Around The Nation

Around The Nation

Facebook
Twitter
Email
Flipboard
Pocket

I’m on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopolous on Sundaymorning. The topic? President Obama’s proposed $3.5 trillion budget. Inour lead editorial this week we offered cautious support for the President’s agenda, lauding thedomestic priorities set out in the budget but warning that gettingbogged down in Afghanistan could quickly sink our hopes at home. I’ll bepart of This Week‘s roundtable with columnist George Will and Republicanstrategist Karl Rove. Rove this week excoriated President Obama’sbudget, predicting irreparable harm to the country and defending theBush tax cuts. I’ll be pushing back, arguing that America rejected taxcuts and trickle-down in November, and that this moment in history callsfor a bold investment in priorities like health care and education.

Forums like This Week are difficult; you get a sound byte here and30-seconds there. There is little room for nuance and any panelist cantake the discussion off in unexpected directions. Surely we’ll begrading Bobby Jindal as well as debating fiscal policy. With just a fewminutes to make a progressive case, what points would you press? Anyadvice? I welcome your suggestions (and any Karl Rove intel if you’vebeen watching Fox News) in the comments.

Also this weekend The Nation‘s sports correspondent Dave Zirin is on The Rachel Maddow Show. Dave has touched off debate withhis column aboutThe US vs Barry Bonds. A case based on garbage both literally andfiguratively, Zirin writes that the continuing prosecution is a shamefulmoment for the justice system.

Finally, if you’re in New York City next Friday please join us forMeltdown: The Economic Collapse and a People’s Plan for Recovery, aforum featuring Barbara Ehrenreich, Naomi Klein, Joseph Stiglitz, BillFletcher Jr. and Christopher Hayes. The details are here. Itshould be a lively debate and a good time to hear from some of ourstrongest voices on the economy. If you’re not in New York City, not tofear! We’ll have a full podcast of the event the week after, along withvideo highlights and interviews. The event will also air on C-Span,schedule TBD.

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

I urge you to stand with The Nation and donate today.

Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

Ad Policy
x