October 31, 2016, Issue

Cover art by: Michael Xiao

Feature

The American Social Safety Net Does Not Exist

After welfare reform, poor people were supposed to be able to find work. Not all of them could—and then the jobs disappeared.
Monica Potts
Win or Lose—Hillary Clinton’s Troubles in Ohio Should Worry Democrats

Trump is imploding nationally—but Clinton has failed to connect here with disaffected whites, African Americans, and young voters.
D.D. Guttenplan
Texas’s Voter-Registration Laws Are Straight Out of the Jim Crow Playbook

Compare them to Oregon’s, which make voting incredibly easy.
Ari Berman

Editorial

5 Novels About the Sordid Lives of High-Minded People

Zetigeist literature that prefigures the Brat Pack.
Michelle Dean
10 Down-Ballot Campaigns You Should Keep an Eye On

Does the presidential race make you wanna holler? These progressive contenders should put a smile on your face.
John Nichols
The Rise of a Cooperatively Owned Internet

Platform cooperativism gets a boost.
Nathan Schneider
The Sexual Predator Who Would Be King

Trump seeks to impose on America a strongman politics that even Republicans note—and fear.
John Nichols
GET UNLIMITED DIGITAL ACCESS FOR LESS THAN $3 A MONTH!

Subscribe

Column

Hot-Mic Tape Brings Late-Inning Defections

Calvin Trillin
What We Talk About When We Don’t Talk About Climate Change

Years from now, historians will marvel at the absence of global warming in the 2016 campaign coverage and presidential debates.
Eric Alterman
Why It Took Republican Leaders 16 Months to Denounce Trump

When it comes to minorities, immigrants, and women—the party still has a major empathy gap.
Laila Lalami

Books & the Arts

Populism’s Two Paths

Throughout the North Atlantic, insurgencies on the left and the right are challenging mainstream politics. The question is: Which popular movement—the left’s or the right’s—will prevail?
Jedediah Britton-Purdy
The Brat Pack Grows Up

Once the voice of youthful dissatisfaction, Jay McInerney, Tama Janowitz, and Bret Easton Ellis experience the growing pains of middle age.
Michelle Dean
The stakes are higher now than ever. Get The Nation in your inbox.

Sign up

Log In