go unchecked, they become the basis for further authoritarian encroachment and war. 

In these dark times, independent journalism is uniquely able to uncover the falsehoods that threaten our republic—and civilians around the world—and shine a bright light on the truth. 

The Nation’s experienced team of writers, editors, and fact-checkers understands the scale of what we’re up against and the urgency with which we have to act. That’s why we’re publishing critical reporting and analysis of the war on Iran, ICE violence at home, new forms of voter suppression emerging in the courts, and much more. 

But this journalism is possible only with your support.

This March, The Nation needs to raise $50,000 to ensure that we have the resources for reporting and analysis that sets the record straight and empowers people of conscience to organize. Will you donate today?

Katrina vanden Heuvel Katrina vanden Heuvel is editor and publisher of The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture. An expert on international affairs and US politics, she is an award-winning columnist and frequent contributor to The Guardian. Vanden Heuvel is the author of several books, including The Change I Believe In: Fighting for Progress in The Age of Obama, and co-author (with Stephen F. Cohen) of Voices of Glasnost: Interviews with Gorbachev’s Reformers.


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