Getting Education Right, Right Now
Lincoln once deemed education “the most important subject which we as a people can be engaged in.” But if Honest Abe were alive today, would he be happy with our current level of engagement? I fear not.
Spotlight
The Health Care Conundrum
The status quo is sticky like molasses. The spirit of change is invariably tempered, slowed and often halted entirely by the bulky stuff of routine, tradition, convention, the inertia of human life. Add to that a constitutional structure designed to throw sticks into the spokes of forward motion, and you have a daunting task for a leader seeking to bring sweeping reform, of any kind, to the country. Which raises the question of health care.
Politics
Envisioning America’s Energy Future
In 1979, President Carter told Americans that in addressing the unprecedented energy crisis there would be “no way to avoid sacrifice.” In his run for the presidency the next year, then-Governor Ronald Reagan disagreed. For Reagan, no sacrifice was needed. Instead, the Gipper suggested, the sugar rush of across-the-board tax cuts, wrapped in a titillating invocation of a “shining city on a hill,” would do the trick. Americans, of course, took the quick cash — an ill-fated choice that defined an entire era.
Culture
Has The Blogosphere Failed Us?
The rise of the Internet, and specifically the political “blogosphere,” after Bush-Gore in 2000 held out the promise of a new day where the American people, who presumably would be more moderate and reasonable than the cross-firing cable commentators, could make their voices heard again. Let freedom ring on the Web!, we said.
So has the promise of the net-roots been fulfilled?
CPPA
The Center for a Postpartisan America (CPPA)
If we were to ask the politicians, journalists, and commentators, Democrats and Republicans alike, the consensus would likely be that postpartisanship was dead on arrival in 2009. But should we trust the pundit class and other party loyalists to identify the body?
(Illustration Dan May)
Perspectives
Common Sense or Ideology?
Our world is growing more complicated, with our cell phones, gadgets, lap-tops and GPS systems. Consider our byzantine corporate culture with all those pointless meetings, presentations, lunches, busy work, bureaucracies and conference calls. Often we make things more complicated that they need to be — text messaging, for example, is on most devices a highly inefficient way of communicating. Yet it remains absurdly popular.
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Policy
Parties Without Partisanship
How can you have postpartisanship when there are two dominant political parties? The answer lies in a distinction. Yes, another one of those pesky intellectual distinctions.
Capital
The SEC Fiddled While Rome Burned (Part 3 of 3)
Botching the Bernie Madoff Ponzi swindle and thus failing to prevent tens of billions in losses was pretty bad press for the SEC. But the more one looks into the agency’s conduct in the Bush years, the more missteps become apparent.
Recent Issue Essays
Envisioning America’s Health
Our crackpot health care system is not just compromising our health. It is holding us back on a whole host of fronts–psychologically, socially and economically. President Obama is giving a lot of latitude to Congress in devising a reform plan. But partisan opponents are already revving up the engines of fear and hyperbole. We must ensure that what comes out the other end of the political sausage factory solves problems, makes sense for all Americans, and includes more of those shifty Omega-3’s.
The Spirit of Party
Is the existence of opposing, and often alienated, political parties consistent with the Constitution’s goal of forming a “more perfect union”?
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The First Hundred
Fair or not, new presidents have been judged on their first 100 days since FDR, who in his first three months as president ushered in some of the most dramatic and transformational policy changes that our country has ever experienced. But, more than any of his specific policies or programs, it was the sense of hope that FDR was able to instill in Americans that was his greatest accomplishment during his first 100. No other president since — except perhaps, some would argue, Ronald Reagan — has been able to do that. Until Barack Obama.
A Gathering Storm?
There is a “gathering storm.” But it’s not the “storm” that hired-gun actors mysteriously allude to in that ridiculous television commercial. Nor the one in Alicia Silverstone’s equally ridiculous spoof.
Tea-Partying with Governor Rick Perry
I’m not even going to call these things “tea bagging” events. That’s not right. “Tea parties” is a little better, though still misleading. Anyway, at one of these tea parties, Texas Governor Rick Perry, sporting a belt buckle the the size of a CD, offered some advice to Washington: Don’t mess with Texas! Specifically, he said
The Vision Requirement
In a time of big crisis, America needs leadership and vision. We need something to believe in. Is Newt Gingrich providing it?
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Does Paul Krugman Have His Priorities Wrong?
Treasury finally got around to announcing a bank rescue plan on Monday. Wall Street applauded, with the Dow carrying its biggest one day gain since November. Why did the markets respond so positively? Because the plan doesn’t have the government interfering too much. It lets the bankers mop up their own mess, with some help.
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