Around The Nation

Around The Nation

This was a rough week for progressives. But will it be our Waterloo–or a turning point? Here’s a piece I did for the Wall Street Journal, "Give Up onPost-Partisanship." And here are some suggestions from William Greider to the President on how to regain the public trust.

 

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This was a rough week for progressives. But will it be our Waterloo–or a turning point? Here’s a piece I did for the Wall Street Journal, "Give Up onPost-Partisanship." And here are some suggestions from William Greider to the President on how to regain the public trust.

A few other things this week:

The Breakdown: Can Healthcare Reform Be Saved …

There aren’t many questions more pressing for progressives this week than "Is healthcare reform dead?" In this weeks installment of "TheBreakdown," Chris Hayes (joined by Ryan Grim of Huffington Post) asks if healthcare reform can still pass, and how it could happen. He looks at both the politics and the logistical barriers now facing reform.

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1. Lost in the discussion of President Obama’s first year in office is an assessment of how well he fared on one issue: gay rights. In this VideoNation exclusive, noted playwright and activist Tony Kushner shared his thoughts on the pace and scope of President Obama’s gay rights agenda. His answers may surprise you.

2. I did a video commentary for Wednesday’s GRIT TV with Laura Flanders. The topic? "Change won’t come easy." Watch here.

Two "Nation in the News" appearances…

1. Eric Alterman and Melissa Harris-Lacewell will be on Bill Moyers Journal this weekend (PBS) discussing President Obama’s first year in office. You can check local listings and see video highlights here.

2. Jeremy Scahill was on Rachel Maddow discussing the emerging role of contractors in Haiti. While we mourn for the still mounting human toll in the devastated nation, we also have to be vigilant about how the reconstruction work moves forward, and who will carry it out. Jeremy gives a great primer here.

An Investigation of Note …

If you haven’t had the opportunity to read Scott Horton’s groundbreaking investigation on the murders at Guantanamo Bay, you should read it now. The story appears in the upcoming issue of Harper’s. Horton is a Nation Institute Fellow, and this disturbing story came about because of his hard work and because of support for investigative reporting from organizations like The Nation Institute. We’ll be following the story in the magazine and online, and we’re hopeful that this reporting will spark the appropriate Congressional and government oversight. It deserves a vigorous inquiry.

Finally, I’ll be "tweeting" the State of the Union Address on Wednesday night. You can follow me on Twitter, but also at CBSNews.com, which will be aggregating "tweets" from five left/progressive and five conservative pundits throughout the speech.

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

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