What We Can’t Talk About When We Talk About Elections

This is the most polarized presidential choice since 1980. Yet issues fundamental to the nation’s future have been excluded from the debate.

The Editors

Paul Ryan Quietly Requested Obamacare Cash

In a letter to the Obama administration obtained by the The Nation, Ryan asked that a clinic in his district receive a grant made possible by the Affordable Care Act.

Lee Fang

Noted

Ryan Devereaux on a SEAL’s bin Laden book, Ari Melber on Obama and Twitter, Michael Youhana on Marines in Guatemala, Dav...

Various Contributors

The C-Word

But does his DNC speech signal that Obama will now champion the climate fight? Or was he just telling the Democratic base what they wanted to hear?

Mark Hertsgaard

New York’s Fractivists Keep the Heat on Cuomo

As the Democratic governor considers whether to allow the controversial gas drilling practice, anti-fracking forces vow to stop it—even if they have to go to jail to do so...

Nicholas Kusnetz

Convention Bounce

Calvin Trillin

Naomi Wolf’s ‘Vagina’: No Carnations, Please, We’re Goddesses

In her loopy new book, the celebrity feminist acknowledges that every woman is sexually unique, but then she argues that they're all the same—i.e., just like her.

Katha Pollitt

The Real Risks of Fake Outrage

A manufactured controversy aimed at Elizabeth Warren shows the damaging ways we exploit trivial kerfuffles and pass them off as political stories.

Patricia J. Williams

Letters

Remembering Alexander Cockburn

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