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What 'Cleggmania' Can Teach the US
By Katrina vanden Heuvel
Read Katrina's full column at the WashingtonPost.com.
What happens when a credible third party gets a real chance to appeal to voters? With 10 campaigning days left, we are seeing the results in the British election, in which the surge of Liberal Democrat leader Nicholas Clegg is driving ideas and policies usually excluded from Britain's hidebound politics into the campaign debate -- and, possibly, into real-world actions. Americans locked into our two-party system could learn a thing or two.
Given the opportunity to be heard by a national TV audience in Britain's first-ever televised prime ministerial debates, Clegg turned in a stellar performance, mining widespread discontent with the establishment Labor and Conservative parties and emerging as a political superstar.
(75) CommentsApril 28, 2010
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Demand an Afghanistan Exit Strategy
By Katrina vanden Heuvel
Democratic Congressman Jim McGovern, Republican Congressman Walter Jones, and Democratic Senator Russ Feingold have introduced legislation demanding an exit strategy and timetable for withdrawal from Afghanistan. The bill reads, "Military operations in Afghanistan have cost American taxpayers more than $200,000,000,000 in deficit spending since 2001." Over 1000 American soldiers have been killed and more than 5,600 wounded. In 2009 alone, 2400 Afghan civilians were killed according to the UN, and tens of thousands have lost their lives since the war began.
The Senate and House bills--S. 3197 and HR 5015 , respectively--would require President Obama to provide a plan and a timetable for withdrawal of all US forces and military contractors, and identify any contingencies that might require changes to that timetable. It would demand an exit strategy--long overdue--from a war that has already cost us too much in treasure and lives, and isn't in the interest of US national security.
"Basically, what the bill is is a rejection of an open-ended military commitment in Afghanistan," said Rep. McGovern, on a conference call with NGOs, activists, and media organized by Peace Action last week. "This bill is a signal to the President that we want him to come up with an exit strategy, and we want the details."
(104) CommentsApril 26, 2010
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Around The Nation
By Katrina vanden Heuvel
One of the changes you'll be seeing at TheNation.com over the weeks to come is more video and multimedia. We've been producing different kinds of videos for several years now, posting them on our VideoNation page and here at TheNation.com. We've also been posting segments from GRIT TV with Laura Flanders, a daily news program that frequently features The Nation.
This week there are three great offerings you should take time to watch. The first is actually from three years ago: Former Nation interns Sam Graham-Felsen and Ali Sethi and videographer James Jacoby traveled to Pakistan, where they reported on tensions between islamic extremists and more liberal college students at the National College of Arts and University of Punjab. The situation was so tense that we had to pull the piece for a time because students featured in the video were threatened. This week the New York Times picked up the story, with a front page article by Sabrina Tavernise about a harsh beating at University of Punjab. We've reposted our video, "Pakistan: The Intersection" which gives critical perspective on how young people in Pakistan view the nation's future. Watch the full video here.
Closer to home, our Greg Kaufmann decided that he should see for himself what the Tea Party activists really want. He went to the National Mall for the tea party tax day protests; here is his video report:
(29) CommentsApril 23, 2010
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Cleggmania Rising
By Katrina vanden Heuvel
Here at The Nation, we like to think that all our interns go on to accomplish great things. But all the same, it's not every day that one gets compared to Winston Churchill, Barack Obama, Princess Diana, Tony Blair, and even Jesus. But with two weeks to go before Britain's general election, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg (Nation intern class of 1990) is Britain's new political superstar. (Clegg, wisely and humbly, has said that any grand historical analogies are "daft.")
After stealing the show from Labour's Gordon Brown and the Conservative Party's David Cameron in Britain's first-ever televised debate on April 15, Clegg and his party have surged in the polls and media attention, creating, as one British reporter described it, "the hysterical condition known as Cleggmania." But in this case, the mania is backed up by hard facts. According to a YouGov poll for the Sun, the party is leading with, as the newspaper put it, "a staggering 33 per cent." This is the first time the Lib Dem party has been in the lead in a general-election race in 104 years.
We'd certainly love to claim that it was Clegg's internship that launched him into the political stratosphere. After all, since The Nation's internship program started in 1978, it has produced an extraordinary cohort of writers, reporters, editors, activists, and a few politicians. Labour's Ed Miliband, who was elected a member of the British Parliament in 2005 and is now secretary of state for energy and climate change, interned just a year before Clegg.
(16) CommentsApril 22, 2010
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The Senate's Attempt at Goldman-like Fraud
By Katrina vanden Heuvel
You can read this column in full at the WashingtonPost.com.
Fraud, a crime in finance, is often merely an insult in politics. But there are disturbing parallels between the securities fraud charges outlined in the Securities and Exchange Commission's civil lawsuit against Goldman Sachs and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's fraudulent case against financial reform. Only, in one case the apparent victims were sophisticated investors, and in the other the designated saps are American voters.
Goldman stands accused of creating and marketing an investment tied to subprime mortgages without disclosing that the underlying securities had been selected by a billionaire investor, John Paulson, who was betting on their failure. The Wall Street powerhouse may have been alone in this particular ugliness -- Bear Stearns, hardly a paragon of virtue, apparently turned down a similarly structured deal with Paulson. But it's clear that fraud was pervasive in the lead-up to the financial debacle. Last week, Senate hearings exposed the fraudulent mortgage practices that were central to Washington Mutual's business plan.
(167) CommentsApril 20, 2010
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Right-Wing Smear Machine: They'll Be Back
By Katrina vanden Heuvel
The footage of a supposed "pimp and prostitute" soliciting advice from ACORN employees in San Diego on how to smuggle underage girls into the US was shocking. So shocking it was played ad nauseam on FOX, contributed to a hysteria that led Congress to quickly--and, turns out, unconstitutionally--pass legislation to defund ACORN. The subsequent loss of foundation money has forced ACORN to close its state chapters across the country.
The rightwing echo chamber got exactly what it wanted--an end to a community-based organization that registered millions of voters, was instrumental in rebuilding homes for lower-income families post-Hurricane Katrina, worked on wage and hour enforcement, and helped hundreds of thousands of people facing foreclosure, among other issues.
As Bill Moyers said, "More than any group I've covered over my long career in journalism, ACORN was devoted to helping poor people become their own best champions."
(87) CommentsApril 19, 2010
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Around The Nation
By Katrina vanden Heuvel
As Gary Younge wrote earlier this month, the upcoming British election has moved from a projected rout for the Conservatives to a toss-up. Voters are giving second thoughts to Labour, and to the feisty party to Labour's left--the Liberal Democrats. The Liberal Democrats are surging in the polls thanks to a strong populist message and a buoyant performance in the first televised debate by a friend of The Nation--Liberal Democrat party leader and ex-Nation intern Nick Clegg. Clegg, who worked in journalism for several years after interning with The Nation in 1990, has campaigned on a platform that would reform the tax code, reform the financial sector, invest in green collar jobs and crack-down on corruption.
As John Nichols wrote this week, the election in England is proof that opening up debates to third parties can make a difference. But perhaps more importantly, the election in England could provide a model for some wavering Democrats in 2010 and 2012. The Liberal Democrats are running as true progressives, promising to reform the political process and to deliver on a robust package of investments in England's future. By running to the left, instead of the center, they may hang the election, and force Labour or the Tories into a coalition government.
If you want to be the head of a surging political party in England some day, we're starting our search for Fall 2010 interns now. Apply here.
(18) CommentsApril 18, 2010
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Could Progressives Find Allies in the Tea Party?
By Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editor's Note: Katrina vanden Heuvel writes a weekly column at WashingtonPost.com. Read an excerpt here at TheNation.com.
This Thursday, thousands of Tea Partyers will mass in Washington and across the country. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), former Alaska governor Sarah Palin (R) and others will sound strident alarms about government overreach. There will be no shortage of fury about the debt, deficits and taxes.
So how do we move beyond this mud fight and have a sane conversation about taxes, the proper role of government and how to rebuild our economy?
(178) CommentsApril 14, 2010
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Media That Inspires
By Katrina vanden Heuvel
TakePart.com is a new website that connects site users directly to issues that interest them. Like TheNation.com it aims to bridge the gap between information and activism (even more so after our coming redesign!). They have a great feature called "Media that Inspires," and last week they profiled me. I thought I'd share with The Nation's audience, and find out what media inspires you. Here is my Q & A with Take Part ...
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"Media That Inspires" is an ongoing conversation at TakePart that recognizes the power that films, books, and other media have to compel change and prompt action. TakePart is asking people who make a difference every day about the works that have inspired them.
(2) CommentsApril 14, 2010
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SEIU's Andy Stern Steps Down
By Katrina vanden Heuvel
"Andy Stern is not shy about speaking his mind," veteran labor reporter David Moberg wrote in a 2005 Nation cover story, "Can't Workers of the World Unite?" That description came to mind minutes after I heard that Stern was stepping down as President of SEIU. Over the years, I've admired the charismatic and controversial labor leader's vision and pragmatism, his push for dramatic structural change, his opennness to remaking labor's traditional ties to the Democratic Party and creating new institutions and alliances for working people, and his urgency, even desperation, about the future of labor. That urgency, fused with a strong ego and sense of turf, may have put Stern at the center of stormy controversies. Under his leadership, SEIU waged bitter battles inside the labor movement--one of the nastiest which turned in SEIU's favor with a California ruling last week. And Stern's insistence on change at almost any cost--splitting the House of Labor when it was under ferocious assault during the Bush years--was the wrong, or necessary, move depending on whose side you were on.
In the end, I believe Stern is a bold and heretical reformer, a leader who triggered the most far-reaching strategic debate in labor in more than a generation.
After helping elect President Obama (if you check the White House's visitor's logs, you'll find that Stern may be one of the most regular visitors!), and helping push through healthcare reform, Stern is now poised to play a role as a member of the President's deficit commission, to which he was appointed in February. He may also lead a much-needed conversation about forging public-private partnerships (for example, more equitable use of public pension funds) to invest in our deteriorating infrastructure and build a 21st century, sustainable economy.
(31) CommentsApril 12, 2010
Katrina vanden Heuvel
Thoughts on politics, current affairs, riffs and reflections on what’s in the news and what’s not--but should be.
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