January 4, 2016 Issue

Cover art by: Tim O’Brien

Feature

This Year’s Most Valuable Progressives

From Newark Mayor Ras Baraka to artist Molly Crabapple, from Planned Parenthood’s Cecile Richards to Black Lives Matter, this year’s honorees are on the front lines in the fight for social justice.
John Nichols
Can Bernie Sanders Win Back Iowa’s Working Class?

If he can’t, Donald Trump’s brand of right-wing populism looms large.
D.D. Guttenplan
‘The Politics of Higher Purpose’: An Interview With Martin O’Malley

The Democratic presidential candidate critiques the democratic socialism of Bernie Sanders and the interventionism of Hillary Clinton—and accepts the criticism from Black Lives Matter.
John Nichols
Volkswagen’s Nazi-Era Blood Crimes

Its executives—not Nazi officials—oversaw the murder of hundreds of infants of slave laborers.
Neal Gabler
Why Is the FBI Obsessed With This Portland Imam and His Mosque?

Ever since 9/11, federal investigators have pursued Sheikh Mohamed Abdirahman Kariye. Yet he has never been charged with a terrorism-related crime.
Zoë Carpenter

Editorial

The One Thing Almost All Terrorist Acts Have in Common

Instead of giving into bigotry and fear, Americans should direct their outrage at the gun industry and the politicians in its pocket.
The Editors
Rahm Emanuel Must Resign

From Laquan McDonald to Homan Square, Rahm has tacitly endorsed police violence.
The Editors
Under Trump’s Comb-Over

Steve Brodner
The Beautiful Class Struggle

Molly Crabapple’s new graphic memoir begins in the New York underground and emerges into the politics of war.
The Editors
Why US-Cuba Normalization Is Accelerating

One year after the historic breakthrough, rapprochement has overwhelming public support—including from the business community.
Peter Kornbluh
The Fate of the World Changed in Paris—but by How Much?

If taken seriously, the commitments made at COP21 could spell death for the fossil-fuel industry. That’s a big “if.”
Mark Hertsgaard
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Books & the Arts

Speechbros, Concern Trolls, and the Free-Speech Fraud

The anger over ceaseless racial threats has entwined with the recognition of campus as one more zone of unfreedom.
Joshua Clover
Support the Troops… and Support Me

A new history of the military welfare state shows how politicians and military leaders have draped themselves in yellow ribbons to advance their own careers.
Martha Saxton
‘Who Is Going to Believe You?’

The fate of Yakub Memon, who was executed last summer by the Indian state, shows that reality needn’t be transfigured for its absurdity to be understood.
Abhrajyoti Chakraborty
It’s Time To Stop Ignoring South Korean Abstract Art

Korean monochrome painting, or tansaekhwa, originated in a deep ambivalence about painting.
Barry Schwabsky
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