Political History

"Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back," John Maynard Keynes observed in 1936. And not only madmen in authority; lightweights in mass media, too.

What does America's deepening war in Afghanistan have to do with the American trade deficit? Answer: Both are the results of Cold War policies that made sense at one time but are now harmful to the United States.

Is it just me, or does Barack Obama seem different since health care passed? He’s sticking it to the Senate by appointing 15 nominees while it is on recess; he’s sticking it to Benjamin Netanyahu by not backing down from demands that Israel halt building in East Jerusalem; he’s sticking it to the banks by aggressively pushing financial reform. It’s hard to believe that only two months ago, Paul Krugman announced that “I’m pretty close to giving up on Mr.

When they turn health-care reform into a movie, I hope they give a cameo to the nuns. For months, the powerful, sheltered men who run the Conference of Catholic Bishops had been urging members of Congress to give up on covering the uninsured because the anti-abortion provisions in the Senate bill, written by two anti-abortion senators, weren’t anti-abortion enough. Then along came the nuns, to remind everyone that Jesus didn’t get his start on Fox News. “When I read the Gospels, where is Jesus? He’s healing the lepers,” declared Sister Simone Campbell.

The United States has been leading the response to the Haitian earthquake for all of the reasons that we would expect: our geographical proximity, our competence at emergency response, and our innate generosity. That fits the narrative most of us hold in our heads, for we typically think of Haiti and America as a basket case and a basket, joined only by their contradictions, and the beneficence of one to the other.

Right now many moderates and liberals are telling themselves that the Democrats' success in passing the president's health reform proposal is as heroic as President Clinton's decision to raise taxes, cut defense spending and trim entitlement spending in 1993. This is a rather fanciful notion. To understand why, it is worth recounting exactly what happened that year.

Standing at the edge of the health care precipice, President Barack Obama has reached a defining point in his presidency. The recent news that Anthem Blue Cross is planning to jack up individual premiums as much as 40 percent is just the latest example of our flailing health care system. Spiraling costs are the greatest long-term threat to our nation. Obama must get this one right, otherwise the nation, as well as his presidency, is in trouble.

This week’s last-ditch health care push may or may not prove the defining battle of Barack Obama’s presidency. It may or may not prove a defining moment in the history of the American welfare state. But here’s a good bet: The Democratic Party will never be the same.

A new right is being born, following the death of the older conservative movement. Fortunately for the left, the next American right is dominated by libertarians like Ron Paul and Paul Ryan, who worship at the shrine of Ayn Rand.

There are pivotal moments in politics that shape our view of the democratic process. For some, the election of President Obama was such an event. For other, more sadistic, types, perhaps it was when Richard M. Nixon resigned. For me, however, it's the story former Democratic Rep. Eric Massa told last week about an alleged encounter -- the White House denies it happened -- between the troubled pol and the president's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel.