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How the Pentagon Is Betraying the Troops

by Tom Palaima

I don't know how long or how widely Tim O'Brien searched for the epigraph for his masterwork on the experience of war in Vietnam, The Things They Carried. But he eventually chose a passage from John Ransom's Andersonville Diary, a grim account of life in a Civil War prison camp written by a twenty-year-old northern soldier. Why? Because all soldiers in combat feel like prisoners of war. And most of them are young. No matter how good and just the cause, how dedicated the in

How the Bush Administration Is Subverting the CIA

by Chalmers Johnson

Two weeks after George Bush's reelection, Porter J. Goss, the newly appointed Director of Central Intelligence, wrote an internal memorandum to all employees of his agency telling them,"[Our job is to] support the administration and its policies in our work. As agency employees, we do not identify with, support, or champion opposition to the administration or its policies."[1

Abu Ghraib .... Shocking? What Happened There Is Commonplace at U.S. Prisons

by H. Bruce Franklin

The prison has become a central institution in American society, integral to our politics, economy, and culture. Between 1976 and 2000, the United States built a new prison each week, on average, and the number of imprisoned Americans increased tenfold. With a current prison and jail population of over two million, America has become the uncontested world leader in incarceration. Prison has made the threat of torture part of everyday life for millions of individuals in the United States, espe

6 Presidents Have Had Successful 2nd Terms ... How About Bush?

by Alfred J. Zacher

The second term has been a time of frustration, failure and even disaster for all but very few of our presidents dating back to the founding of this nation. One could comfortably list no more than six of nineteen presidents previously elected to a second term who experienced success. George W. Bush, the twentieth president to be reelected, and the first reelected Republican since 1924 to control Congress, must face the challenge of that time in office. History may allow some prediction of wha

How to Remain Hopeful Even in the Face of the Republican Sweep

by Paul Loeb Rogat

How do we learn to keep on in this difficult political time, and keep on with courage and vision? A few years ago, I heard Archbishop Desmond Tutu speak at a Los Angeles benefit for a South African project. He'd been fighting prostate cancer, was tired that evening, and had taken a nap before his talk. But when Tutu addressed the audience he became animated, expressing amazement that his long-oppressed country had provided the world with an unforgettable lesson in reconciliation and hope. Aft

FDR's Advice for the Democrats ... And His Amazing Prediction

The election over, Democrats wondered what to do. The Republicans had won back-to-back victories in presidential elections and appeared well along the way toward becoming the majority party. Democratic leaders were disconsolate, wondering what they could do to recover the White House. The year? 1924, not 2004. Delaware attorney Willard Saulsbury was one of those wondering what the Democrats could do. On November 8, just four days after the election that kept Calvin Coolidge in the W

Column: Just Wait ... The Republicans Will Do Themselves in

by P.M. Carpenter

Democrats are somewhat needlessly wringing their hands over election results. The sky isn't just falling -- it has done fallen. Genetically right-wing moral majoritarians are roaming wild in packs, congressional conservatives have a permanent lock on power and any executive-branch modification of the president's personal Weltanshauung is now, officially, verboten. Things couldn't get any worse, could they? Sure they could. And they will -- but ultimately in a rewarding direct

Why the Direst Memories of Chile Are on My Mind

by Ariel Dorfman

Day after day over the past three years, as I watched Americans respond to the terror that unexpectedly descended upon them on September 11th, 2001, the direst memories of Chile and its dictatorship resonated in my mind. There was something dreadfully familiar in the patriotic posturing, the militarization of society, the way in which anyone who dared to be faintly critical was automatically branded as a traitor. Yes, I had seen that before: "You are either with us or against us." I ha

It Wasn't Morality that Divided Bush and Kerry Voters -- It Was ...

by Sean Wilentz

"It's the secular coasts versus the religious heartland," CNN's Tucker Carlson says of this year's election results. That sums up the conventional wisdom that right-wing Republicans would prefer that you believe and that too many of the rest of us do believe. The effete liberal coasts against the Real America. Situational morality against real morality. Relativism against Standards. Metrosexuals against the God-fearing. Wrong. The real electoral division isn't betwe

Epiphanies of a Massachusetts Liberal

by Jason Sokol

Frustration, anger, and shock pulsed through many people I know. Then a kind of sadness quickly displaced the more volatile emotions. It was something closer to confusion than melancholy, nearer to paralysis than despair. These are feelings that people of my generation never associated with politics. The charged conflicts of the 1960s were stories from my parents’ mouths, and I was three years old when Ronald Reagan won the presidency. George W. Bush’s “compassionate conservati

So the Democrats Were Surprised by the Republican Attack on Their Morality?

by P.M. Carpenter

In reading the lamentations of today’s Democratic strategists, I am convinced that not one of them has ever cracked a history book. The recent correlation between the electorate’s winning-edge support of nebulous “moral values” and voting Republican has gripped the Dems with overnight frenzy. Those clever Republicans. They employed some kind of stealth strategy. They caught us off guard. It’s all so new, this demagogic morality thing. Yes, it’s new &

Why the Democrats Won't Win Back the Congress for a Long Long Time

by Robert "KC" Johnson

While George W. Bush's unexpectedly sizable triumph over John Kerry has captured more press attention, the November 2 voting might bequeath a more permanent legacy in Congress. We appear to have entered a period of Republican dominance of both branches of government, although for differing reasons. Between 1932 and 1980, Democrats possessed majorities--generally comfortable ones--in both houses of Congress in all but four years (1947-49 and 1953-55). Since the Republicans seiz

Column: So Bush Wants the Line-Item Veto?

by William Thompson

As a Las Vegan (not "vegan"), I am given tidbits about national politics that come from the mouth of a very important Nevadan. Frank Farenkopf served as the national chair of the Republican Party, and he is now the President of the American Gaming (aka "Casino Gambling") Association. He is also the chair of the commission on presidential debates. In his latter role, he was privileged to drive candidate W to the first presidential debate, and candidate Edwards to t

Should We Take Away the Voting Rights of 18 Year Olds?

by Timothy Furnish

President Nixon is usually denigrated for Watergate, his “enemies list,” even his participation in post-World War II anti-Communist fervor. But there was a blunder committed by the 37th president that far outstrips all his others combined. That was signing the 26th Amendment into law in 1971, giving 18-year-olds the right to vote. Lowering the voting age such that all college freshmen, and even many high school seniors, could help choose the Republic’s leaders was und

If You Had to Put Your Finger on the One Thing that Cost the Dems the Election It Was ...

by Jim Sleeper

Since I teach a seminar on"New Conceptions of American National Identity" here at Yale, where George W. Bush, John Kerry and I overlapped as undergraduates in the late 1960s, I couldn't avoid showing my students last week how Bush is reviving an old conception of our national identity. That conception depends on assumptions about free markets and spiritual salvation that are necessary, indeed, but nowhere near sufficient -- and often even counterproductive -- to sustaining republican freedom.

Is President Bush Fated to Fail in the Second Term?

by Rick Shenkman

Hats off to the NYT for the headline above Lou Cannon's Tuesday morning op ed: "Can Bush Break the Second-Term Jinx?" Every president of the last 100 years has faced debilitating scandals or ennui in their second term. That's a warning light on Bush's dashboard. It doesn't mean he will be similarly enfeebled as his predecessors were. History is never so neat and simple and predictions usually f

Why the Democrats Don't Have to Worry About the Voters Who Are Obsessed with Old-Fashioned Morality

by Leonard Steinhorn

In these post-election days my e-mail in-box is full of despair. Friends, former college classmates, and countless Baby Boom peers all seem to be asking the same plaintive question: "Are we out of synch with the country, are we outside the mainstream?" The e-mails are from a dry cleaner in upstate New York and a suburban mom who works part-time and a high-tech wizard in the Pacific Northwest and from Boomer liberals generally chilled by polls showing that moral values motivated mo

Can Democrats Marry Progressive Politics with Religion? (They Have in the Past)

by Ron Briley

Political pundits are labeling presidential adviser Karl Rove a genius for focusing the attention of his boss upon such “moral” issues as same-sex marriage and abortion and working to attract the four million evangelicals to the polls who sat out the 2000 election. Meanwhile, Democrats targeted Ohio and its loss of manufacturing jobs as the most likely electoral prize to upset President Bush, who is the first President since Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression to preside over

Flip Flops Among Religious Groups in 2004

by Martin E. Marty

Having done little Monday-morning sighting of the 2004 campaign, at its end, we should, at least, look at the "flip-flops" or "changed places" among religious groups. First, Catholics: In 1960 the Vatican and American bishops assured U.S. citizens that bishops' (fatefully futile) intrusion in Puerto Rican politics (declaring it sinful for any Catholic to vote for the pro-birth control PPD) would never find a counterpart here. That first intervention under an American fla

Highlights of Election Night (Featuring Historians' Commentary)

by Bonnie Goodman

The Electoral College • George W. Bush: 286, Number of States: 31 • John F. Kerry: 252, Number of States: 20 The Popular Vote• George W. Bush: 59,459,765 (51% total) with 3.5 million more votes than his opponent. • John F. Kerry: 55,949,407 (48% total)The Congressional Results The Senate:• Republican: 55, a gain of 4 • Democrat: 44, a loss of 4