Am. History & Culture
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How Liberalism Lost Its Good Name
I look forward to reading Rick Perlstein’s The Invisble Bridge, his latest chronicle on the development of American movement conservatism since the 1950s. When reading Nixonland, his previous volume in the series, I was disturbed by how much I needed to reminded about what happened during the 1960s. But as I read through it, I remembered
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Seattle’s $15 Minimum Wage
From the NYT (I boycott quoting from the Seattle Times): Mayor Ed Murray presented on Thursday what he described as an imperfect but workable plan to increase the city’s minimum wage to $15 an hour, more than twice the federal minimum wage and one of the highest anywhere in the nation, through a series of complex and
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Rising Inequality and Rising Temperatures
Interesting article by Paul Rosenberg this monring at Salon talking about Thomas Piketty and Elizabeth Warren. The question that's in the back of my head as I read this, though, is what difference does it make if even a three quarters of the country understands what's happening if there isn't the will to overcome the
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Identity Economics
A threat Marx downplayed has accelerated the concentration of wealth among the very richest. As Michael Hudson has noted, Marx recognized the destructive potential of financial capitalism, but thought it was inconceivable that it would become dominant. He believed the industrialists would succeed in keeping the bankers in check. They have not. As income disparity has widened enormously
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The Tea Party and the Mythos of ‘Real’ Americans
People in Red America are in pain, and it's deeper than just economic. I'd argue that a good deal of the pain comes from the disjunction between its mindset and the real world in which Red America lives. The world no longer makes sense for a mindset that was developed in the early 19th century.
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Quote of the Day: Adolph Reed
But if the left is tied to a Democratic strategy that, at least since the Clinton Administration, tries to win elections by absorbing much of the right’s social vision and agenda, before long the notion of a political left will have no meaning. For all intents and purposes, that is what has occurred. If the
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Technocratic v. Humanistic Education 2
I wrote on this theme here, but this kid really gets it: See also Patrick Denneen's eloquent speech at Notre Dame against the Common Core. Key grafs: I began by suggesting that it was in the very absence of any national standard for education, and the strong tradition of local control of education, that we
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“…whether … any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure.”
We all know that yesterday was the 50th anniversary of JFK's death, but Tuesday was the sesquicentennial of the delivery of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. We look at Lincoln now as St. Abraham. He was hardly that, and he was hardly perceived that way by his contemporaries. He was, however, the man of the hour, and as
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Evangelicals and Progressivism
Ira Chernus has an interesting article this morning in Salon on the necessity of Progressives finding way to ally themselves with evangelical Christians. Here are his closing paragraphs: It’s the religious right, long the progressive left’s favorite target, that is now the richest target of opportunity. Because politically progressive evangelical Christianity is not merely a
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Whither the GOP?
The only weekend talking head show worth watching is Up with Steve Kornacki. Here's the embed of a segment from yesterday's show that I think is worth watching: The discussion frames the question well. Will the business elites be able to take back control of the Republican party? Soto thinks they will, but Wilentz and the unfortunately