Jen O’Malley Dillon Fell Into Joe Biden’s Unity Trap
Jen O’Malley Dillon was always going to have to apologize. In an interview with Glamour, Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign manager and the incoming White House deputy chief of staff called Republicans (in...
View ArticleThe War on Christmas, Covid Edition
On April 3, as the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic raged through the country, a Federalist columnist named David Marcus wrote an article titled “we cannot destroy the country for the sake of New...
View ArticleThe Empty Ethics of “Shop Small”
This spring, Marissa Nuncio, director of the Garment Worker Center in Los Angeles, had a Zoom meeting with some of the center’s 300 members. Even during the pandemic, when they were considered...
View ArticleThe Rise and Fall of a Fracking Boom Town: An Oral History
It’s always feast or famine in Rock Springs. In the 1970s, this wind-worn mining town in southwest Wyoming was the site of an immense energy boom. Men from across the country moved in to make fast...
View ArticleHow to Restore the Glory of Government Science
This year, some of the most trusted science institutions in the world participated in a high-profile and disastrous national mismanagement of the coronavirus pandemic. In February, the Centers for...
View ArticleThe Unacceptable Costs of Appeasing MAGA Nation
Even after Donald Trump is evicted from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, he will still lead a multimillion-person political movement determined to protect and defend a white nation-state. Deeply aggrieved,...
View ArticleThe Conservative War Against the Black Church
On December 12, two days before the electoral college confirmed President-elect Joe Biden’s win, Trump supporters gathered in Washington for a “Jericho March,” a prayer walk inspired by the Old...
View ArticleMonopolization Is Killing Art
When some colleagues and I recently met to discuss the past year in culture, we easily agreed on one thing only: Corporate consolidation, and not just the pandemic, took a heavy toll on the arts this...
View ArticleBillion-Dollar Book Companies Are Ripping Off Public Schools
For most of America’s 10 million middle schoolers, English class means enjoying—or, perhaps, enduring—the timeless narratives of the Western canon: Fahrenheit 451, Black Boy, The Giver, Parable of the...
View ArticleThe Case for Giving Workers Ownership Rights
It’s a certainty that we’ll be entering both the new year and a new Democratic administration with the American economy on its knees. We’ll return to something resembling normalcy with time, but...
View ArticleLet Them Eat $600
Nine months. That’s how long it took Congress to pass a second round of legislative relief in response to a global pandemic recession. In the interim, the economy imploded, the death toll reached and...
View ArticleThe Lethal Inequality on American Farms
When Flavio first heard about a temporary farm work program in the United States, it sounded like a great deal. Everything from his salary to his housing would be guaranteed in advance by his employer,...
View ArticleFlight of the Barr Bros
The New York Times on Monday published a mea culpa by career lawyer Erica Newland, who joined the Justice Department under Obama and then served under Trump. Working in the Office of Legal Counsel, she...
View ArticleCongress Doesn’t Care About Your Surprise Ambulance Bill
While campaigning this spring in the Democratic primary for Missouri’s first congressional district, then–insurgent candidate Cori Bush found herself struggling to breathe: a hallmark symptom caused by...
View ArticleIf the U.S. Already Had a Covid Variant, We Wouldn’t Know
News of specific, potentially more contagious coronavirus variants in the United Kingdom and South Africa have swept global headlines in recent days. The two unrelated variants, health officials say,...
View ArticleThe Return of Corporate Tax Incentives Is a Bad Omen for Blue States
In September, New Jersey officials announced a plan to borrow $4.5 billion to cover what The New York Times referred to as a “gaping financial hole” in the state’s budget. It was an understandable move...
View ArticleMake Media Small Again
In 2020, the media got bigger. The New York Times continued its hegemonic expansion, announcing that it had topped five million subscribers in March, six million in June, and seven million in November....
View ArticleCongress Is the Problem Child of American Democracy
When Americans learn about Congress in civics classes, they’re taught that passing legislation can be a lengthy, multi-stage process. Bills are introduced by a member of either the House or the Senate,...
View ArticleMeritocracy on Trial
In 1958, a British sociologist named Michael Young, in a book called The Rise of the Meritocracy, portrayed a dystopia. He imagined a society in which the old class system of Britain had been swept...
View ArticleThe Green Fantasy and Messy Reality of Nuclear Power
Joe Biden will have to do more about climate change than any president before him. He has no choice. Already, close U.S. allies are openly expressing their relief about the end of the ecologically...
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