The American Prospect articles from January 2008

The American Prospect archives from January 2008

The long and the short.(PROSPECTS)
January 1, 2008... THIS MONTH, THE PROSPECT GOES BOTH LONG AND short. In the print magazine, we address what the Democrats, if they win both the White House and Congress next year, should do about the profound, long-term challenges confronting America. Online, we...

Sen. Kennedy's wrong turn.(CORRESPONDENCE)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY voted against the confirmation of Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito because they did not share his political views and is now shocked--shocked!--that these Republican-appointed jurists have...

Leaving fewer behind.(CORRESPONDENCE)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2008... DANA GOLDSTEIN'S article Left Behind [December 2007] casts much-needed attention on a crisis facing students of color and the resolve of one school district in Ossining, New York, to address it. It is a sad commentary on contemporary society...

From the executive editor.(CORRESPONDENCE)(Editorial)
January 1, 2008... IT'S 2009. A DEMOCRAT IS SETTLING INTO THE OVAL Office, and the party has strengthened its hold on Congress. With troops still in Iraq and the economy somewhere between shaky and tanking, what should the Democrats do? How much can they do? And...

Nevada say never again.(Up Front)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] When the Democratic Party chose Nevada as an early caucus state in summer 2006, there was sober talk of making the process more democratic (with a "small d"). After all, unlike lily-white Iowa and New Hampshire,...

Rallying the bass.(Up Front)(Mike Huckabee's playing the bass guitar)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... Mike Huckabee has been getting a lot of undeserved respect lately as a guitarist. CNN recently described him as "an ordained Baptist minister who plays guitar in a rock and roll band." A New Hampshire weekly referred to him as "the governor on...

Feithless.(Up Front)(on Doug Feith and the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... Where's Doug Feith when you really need him? The release of the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran surely brought home to Dick Cheney and his dejected neo band how much they miss Feith's intelligence-on-demand operation, which Paul...

Denials "r" us.(Up Front)(Larry Craig)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... How best to distract yourself when the Senate Ethics Committee is looking into your conviction in a sex sting and your hometown paper is publishing the alleged details of your gay sex life, the existence of which you baldly deny? For Idaho...

Speaking of Craig.(Up Front)(Larry Craig)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... In early December, The Idaho Statesman published an extensive report detailing the claims of two men who said that they'd had sex with Larry Craig, and two more who said he'd propositioned them. One of the claimants, former prostitute Mike...

The question: the Republicans have embarked on a "GOP rebranding" project. Any suggestions?(Up Front)(Grand Old Party)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... "Rich people and angry people coming together" --David Halperin, former speechwriter for Bill Clinton and Howard Dean [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "GOP: Gay. Out. Proud." --Rick Perlstein, senior fellow at the Campaign for America's...

What's out, what's in, in Washington 2008!(PARODY)
January 1, 2008... What's OUT, What's IN, in Washington 2008! OUT: Specs with no rims. What IN: Specs-free look. Washington do Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld, won't be making passes at men Dick Cheney, and Larry Craig have who wear glasses....

Cool warriors.(THE OUT YEARS)(Hillary Clinton's and Barack Obama's proposed policies)
January 1, 2008... ACCORDING TO A WIDELY HELD THEORY OF AMERICAN politics, Democrats and liberals are doomed whenever foreign policy and national security are the primary concerns of voters. After all, Bill Clinton--the only two-term Democratic president since...

Reparations anxiety.(COMMENT)(slavery reparation)
January 1, 2008... LIKE SO MANY PAINFUL ISSUES OF RACE AND CLASS, the argument over slavery reparations hovers just beneath the surface of our everyday political consciousness, always ready to burst forth. Support for reparations wasn't always seen as radical....

The Democrats' strategic challenge: if the Democrats win the election, can the next president and Congress make significant progress toward realizing liberal aspirations? Here's how--a road map for the start of a new America.(AFTER BUSH)(Cover story)
January 1, 2008... We may be on the verge of one of those moments when the underlying currents in American polities change directions. The conservative agenda is exhausted, public opinion has unmistakably swung away from the right, and although there are no...

A conversation with Doris Kearns Goodwin: great presidents build support for transformative change. What can the next president do to revive a sense of common purpose?(PRESIDENTIAL LEADERSHIP)
January 1, 2008... Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of several distinguished works on the great progressive presidents, including Team of Rivals, on Lincoln and his Cabinet; No Ordinary Time, on Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt...

Good jobs in a global economy: the next president can change our trade and labor policies to rebuild the American middle class.(TRADE & LABOR)
January 1, 2008... If America is to redeem its status as the great middle-class nation, the next president will need to transform how we address the interlinked areas of labor and foreign trade. Laissez-faire trade is advertised as a policy that serves the...

Financing the common good: after three decades of government starvation of necessary resources, the next president needs to champion progressive taxation with the proceeds invested in social outlays that make for a more productive economy.(TAX & BUDGET)
January 1, 2008... Those of us who want to reverse America's most troubling trends--widening inequality, increasing poverty, global warming, and a world grown increasingly unfriendly, to name a few--cannot simply rely on election victories. A Democrat moving into...

This will mean the world to us: how the next president can get America to stop dragging its feet, confront global warming, and save the planet.(CLIMATE CHANGE & ENERGY)
January 1, 2008... Is it any wonder that progress on global climate change has been so slow? As the University of Washington ethicist Stephen Gardiner has recently argued, nothing in human experience has prepared us to deal with a problem that has such far-flung...

Healing our self-inflicted wounds: how the next president can restore the rule of law to U.S. foreign policy--and rebuild American credibility and power.(FOREIGN POLICY)
January 1, 2008... There's a remarkable paradox in the relationship today between the United States and the rest of the world. Despite economic and military assets unparalleled in history, U.S. global influence and standing have hit rock bottom. As an...

What to really do about immigration: half a million Mexicans will cross the border annually for the next 15 years. Here's a plan to enable them to stay home.(IMMIGRATION POLICY)
January 1, 2008... The backlash against illegal immigration--which looks like the Republicans only hope for a wedge issue in next November s election--is largely aimed at Latinos, of whom the vast majority are Mexicans. In fact almost 60 percent of all...

Color, values, America: one key task of the next president is to restore a nation of laws and of rights, rooted deeply in values. This effort must appeal to all Americans and transcend race--but cannot ignore race.(RIGHTS)
January 1, 2008... To unite us in pursuing the ambitious agenda demanded by the times, the next president must ground bold initiatives in a compelling vision of community, from neighborhood to globe. If successful, that vision will not resemble some blueprint for...

Why 2009 is the year for universal health care: it's not 1994 all over again. The next president can get the reforms that Harry Truman and Bill Clinton couldn't.(HEALTH CARE)
January 1, 2008... In the best of circumstances, presidential libraries are a strange combination of leftover campaign literature and newfound architectural ambition. Even so, the Clinton Presidential Library, in Little Rock, Arkansas, is notable for approaching...

Leaving "No Child Left Behind" behind: our No. 1 education program is incoherent, unworkable, and doomed. But the next president still can have a huge impact on improving American schooling.(EDUCATION)
January 1, 2008... The next president has a unique opportunity to start from scratch in education policy, without the deadweight of a failed, inherited No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law. The new president and Congress can recapture the "small d" democratic mantle...

Michael's poor Almanac: how Michael Barone made The Almanac of American Politics irrelevant.(BOOKS)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THE ALMANAC OF AMERICAN POLItics is not the only brick-heavy biennial profile of members of Congress, their districts, and their voting records. Congressional Quarterly's competing volume, Politics in America, has...

Dying did not become her.(Swimming in a Sea of Death: A Son's Memoir)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... SWIMMING IN A SEA OF DEATH: A SON'S MEMOIR BY DAVID RIEFF Simon and Schuster, 192 pages, $21.00 WESTERN THOUGHT RECORDS a long tradition of morbid interest in how philosophers met their deaths. Memorials, testimonies, and whole Platonic...

Pronouncing our own doom.(THE CLOSER)
January 1, 2008... ONE FINE DAY, A CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT MAY say the country's goal should be to have only the world's second-highest prison rate, and let Russia or China be No. 1. In terms of incarceration, the U.S. leads the world. The U.S. has a prison rate...