The Santa Claus Test The Santa Claus Test
Today, neither the press nor government has the authority to validate little Virginia's belief in miracles.
Dec 21, 2011 / Column / Melissa Harris-Perry
Do Americans Hate the Rich? Do Americans Hate the Rich?
Lately, whenever someone notes the chasm between the wealthy and everyone else, and argues for greater income redistribution to level the playing field, a member of the financial elite pipes up to complain about their maligned position in American life. The latest was Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co., who complained to investors about the unpopularity of bankers “Acting like everyone who’s been successful is bad and because you’re rich you’re bad, I don’t understand it,” the JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) CEO told an audience member who asked about hostility toward bankers. “Sometimes there’s a bad apple, yet we denigrate the whole.” Ignoring, for now, the fact that Dimon’s company received a massive bailout from the federal government—which belies the notion that he’s somehow been successful of his own accord—it’s not hard to understand why people are angry at bankers. Indeed, Joshua Brown, who himself was a banker, does a great job of explaining the dynamic at hand: No, Jamie, it is not that Americans hate successful people or the wealthy. In fact, it is just the opposite. We love the success stories in our midst and it is a distinctly American trait to believe that we can all follow in the footsteps of the elite, even though so few of us ever actually do. So, no, we don’t hate the rich. What we hate are the predators. What we hate are the people who we view as having found their success as a consequence of the damage their activities have done to our country. What we hate are those who take and give nothing back in the form of innovation, convenience, entertainment or scientific progress. We hate those who’ve exploited political relationships and stupidity to rake in even more of the nation’s wealth while simultaneously driving the potential for success further away from the grasp of everyone else. It’s hard to look at the wealth worshiping of American culture and conclude that Americans hate the rich. Rather, Americans hate people who become rich through rent-seeking, and then use their power and influence to pull up the ladder for everyone else. Financial elites crashed the economy, but rather than suffer any adverse consequences for their reckless behavior, they’ve prospered. Worse, they’ve yet to show any contrition for their actions, even as millions of Americans—who had no part in the sideshow—languish in a wounded economy. With that as the background, it’s no wonder that Americans want higher tax rates on the super-wealthy and other redistributive policies—it’s the only recourse they have for a situation that smacks of injustice.
Dec 21, 2011 / Jamelle Bouie
Jon Wiener’s Five Worst Political Books of 2011 Jon Wiener’s Five Worst Political Books of 2011
The Nation's Jon Wiener weighs in with a personal list of the year's worst political books.
Dec 21, 2011 / Photo Essay / The Nation
Redefining Secure Communities Redefining Secure Communities
An increasing number of local coalitions are teaming up to oppose the controversial immigration enforcement program.
Dec 21, 2011 / Chris Strunk and Helga Leitner
Dr. Jill Stein: Occupy Student Debt and the Environment Dr. Jill Stein: Occupy Student Debt and the Environment
Shouldering insurmountable student debt yet seeing fewer opportunities, young Americans share the same desperation and frustration of the Arab youth.
Dec 21, 2011 / The Nation and On The Earth Productions
Why Do GOP Bosses Fear Ron Paul? Why Do GOP Bosses Fear Ron Paul?
Paul’s criticisms of military interventionism and crony capitalism scare the establishment, but grassroots Republicans are intrigued by his old-fashioned conservatism.
Dec 21, 2011 / John Nichols
Five Worst Political Books of 2011 Five Worst Political Books of 2011
Bill Clinton on jobs, Chris Matthews on JFK and Dick Cheney on himself.
Dec 21, 2011 / Jon Wiener
Letters Letters
Gimme a P! Gimme an A! Gimme a T!… Alexandria, N.H. Katha Pollitt scores again. “Penn State’s Patriarchal Pastimes” [Dec. 5], her column about the Jerry Sandusky child abuse scandal, blooms into an editorial about patriarchy in which—in one page—she embeds football in the same “rich, loamy craziness of American popular morality” as “God, the flag, the military and the family.” Her writing is as breathtaking as a last-second Hail Mary touchdown pass. Katha is a treasure. TOM DIEHL Los Angeles Katha Pollitt’s column was a superb critique of the dangerous overemphasis on athletics in higher education. Pollitt, as usual, writes perceptively about contemporary life, and her call to reduce college sports to a valuable recreational enterprise for students makes enormous sense. It is therefore unfortunate that she added a gratuitous statement that premier athletes are “hauled through dumbed-down courses in gut majors like ‘interdisciplinary studies’ and ‘social science.’” This condemnation of major curricular changes, many of which are progressive responses to rigid, educationally dubious disciplinary specialization, reflects a disconcerting lack of knowledge of academic reform efforts of more than forty years, which have created internationally respected programs in, among others, ethnic and women’s studies. A few professors in all disciplines cater to student athletes with easy classes and grades. That problem should be identified and condemned rather than making a sweeping judgment about interdisciplinary studies and social sciences. PAUL VON BLUM African American Studies, Communication Studies, UCLA Putney, Vt. I am an athletic director. Our college doesn’t offer sports scholarships, although it is often discussed. When it comes up again, I will hand each administrator a copy of Katha Pollitt’s column. She has gone beyond the obvious corruption of the system to educate me on the unfairness of leaving deserving students behind in favor of an undeserving athlete. Giving athletes a way out of the ghetto? How about giving someone who studies hard and wants to be a nurse or doctor a chance to get out of the ghetto? JIM AUSTIN, Athletic director Landmark College Old Lyme, Conn. Katha Pollitt, as usual, has a bead on the bull’s-eye, but beware the bull’s backside. Hauling the Penn State bigs off to the dunking chair might be a good public show and even have some effect, but the deeper issue is the entire university culture, these days cast in the corporate rather than the academic mold. Good corporate citizens are rewarded for loyalty and behavior that protects the brand and its marketing. In the once-upon-a-time days of shared faculty/administration governance, the moral climate was wider and more likely to encourage and protect those who spoke out. The decline of faculty authority has adversely affected the academy. The unchecked and cumulative decay exposed by the Penn State horror can be disinfected by firing its present custodians, but restoration will take a more persistent commitment to inquiry, analysis and, eventually, discovery—a process that, fortunately, defines scholarship. J. RANELLI Thank You, Readers! Albuquerque Thank you to readers Dayton, Hirschhorn, Harris and Thomas for their excellent responses to complaints about President Obama [“Letters,” Dec. 5]. As a young country, we’re still in the adolescent phase, thus our impatience with solutions that take time; refusal to support leaders who don’t immediately fulfill our desires; and thinking that not voting is a smart move. Fellow Americans, it’s time to grow up! CAROL WILLIAMS
Dec 21, 2011 / Our Readers
Puzzle No. 3221 Puzzle No. 3221
ACROSS 1 Sharper-tasting Moroccan port (7) 5 Outside opening of garage, bury a car (7) 9 In retrospect, traffic control device found in Los Angeles archaeological site is murderous (9) 10 Plants seed of litigation in places for public discussion (5) 11 Records mantras before one officer’s: in brief, they are cathartic (5,5) 12 I’m like, “Spring of Rite, man!” (4) 13 Bionic hero captures a specialized market (5) 15 Shocked, I pass out: one thousand is K? (9) 18 Signalling, spot famous catch (6,3) 19 Greek character: poor fit for civilian clothes (5) 21 From a distance, a blonde lost me as a subject… (4) 22 …waving as Ling Ling goes berserk (10) 26 Spanish island’s commercial domain breaking Iowa apart (5) 27 Bush, in a panic, irrationally clutches Obama’s head (9) 28 Circumventing downpour, catch mythical Welsh king (7) 29 Almost seize part of a fork covered with cheese (7) DOWN 1 Ethiopian raised minor complaint about a bit of work (7) 2 Bill goes in opposite directions for afternoon services (5) 3 Incorporated…er…crooked office holder (9) 4 Vehicle for the fire chief receives favorite kind of treatment (3,6) 5 Key is allowed (5) 6 Pharaoh grasps top of frond cluster (4) 7 Heavens! Leave fog, ride recklessly (4,5) 8 Granite, for everything else on the periphery of an Indian city near Mexico’s capital (7) 14 Amid gaiety, nearly legitimate knight (9) 16 Hammering broken cog in turn (9) 17 Representations of curve college grad is flipping (9) 18 Perhaps sad or wrenching (7) 20 Don’t drop your keys there—you’ll get no appreciation from him (7) 23 Putin’s terrible advice (5) 24 Baghdad resident initially inspected reactor and questioned intelligence (5) 25 One leg up for wise men (4) ACROSS 1 & 12 2 defs. 5 pun 9 EMOT + IONAL (tome rev., a lion anag.) 10 hidden 11 “dew wet” 14 PRIM + AL 16 LUR(K)E + R[ogue]S 17 & 22 2 defs. 18 P(OTHER)B 19 S[tud]Y + STEM 23 S + KID 26 A + PING 27 CAL(CU)L + ATE 28 LA(YET)TE 29 anag. DOWN 1 SP(EED) UP (rev.) 2 EV(OK)E 3 hidden 4 urn anag. 5 HELL(H)O + LE 6 WE + A(THERE)YE 7 IMP + RUDE + N[o]T 8 anag. 13 anag. 17 OB + STAC + LE (rev.) 18 2 defs. 20 M(ID + W)EEK 21 INF[o] + LOW 24 hidden 25 2 defs.
Dec 21, 2011 / Joshua Kosman and Henri Picciotto
If It Ain’t Broke, Break It If It Ain’t Broke, Break It
House Republicans sink payroll tax cut extension in their single-minded quest to “drown government in the bathtub.”
Dec 20, 2011 / Rep. Keith Ellison