Politics & Opinion Essays
NEW PEOPLE’S PARTY RISES AMID GRIM ELECTION OPTIONS
THE PROGRESSIVE
In a surreal year that has spiraled from surging hopes for a Bernie Sanders presidency to today’s pandemic-hemmed fear and a tight election between centrist Democrats and fascistic Republicans, now may be just the right time for a new political party.
ELECTION MUST FOCUS ON VOTER NEEDS AND FUTURE
TRIBUNE CONTENT SYNDICATES
One of the few things most voters agree on is that political campaigns too commonly devolve into personality feuds rather than substantive, issue-driven debates. That's unfortunate, because most voters have concrete needs and issues propelling their votes in 2020.
BEYOND BERNIE: THE NEXT CHALLENGE FOR PROGRESSIVES
THE PROGRESSIVE
With a deep sigh opening his “Thank you” video to supporters on April 8, following a brutally bizarre Wisconsin primary clouded by voter suppression and endangerment amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Senator Bernie Sanders ended his once mightily promising bid for the presidency.
WHAT'S NEXT FOR BERNIE'S REVOLUTION?
THE PROGRESSIVE
Political campaigns open and break hearts, then disappear. In the end, signs come down, campaign offices empty out, voter and volunteer lists coated with coffee and sweat are shredded. The moment and the movement dissolve.
BERNIE’S RAGE AGAINST THE DEMOCRATIC MACHINE
THE ATLANTIC
Whether he wins the Democratic Party nomination or not—and his chances are increasingly viable—the candidacy of Bernie Sanders has already won, by vastly enlarging America’s political conversation and possibilities.
THE PRAGMATIC CASE FOR BERNIE SANDERS
THE ATLANTIC
As Bernie Sanders defies expectations with a resounding New Hampshire victory and a virtual tie in Iowa, Democratic Party leaders still insist Hillary Clinton is the pragmatic choice to beat Republicans and bring effective leadership and change—if incremental—to Washington. Clinton and her supporters frame the race, and her appeal, as a matter of “ready on day one” leadership and “get things done” practicality. But what does the record show, and what do leadership and pragmatism really mean?
INTERVIEW WITH ROBERT REICH
THE PROGRESSIVE
Robert Reich entered the national stage, moderately left, when President Bill Clinton appointed him Labor Secre- tary in 1992. But after some bruising battles with Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, who wanted to ban the phrase “corporate welfare” in the White House, Reich left the Administration at the end of the first term—an experience he describes in his book Locked in the Cabinet. He has written more than a dozen books, most of them about the U.S. econo- my or the future of liberalism in America. His latest, Beyond Outrage, accompa- nied by his own whimsical political cartoons and dedicated to “the Occupiers,” is a clarion call for progressive change.