How America can address the climate challenge In the summer of 2009, the American Clean Energy and Security Act, which included a cap and trade system for regulating carbon emissions, passed the House of Representatives by seven votes. Now, more than a year later, the bill is dead in the Senate; Majority Leader Harry Reid … Read more
Why the Tea Party makes this midterm different from others Throughout this election season, political commentators have been comparing the upcoming contests to the 1994 midterms, when the GOP took back Congress during the first term of a Democratic presidency. While 1994 makes for an apt comparison in some respects, the emergence of the Tea … Read more
On June 14th of this year, President Obama appointed a commission of seven men and women to evaluate the events that contributed to the Deepwater Horizon spill. The commission, organized less than two months after the spill began but a full month before the oil stopped flowing, released its initial reports this week. In one … Read more
Explaining the right-wing movement The Tea Party movement attracted a lot of attention with its vocal opposition to the Democratic health care legislation, but it took shape at the very beginning of the Obama presidency. It arose out of widespread libertarian and populist outrage over the federal government’s intervention in the economy. While opposing the … Read more
In Federalist No. 63, James Madison wrote that the defining principle of American democracy, as compared to Athenian democracy, “lies in the total exclusion of the people in their collective capacity.” But since Madison wrote those words, several direct-democratic institutions have been introduced into American politics. California became the first state to adopt a ballot-initiative … Read more
To combat obesity and improve America’s health, change the food industry More than two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese. Childhood obesity has tripled in the last thirty years. For the first time since the Civil War, Americans’ life expectancy may be declining. These facts paint a depressing, and by now familiar, picture. After decades … Read more
The politics of an unpopular policy In 1993, President Bill Clinton pushed the last bill through Congress to increase the gas tax. Even this, however, was watered-down reform; the tax was not indexed to inflation and increased the price of gas by only 4.3 cents per gallon. The modesty of the increase should not be … Read more
Who should decide on the future of stem cell research? It has been over a year since President Obama lifted the bans that his predecessor placed on federal funding for stem cell research. At the time, scientific researchers praised his decision; the consensus in the scientific community is that embryonic stem cells will play a … Read more
In response to the South Park / Muhammad controversy, several bloggers with a libertarian bent have been pushing the idea of a “Draw Muhammad!” contest to retaliate against the New York-based Islamic extremist group Revolution Muslim. The idea originated with noted sex columnist Dan Savage, who has advertised it as a way to retaliate against Revolution Muslim’s … Read more
Disgrace is the only word apt to describe Governor Charlie Crist these days. After being passed up as John McCain’s VP choice, perhaps the apex of his political success, Crist decided to abandon running for reelection for the governorship of Florida, a position he would likely have won easily. Instead, Crist continued a lifelong power-grab, … Read more