Why Hollywood Still Can’t Change a Diaper

Passing the American Families Plan may bring us better films about dads and babies

During a year spent at home, one new father reported that he had finally learned “how to properly wash my hands—and a baby’s hands.” A parenting resource, meanwhile, let dad know he could get down on the floor and engage his baby in age-appropriate play. In the midst of the ...
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Why Hollywood Still Can’t Change a Diaper

The Moderates Have to Catch Up

In the fight over his agenda, Biden is making liberals the center

I continue to think regime change is a useful way of understanding politics. That’s the idea that American political history turns in cycles. For 40 or 50 years, one party and its ideas prevails over the other with a majority of voters. From the 1930s to the 1970s, it was ...
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The Moderates Have to Catch Up

Texas’s Fetal Heartbeat Law Isn’t Just a War on Women

When the pro-choice argument includes trans folx, the principles of bodily autonomy and universal healthcare grow stronger

When the Supreme Court refused to block the Texas Fetal Heartbeat Act in late August, the court signed off on the strictest limitations on abortion since Roe v. Wade (1973). Banning the procedure after six weeks, the Texas law’s most insidious provision permitted the court to undermine the rights conveyed ...
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Texas’s Fetal Heartbeat Law Isn’t Just a War on Women

Never-Trumpers Keep Insisting that Reaganism Was Not Demagoguery—It Was

The “normal” GOP set the stage for the MAGA movement, and neoconservatives could help restore our democracy by telling the truth about what they did

The conservative flavor of the week for liberals is Robert Kagan’s Washington Post opinion piece from September 21, 2021. It recounts, in apocalyptic terms, what everyone who cares about democracy in both parties worries about: that J6 was just the beginning; that the continuing lies and chaos that Trump and ...
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Never-Trumpers Keep Insisting that Reaganism Was Not Demagoguery—It Was

Battle of the Budget

What happens when the Republicans filibuster a necessary measure to keep the government operating?

On September 27, the Senate considered a bill to fund the government until December and to raise the debt ceiling. The Republicans joined together to filibuster it.  Such a move is extraordinary. Not only did the Republicans vote against a measure that would keep the government operating and keep it from ...
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Battle of the Budget

Goodbye Merkel, Hello … Who?

The German election and what’s to come

One thing is clear about the 2021 German election: it is going to be consequential. Long-time chancellor and ostensible champion of democratic values, Angela Merkel, is leaving after 16 years in office. The consequences of this action are still uncertain.   Germany’s electoral system is unique. Voters elect representatives to the German parliament, or Bundestag, and they cast two votes. The first is for who will represent ...
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Goodbye Merkel, Hello … Who?

Democrats and the Conservative Supreme Court

Is there incentive to attack the court’s legitimacy?

Last week, opinion columnist Jennifer Rubin wrote about the sinking reputation of the United States Supreme Court. With respect to a new abortion law in Texas, which invalidates Roe v. Wade, the Post columnist said that, “The nub of the problem is not that (or not only that) voters are angry that the court allowed ...
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Democrats and the Conservative Supreme Court

We Are All “First Liners”

Colombia’s youth are institutionalizing a revolution by building solidarity and insurgent practices that can last

To learn more about the protests and general strike in Colombia, read Julián Gómez Delgado's essay “The Decline of Colombia’s Centaur State.” One of the most important phenomena of this year’s national strike in Colombia has been las primeras líneas, or “first liners.” Men and women, some reported to be as young ...
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We Are All “First Liners”

“Justice for J6” Rally Was Much Ado About Nothing

Capitol Hill Police, who were under-prepared for the January 6, 2021 riot, were over-prepared for the “Justice for J6 ” rally just west of the reflecting pool at the Capitol on September 18. Tall fences surrounded the Capitol itself. Metal barriers wrapped around the designated protest area. Jersey barriers kept unauthorized ...
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“Justice for J6” Rally Was Much Ado About Nothing

The Biggest Media Bias That No One Is Talking About

How newspapers are obscuring a violent Republican crime wave

When most people think about “bias” in news coverage, they usually think of some kind of ideological bent, as if the Washington Post, say, is trying to advance some kind of political agenda with its journalism. While this does apply to right-wing outlets, like the Washington Examiner, most of the rest of ...
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The Biggest Media Bias That No One Is Talking About

The “K” in the Economy

Private equity and the rise of permanent capital

The consensus is that the road to economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic is K-shaped: certain sectors and populations will thrive while others stagnate or decline. Outsized online retailers and digital infrastructure providers, like Amazon, have experienced boom times, while many Main Street small businesses have gone bust. Those with a stake ...
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The “K” in the Economy

How Corporate Subsidies Sink Small Businesses

The Alabama insurance market shows how tax breaks benefit dominant corporations

One of the more pernicious effects of states chucking huge sums of money at dominant corporations is that the lawmakers doing so are harming their own local businesses. Smaller outlets that already face an array of challenges when it comes to competing with the big guys have to just sit ...
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How Corporate Subsidies Sink Small Businesses