Essays
Essays on progressive principles, policies, and issues and the state of the nation.
Alexander Hamilton to One-Percenters: "Rubbish!"
Some corporate commentators writing about the Occupy Wall Street movement have claimed that America's founders, particularly Alexander Hamilton, would have sided with the wealthiest one percent and their cut-and-gut fiscal policies. But history just doesn't support the claim....
What Do Political Parties Believe?
A political party believes nothing. It is an empty vessel waiting to be filled. It has no inclinations, ideals, or identity of its own. Americans who hold progressive or liberal ideals remember just enough of the Democratic Party's heritage in the New Deal economics of the 1930s and 40s and the civil rights movement of the 1960s to think of the Democratic Party as the party of prosperity and justice for all....
Pay Your Way in Good Times: On Budget Surplus and Debt
Pay your way in good times. Borrow to take care of necessities in hard times. This is what any responsible family will do, and it's what good government should do. I was reading Richard Parker's book, John Kenneth Galbraith: His Life, His Politics, His Economics (2005) and came across the phrase "damping down lending during recoveries"....
In Good, Affordable, Universal Health Care We Trust
We trust our government to provide good health insurance—for our older citizens through Medicare, for our lower-income citizens through Medicaid, and for our military veterans through the Veterans Administration. It's time we learned to trust our government to provide good, affordable, health insurance for all....
Election 2008: Who Trusts Obama and Who Trusts McCain
In American elections, understanding which candidates represent the people is not always straightforward. It is common for conservative candidates to use populist rhetoric that masks their true allegiance to a narrow, wealthy elite....
Share your Beliefs
Many liberals and progressives have reservations about expressing their beliefs. They are comfortable advocating a policy or program, but when it comes to explaining the principles or beliefs their position is founded on, they are likely to fall silent....
Don't Pity the Poor: Pay Them for Their Work
What can we do to help the poor? How about paying them for their work? In 2003, 40 million Americans were living at or below the official poverty line, and more than one fifth of these people—7.4 million Americans—had jobs....
Independence
Every July the US commemorates the political independence from England that our new nation had declared in 1776. At the time, so the history books tell, there had been much debate on how and even whether the declaration should be made....
Submission is Not American
One morning recently on a New York City subway train crowded with commuters, one man starting speaking loudly, addressing the whole train. Typically in New York, this would be someone who makes their living panhandling.... But this time it was another increasingly familiar orator of the subways....
Protecting Church and State
Progressive and Democratic values are fundamentally and inalienably supportive of freedom of religion. America's founders had emerged from centuries of English history riddled with religious persecution....
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