There Is Only One Way to Fix Our Broken Presidential Primary
Every four years, many Americans look at the presidential primary system and ask: Is this really the best way to choose a nominee? It’s hard to say yes. Iowa and New Hampshire unfairly monopolize the...
View ArticleHillary Clinton’s Neverending Story
In close-up, Hillary Clinton is enduring hair and makeup. She breathes deep through her nose, summoning reserves of patience, as two people go at her with brushes, lipstick, eyeliner. From behind the...
View ArticleThe Myth of the Progressive Boss
Five years ago, the labor movement got an unexpected shot in the arm thanks to a bunch of angry bloggers. When workers at the smart, snarky digital news outlet Gawker went public with their organizing...
View ArticleElizabeth Warren Was Her Own Worst Enemy
What happened to Elizabeth Warren? Despite periods in which she seemed to be a front-runner, with a strong message and sturdy base of fundraising, the Massachusetts senator’s fortunes fell into...
View ArticleConsider the Anti-Dairy Protesters
When anti-dairy demonstrators stormed the stage during Joe Biden’s Super Tuesday rally, it was the two women standing next to him—his wife Jill and his advisor Symone Sanders—who went into...
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The Promise of a Feminist Midlife Crisis
Not long ago, American culture provided a sanctioned life course: an idle childhood, an adulthood of mothering (for women) and productive labor (for men), a leisured retirement. Even if many could not...
View ArticleWhat Elizabeth Warren Got Right
The United States does not have a prime minister. If it did, Elizabeth Warren would be an excellent Democratic choice for the job. In her many plans could be found the light of progressive policymaking...
View ArticleYour Favorite Beach Is Disappearing
My beach isn’t the sort that comes to mind when you’re planning a late-winter getaway. There are no beach towels, umbrella drinks, salt-kissed tans, or brightly colored swimwear. At my beach, there’s...
View ArticleThe Conversations Warren Never Had
I am an enrolled member of the Sappony Tribe, one of North Carolina’s seven state-recognized tribes. “Card-carrying” is a little NRA for my taste, but I do have one. An eighth tribe, the Eastern Band...
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Is Yimbyism the Answer to America’s Housing Crisis?
America is in the midst of a housing crisis. Home-price appreciation has outstripped wage growth in metro areas across the country, squeezing millions of middle- and low-income families. Nowhere is...
View ArticleElizabeth Warren’s Women Stare Into a 2020 Void
Kelli Musick knew this was going to happen.Like a lot of women who supported Hillary Clinton in the 2016 primary, she’d been told it wasn’t that people didn’t want a woman president, they just didn’t...
View ArticleThe Invisible Hand Wants You Dead
Rick Santelli is at it again. Speaking from the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on Thursday, the stock trader and frequent CNBC commentator shared his views about the best way to handle the...
View ArticleRebooting Bernie Sanders
While these are still the early days of the Democratic primary, things are plainly not going well for Bernie Sanders. Joe Biden’s landslide victory in South Carolina and commanding performance on Super...
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Fear and Loathing in Mumbai
On the fourth page of his new novel, Low, the author Jeet Thayil steps outside the proceedings to offer this parenthetical, qualifying the ringing of some bells: “(The bells are an omen, and they ring...
View ArticleThe Democrats’ Cult of Pragmatism
“Nobody likes him!” Hillary Clinton said of Bernie Sanders in remarks taped last year for a documentary. She didn’t mean it literally, of course. Lots of people clearly like Sanders, sometimes with a...
View ArticleIs Zero Hedge a Russian Trojan Horse?
About a week before Christmas, I received a most unwelcome email. A criminal complaint had been filed against me in Bulgaria, a country I have never visited and with which I had no personal connection....
View ArticleIn 2020, Endorsements Matter More Than Ever
Speaking to reporters after dropping out of the presidential race last week, a deflated Elizabeth Warren admitted that her theory of the Democratic primary was wrong. “I was told at the beginning of...
View ArticleThe Kleptocrat Next Door
Two months ago, the Trump administration made a momentous, and surprising, decision to put post-Soviet oligarchs on notice. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in an unexpected January 13 announcement,...
View ArticleWhat Happened to Jordan Peterson?
The Canadian psychology professor Jordan Peterson has been described as “the most influential public intellectual in the Western world.” He is an exponent of the Jungian concept of the hero’s journey,...
View ArticleThe Most Important Role in a Biden (or Sanders) Administration
With only two major candidates left in the Democratic primary, speculation is turning to who might potentially serve as the next vice president. At this early stage, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders have...
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