Liberals
This Is How to Convince Conservatives to Recycle
A new study reveals how to appeal to different political ideologies
Three academics recently devoted themselves to a subject that, they say, has received "surprisingly little attention": How to convince liberals and conservatives, respectively, to recycle. READ MORE >>
Cass R. Sunstein has thought deeply about the regulatory state both as a theorist and as a practitioner, and he also knows a thing or two about practical politics. Now, in response to the successful opposition to Senate legislation expanding background checks for gun buyers, he has proffered an interesting critique of the “slippery slope” style of argument notably on display in defeating the measure. READ MORE >>
Barely had the legislation to expand background checks for gun purchases fallen short of the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster than the crowing started on the right. And soon afterward came the equally predictable reaction in the mainstream media and on the left: jaded fatalism. READ MORE >>
Did the Court Undermine the Medicaid Expansion?
As it turns out, the scariest part of Thursday’s ruling on the Affordable Care Act was the issue that got the least attention. Yes, the Supreme Court upheld the individual mandate and its associated reforms of private insurance. But it also ruled that the law’s expansion of Medicaid was unconstitutional. READ MORE >>
Efficacy and Democracy
Before 2013 begins, catch up on the best of 2012. From now until the New Year, we will be re-posting some of The New Republic’s most thought-provoking pieces of the year. Enjoy. The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Passage of PowerBy Robert A. Caro (Knopf, 712 pp., $35) I. READ MORE >>
Let’s give Mitt Romney the benefit of the doubt: He didn’t really mean it when he said, “I’m not concerned about the very poor.” Or, let’s just say he cares about them no less than he cares about the rest of us. Only 41 percent of respondents in a recent poll said that Romney “cares about people like me,” so if the wisdom of crowds is any guide, the very poor are hardly unique as objects of his indifference. READ MORE >>
A Third-Party Candidate in 2012? Probably Not.
The Causes Of The Democrats' Turnout Emergency
A Response to Michael Kazin
Sometimes Michael Kazin’s reasonableness disguises an apologetic lack of argument. His little reflection on my piece is a small anthology of the president’s foreign policy shibboleths. READ MORE >>
