Nurses’ Prescription for Healing Our Economy Nurses’ Prescription for Healing Our Economy
When it comes to a financial transactions tax, European conservatives and American nurses are way ahead of President Obama.
Oct 5, 2011 / Katrina vanden Heuvel
Students Join Occupy Movement Students Join Occupy Movement
A nation-wide student walk-out is planned for today, Oct. 5, at noon. From New York to Los Angeles, students will march in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Oct 5, 2011 / StudentNation / The Nation
Letters Letters
How Do You Solve a Problem Like Obama? Bloomfield Hills, Mich. Of all the talking heads, William Greider comes closest to understanding the real function of the deficit/debt debate for Republicans [“Obama’s Bad Bargain,” Aug. 15/22]. Democrats must understand it in order to save our country. Greider nails it with: “The president has done grievous damage to the most vulnerable by trying to fight the GOP on its ground—accepting the premise that deficits and debt should be a national priority.” But even this falls far short of what Republicans are really after: profits. Huge, unimaginable profits. The government, starved by draconian cuts in “expenses,” will be unable to carry out its functions, which will then be privatized, sold off to corporations piece by piece. The grand prizes are Social Security and Medicare. Republicans have told us what they want to do to those programs, but always in terms of reducing the debt and never in terms of the real purpose: profit. Trillions of dollars from these programs would flow to Wall Street, banks and insurance companies, yielding windfall profits of trillions upon trillions, at enormous and debilitating expense to the poor and the middle class. The ruling class will have expanded its wealth and power to untold dimension. Greider identified the false front Republicans have used to frame this challenge and the gullible acceptance of it by Democrats, but he didn’t show why. THOMAS HUNTER Las Vegas As a liberal, I hate the deal President Obama agreed to. As an American who loves his country, right and wrong, I consider the Tea Party and its adjunct, the Republican Party, unpatriotic and anti-American for hating Obama more than they love their country. That said, when William Greider attacks Obama, I wonder whether he remembers a bill Obama pushed in 2009. It reformed healthcare. It wasn’t liberal enough, to be sure. But what did my friends on the left do? They attacked the bill rather than concentrating their fire on those opposed to healthcare reform. As the left formed itself into a circular firing squad, Republicans spread lies about “death panels.” The Tea Party became, sad to say, a force. For Greider to lament “the fearful possibility of right-wing crazies running the country” isn’t enough. When we contemplate those crazies, the left should look in the mirror. MICHAEL GREEN Cotuit, Mass. I thought Obama-bashing was Fox News territory. Too many liberal pundits are singing in that chorus. GOP speechwriters must be collecting anti-Obama clippings to quote in 2012. The Nation shouldn’t be feeding their files. RICHARD C. BARTLETT Denver We are bitterly divided, not unlike before the Civil War. But Lincoln had the vision and courage to say that secession simply was not an option. Yes, it led to war in the near term, but it put us back on track toward “a more perfect union” in the long term. Sometimes, strong leadership must trump an intransigent minority blocking the greater good. Obama squandered an opportunity to be a historic president. GARY MARTIN Charlottetown, P.E.I., Canada I find it difficult to understand why the president undermined his ability to bargain. As a fellow Alinsky veteran, I agree that one must negotiate from strength. Obama’s strength was his campaign’s galvanizing of the grassroots via the Internet, together with the fruits of Howard Dean’s hard work in reorganizing the Democratic Party on a local level. In 2009 Obama unaccountably got rid of Dean and the Internet organizers. Had he kept these populist sources, he would have been able to inspire floods of letters, e-mails, phone calls to Congress—a tactic successfully employed by FDR in the radio era—and the 2010 elections would have been a different story. JAMES MUNVES Brooklyn, N.Y. William Greider correctly notes Obama’s fabrication regarding Social Security’s contribution to the public debt. Greider also notes that the government borrowed the trust fund’s huge surplus to offset its red ink. This surplus, and extending the payroll tax to all earned income over $106,000 and applying it to disguised income in executive compensation, would come close to maintaining Social Security solvency until the baby boomers have been replaced by the baby bust generation. JEROME JOFFE Sierra Madre, Calif. William Greider is almost 100 percent dead on, especially when he says progressives have to pick a fight. Where I disagree is that the fight should be with Obama, within the party. My solution for true progressives is to challenge Obama in the primaries. We have some real progressives of proven talent we could enlist: Howard Dean, a guy with a lot of experience to whom presidential politics are not foreign. Russ Feingold, a great progressive leader. Bernie Sanders; he’d be dandy. MICHAEL A. MURPHY Randolph, N.J. William Greider concludes that progressives might have to pick a fight with their own party. This assumes that progressives have a place in the Democratic Party. With few exceptions, the party has shunned progressive positions for at least thirty years. How many times do the Rahm Emanuels of the world have to call progressives “fucking retards” before we once and for all abandon the Democrats? CHUCK AUGELLO Bristol, Ill. I go beyond Greider’s recommendations. The leaders of the Democratic Party should insist that President Obama not seek re-election. The remarkable successes of his presidency have been offset by equally remarkable failures. A possible loss is too much to be risked. As a public duty, he should announce that he will not seek re-election, turning over his campaign organization and treasury to Hillary Clinton. In other words, give the Republican Party its ultimate goal but on terms that assure its defeat in 2012. This is not to demean the president, who clearly deserves better. But a decision not to seek re-election would in time open a path to a long and deserved career in public affairs. JAMES VAN VLIET Columbus, Ohio Enough already with this hand-wringing over poor Obama being forced into a bad deal because the Republicans held the nation’s credit hostage. Yes, they did. Not surprising, since they’ve been saying since January that their first priority is to prevent his re-election and to “break him.” He passed up one opportunity after another to win this fight. Why wasn’t he out campaigning all year, explaining that the debt wasn’t a threat to the economy—instead of appointing the Catfood Commission to consider cuts to Medicare and Social Security? Why didn’t he insist on a debt-limit increase in return for extending the Bush tax cuts? Why didn’t he ask them to raise the limit instead of negotiating with the Republicans? And why wasn’t he doing his job last year, slapping down the nonsense being spewed out by the Tea Partiers instead of sitting in his ivory tower and letting the Republicans win the House? Americans will suffer from the cuts Obama himself proposed, the ones he agreed to and the ones the new Catfood Committee will make. Obama isn’t the victim here. LINDA SLEFFEL Greider Replies Washington, D.C. Who knows?—when President Obama executed his recent turn to the left, he might have been influenced by some of us “whining” liberals who support him. Now is a good moment to make ourselves even more bothersome. Obama has made a start toward a more aggressive agenda. People should keep pushing him toward more ambitious and substantive ideas. WILLIAM GREIDER Hello Kitty! Tempe, Ariz. I am so enamored of the new crossword compilers that I have named my two kittens for them—Joshua and Henri! JAN HOSSIENZADEH
Oct 4, 2011 / Our Readers and William Greider
Puzzle No. 3210 Puzzle No. 3210
ACROSS 1 and 12 Les anglais defeated the French—they’re on our minds in this puzzle (3,7) 1 and 19 1 and 12 are hot, buff, ripped (3,3,4) 3 Southern dish in a busy washroom (7,4) 9 Range in pursuit of a bit of potassium bromide (9) 10 Ornate ruby captivates Eastern customer (5) 11 Pastel mountains crumbled in state capital (2,4,9) 12 See 1 14 Yellowbelly—or what he did, they say (6) 17 Teacher meeting teacher’s principal with creature pulled from a hat (6) 19 See 1 22 French statesman, around the end of June, defiles ceremony with words from a wedding: “Unsatisfactory” (7,8) 25 Leaders of Asian states can interact in computer alphanumerics (5) 26 Symbol of love and expression of love: keeping red item to sit on by the fire (6,3) 27 Turbulent Rhine engulfing sailor and piece of cloth with a nationalist slogan (4,2,5) 28 With the band? No! (3) DOWN 1 Office worker is into salty pistachios (6) 2 An ideal was once enough (7) 3 Recited aloud, an exalted, brilliant stroke—this clue, for instance (5) 4 Actor Christopher claims, “I like roles that are more desirable” (8) 5 Sounds as if I go astray, cut off by wintry weather (3,2) 6 Handiwork of some contractors more proficient in error (5,4) 7 Beef, stewed moray, jumbo shrimp, and the like (7) 8 Longtime conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra supports Northern part of France (8) 13 Look-alike stirring in egg and feeling sharp pains (9) 15 Accelerating competition for cross-dressing nation (4,4) 16 Sweeping view in Japan or Amazonia (8) 18 Born free, with vital energy in parts of the lungs (7) 20 Overcome? Quite the opposite: endure (7) 21 Spooner’s suspended—turn enthusiastic (4,2) 23 Tuna coated in antimony, sir (5) 24 Try to sell tar (5) ACROSS 1 2 defs. 9 S(HE)LLAC (calls rev.) 10 I + NCITES (insect anag.) 11 2 defs. 13 anag. 15 T(ASS)O 16 hidden 18 ART(H)ROPOD (trapdoor anag.) 21 2 defs. 24 anag. 25 “pedals” 26 2 defs. DOWN 1 FISTF + [n]IGHTS (stiff anag.) 2 E + LEG + ANT 3 AL + LAH (rev.) 4 hidden 5 CLI + C + HES 6 anag. 7 anag. 8 NE + ST 12 WORDLES + SLY (low reds anag.) 14 C(HARLOT)TE (etc. rev.) 17 anag. 18 ASP + HALT 19 TR(O)OPER (report anag.) 20 anag. 22 END + OW 23 rev.
Oct 4, 2011 / Joshua Kosman and Henri Picciotto
Video: For the Youth of Occupy Wall Street, Personal Stories Inform Political Action Video: For the Youth of Occupy Wall Street, Personal Stories Inform Political Action
As the mainstream media debate Occupy Wall Street's agenda (or lack thereof), protesters discuss their personal reasons for taking to the streets.
Oct 4, 2011 / Jin Zhao and Teresa Cotsirilos
Don’t Be in the Dark About What You Eat Don’t Be in the Dark About What You Eat
Join me in imploring the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to require the labeling of genetically engineered (GE) foods.
Oct 4, 2011 / Peter Rothberg
AFL-CIO Young Worker Summit Declares Support for Occupy Wall Street AFL-CIO Young Worker Summit Declares Support for Occupy Wall Street
In the latest sign of solidarity between labor and the Occupy Wall Street movement, the AFL-CIO has issued a statement from its Next Up Young Worker Summit in support of the Manhat...
Oct 4, 2011 / StudentNation / Josh Eidelson
Ari Berman on the GOP’s War on Voting Ari Berman on the GOP’s War on Voting
The voting rights of more than 5 million people will be affected by the legislation. The number is higher than the margin of victory in two of the past three presidential elections...
Oct 4, 2011 / Press Room
Occupy America: Send Us Your Photos of Local Occupy Wall Street Protests Occupy America: Send Us Your Photos of Local Occupy Wall Street Protests
Are there Occupy Wall Street events currently under way in your city? The Nation wants dispatches from your local actions.
Oct 4, 2011 / The Nation
The (Pre-)Occupied Political Media The (Pre-)Occupied Political Media
Christie won’t run, but the MSM couldn’t stop pleasuring themself over the prospect.
Oct 4, 2011 / Leslie Savan