April 7, 2008 Issue
Cover art by: Cover art and icon illustrations by Ennis Carter, ÂDesign for Social Impact; cover design by Gene Case & Stephen Kling/Avenging Angels
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Feature
A Bold New Democratic Party
With the nation’s economy in a slump, it’s time for a twenty-first-century New Deal.
Rep. Maurice Hinchey
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How Green Is Your Collar?
Labor leaders and environmentalists meet to explore how to make green jobs good jobs for American workers.
Jeremy Brecher, Tim Costello and Brendan Smith
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Cautionary Healthcare Tales From California and Massachusetts
Signs of trouble no matter who is elected President.
Trudy Lieberman
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Things That Go Bump in the Night
This week’s episode of Citizen Kang: Congresswoman Kang has some lascivious ideas about a certain cop, her shot-at chief of staff returns to town and all manner of deviltry is about to jump off.
Gary Phillips
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Beyond the New Deal
How refreshing it would be if a presidential candidate reminded us of the experience of the New Deal.
Howard Zinn
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FDR’s Democratic Propaganda
Today’s progressive message-makers can learn a lot from Franklin Roosevelt’s homey “fireside chats.”
Stephen Duncombe
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Democratizing Capital
New Deal progressives believed the economy should exist to serve society, not the other way around.
Sherle R. Schwenninger
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Potent Publics
The US public is wonderfully diverse, but the arts are not equally accessible to all.
Anna Deavere Smith
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Labor’s New Deal
Where the New Deal once served to rebalance the power between labor and capital, we are now perilously out of balance.
Andy Stern
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For the ‘FDR’
The Bush Administration’s solutions for the subprime mortgage crisis are too little, too late. Americans need a New Deal-style agency to manage domestic reconstruction.
Rev. Jesse L. Jackson
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Race and the New Deal Coalition
Most New Deal programs were anything but race- and gender-neutral in their impact. They were both racially discrminatory and a boon to many black Americans.
Adolph Reed Jr.
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The Only Fitting Tribute
For Roosevelt, the New Deal was a way of advancing freedom, which depended on economic as much as political rights.
Frances Moore Lappé
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The Bare Minimum
Today’s relentless arguments against a higher minimum wage suggest that Roosevelt’s battle is not yet won.
Eric Schlosser
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A Chaos of Experimentation
The New Deal spirit of “persistent experimentation” yielded impressive results for the country. American leaders can recapture that spirit.
Andrea Batista Schlesinger
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Not Your Father’s FCC
As we struggle for media democracy, let’s take encouragement from the early actions of the FCC.
Michael J. Copps
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A Green Corps
The New Deal brought with it programs that served not only the good of the people and the economy but also the environment. We need that now more than ever.
Bill McKibben
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Why the New Deal Matters
What was it about the New Deal and Roosevelt that make the man and the era relevant today?
Richard Parker
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Toward a New New Deal (Forum)
To commemorate the seventy-fifth anniversary of the New Deal, The Nation invited a panel of activists, writers, scholars and artists to reflect on its lasting lessons.
The Editors
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Editorial
A Misunderstanding on Iraq
Progressives who support Barack Obama must use the primary race help shape his policies on Iraq.
Katrina vanden Heuvel
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Progressives for Obama
The future has arrived: progressives can make a difference to ensure Barack Obama is our next President.
Tom Hayden, Barbara Ehrenreich, Bill Fletcher Jr. and Danny Glover
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Passover as If Earth Really Matters
Passover and Earth Day fall in the same week in April this year. Here’s how environmental activists and people of faith can respond to this holy season of liberation.
Arthur Waskow
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Architect of War(s)
Dick Cheney’s Mideast tour suggests another catastrophic military adventure in the Persian Gulf is still in the cards.
Michael T. Klare
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Winter Soldiers Speak
In compelling public testimony, US soldiers and Iraqi civilians bear witness to the horrors of combat.
Laila Al-Arian
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The Gentlemen’s Bailout
The power of Wall Street money and ideas must give way to a new public agenda to restore the real economy.
The Editors
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Column
War of The Word
Why the fuss over Obama’s pastor when Bible-based damnations for bad behavior is made in both black and white churches?
Robert Scheer
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Obama, Ferraro, Wright: ‘Postracial’ Meets Racism
Wouldn’t a real feminist also oppose racism?
Gary Younge
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The Ritual Sacrifice of Samantha Power
A principled academic gets ground up in the media hypocrisy machine.
Eric Alterman
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Books & the Arts
Victim ‘Hood
An account of the most recent installment in the nation’s sick love affair with literary exhibitionists.
Chris Lehmann
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Her Field Is Her Consciousness
Celebrating Alice Notley, winner of the 2007 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize.
Marie Ponsot
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from Songs and Stories of the Ghouls
Justice may appear in the
guise of a hard, devious mother
I want shoes for my baby
son my werewolf sonAlice Notley
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from “The Islanders Remember That There Are No Women and No Men”
in the antediluvian island
in the primordial swamp
Hardwood was already my friendAlice Notley
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Who’s Got Game?
A new book advocates equality for men and women on the playing field. But is that still a field of dreams?
Robert Lipsyte
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Just Looking
Mapping the difficulty, danger and beauty in the art of Nicholas Poussin.
Arthur C. Danto
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Extreme Inequality
A look at the gap between rich and poor via two books: David Cay Johnson’s Free Lunch and Michael J. Thompson’s The Politics of Inequality.
Daniel Brook
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Hard Times
Amity Schlaes’s history of the Great Depression is nothing less than an attempt to reclaim the 1930s for the free market.
Kim Phillips-Fein
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Ordinary People
Woody Holton’s history of America’s origins celebrates the contributions of the common people.
Robin Einhorn
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Beyond the New Deal
How refreshing it would be if a presidential candidate reminded us of the experience of the New Deal.
Howard Zinn
-
FDR’s Democratic Propaganda
Today’s progressive message-makers can learn a lot from Franklin Roosevelt’s homey “fireside chats.”
Stephen Duncombe
-
Democratizing Capital
New Deal progressives believed the economy should exist to serve society, not the other way around.
Sherle R. Schwenninger
-
Potent Publics
The US public is wonderfully diverse, but the arts are not equally accessible to all.
Anna Deavere Smith
-
Labor’s New Deal
Where the New Deal once served to rebalance the power between labor and capital, we are now perilously out of balance.
Andy Stern
-
For the ‘FDR’
The Bush Administration’s solutions for the subprime mortgage crisis are too little, too late. Americans need a New Deal-style agency to manage domestic reconstruction.
Rev. Jesse L. Jackson
-
Race and the New Deal Coalition
Most New Deal programs were anything but race- and gender-neutral in their impact. They were both racially discrminatory and a boon to many black Americans.
Adolph Reed Jr.
-
The Only Fitting Tribute
For Roosevelt, the New Deal was a way of advancing freedom, which depended on economic as much as political rights.
Frances Moore Lappé
-
The Bare Minimum
Today’s relentless arguments against a higher minimum wage suggest that Roosevelt’s battle is not yet won.
Eric Schlosser
-
A Chaos of Experimentation
The New Deal spirit of “persistent experimentation” yielded impressive results for the country. American leaders can recapture that spirit.
Andrea Batista Schlesinger
-
A Green Corps
The New Deal brought with it programs that served not only the good of the people and the economy but also the environment. We need that now more than ever.
Bill McKibben
-
Why the New Deal Matters
What was it about the New Deal and Roosevelt that make the man and the era relevant today?
Richard Parker
-
Toward a New New Deal (Forum)
To commemorate the seventy-fifth anniversary of the New Deal, The Nation invited a panel of activists, writers, scholars and artists to reflect on its lasting lessons.
The Editors
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Letters