Our newsreel plays out in predictable fashion when covering Afghanistan. The headline might contain the death toll from the nation’s latest suicide bombing, perhaps accompanied by footage depicting a terrorist attack and shell-shocked streets. The stories often speak for themselves, and there is little left to say besides the notion that nothing has changed in … Read more
On a street corner in the bustling city of Cambridge, Mass., stands a sales rack sporting blue T-shirts with bold yellow print: BOSTON STRONG, they read. Half a year after the Boston Marathon Bombing, the message of resilience in the face of adversity stares Massachusetts and the entire United States in the face. Amid the … Read more
In a recent article defending the value of the humanities, HPR writer Taonga Leslie argues that liberal studies drive culture. Shifts in “cultural interpretation,” we are told, allegedly originating in the halls of academia, are “creating a vastly different society.” For example, Leslie argues the growing acceptance of queer and transgender identities seems to “owe … Read more
The word “glitches,” which implies temporary irregularities, understates the fundamental and numerous errors on Healthcare.gov since it opened on October 1. These have included flawed log-in forms, misinformation on Medicaid availability, broken calculators, and confusing error messages, to name only a few. The many inoperable features seem so essential to a functioning website that the … Read more
After several years of war, thousands of people have died. Cities and suburbs are the scenes of brutal fighting. The conflict has a sectarian cast, with different ethnic and religious groups taking sides and fighting one other. And while the fighting continues, the outside world appears unwilling to act. This is Bosnia, 1995. Sound familiar? … Read more
Rahm Emanuel is the Mayor of Chicago. Before becoming mayor, Emanuel served as Barack Obama’s White House Chief of Staff, Congressman from Illinois, Chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and Clinton administration Senior Advisor for Policy and Strategy. Harvard Political Review: You have worked as a congressman and in the White House, under both … Read more
I’ve never been a fan of the ACA, but it would be foolish for me to suggest that the bungled rollout is enough to justify my position. A website can be fixed, and there’s nothing in the gargantuan legislation that mandates the site be a crash-prone monstrosity. The failures in the first few weeks of … Read more
I hesitate to call the Affordable Care Act rollout “botched,” mostly because even Apple, that sterling example of private enterprise, has yet to have an iPhone launch that was free of bugs and glitches in the ordering process. Why we would expect a more complex product rollout intended to reach a wider audience than Apple … Read more
When a government program’s rollout has so many problems that the media can’t decide which one to focus on, it’s not a very good sign for the program’s future. But many of the Affordable Care Act’s issues (most notably the technical glitches with Healthcare.gov) are fixable. What isn’t fixable in the long-term is the fact … Read more
When it comes to our nation’s healthcare debate, I am left of center on the political spectrum. I believe we need universal healthcare, and the best way to implement universal healthcare is through a state-led program. Unfortunately, when the state leads a major reform, often it drags that reform on a bumpy road, with extra … Read more