Americas Next Failed Conservative Stimulus

Unless something drastic happens between now and the vote on President Obama’s tax-cut "compromise" with congressional conservatives, America is headed for its next failed conservative stimulus. Even with the proposed tweaking around the edges, there is nothing in this bill that hasn’t already been tried and failed. In a sense, we are still living with […]

Compassionless Conservatism

It has been said before — recently, even — but it bears saying again and again, as any truth does. Conservatives have finally, and completely, abandoned compassion. Progressives spent much of the previous decade declaring the "compassionate conservatism" of the Bush era a cruel joke. Policy gestures in that vein were seldom backed with the […]

99 And Counting Tales From the Un-Funny Papers

Let’s face it. Nothing about the economic crisis is funny. Nothing about America’s 9% unemployment rate, 14.8 million unemployed, or 6.2 million long-term employed is funny. And there’s nothing mildly amusing about the 2 million Americans whose unemployment benefits began running out yesterday, after the GOP blocked another extension of unemployment benefits. (Especially if you […]

America Speaks Will Washington Listen

"America has spoken." It’s a phrase we’ve heard from the right after every election — special election, run-off or midterm — following the 2008 election in which voters sent Barack Obama to the White House and Democratic majorities to both houses of Congress. Though more Americans voted in that election than any that has followed, […]

Drop Dead Conservatism Kicking the Jobless When Theyre Down

A couple of years ago I started writing about something I called "Drop Dead Conservatism," and attempted to define it: High on delusion, denial, and derision, it’s the face of a conservatism unequipped to recognize — let alone meet — the challenges America and the world now face, and blind to the possibility drowning itself […]

Drop Dead Conservatism The Winners Circle

A while back I attempted to define “Drop Dead Conservatism.” High on delusion, denial, and derision, it’s the face of a conservatism unequipped to recognize — let alone meet — the challenges America and the world now face, and blind to the possibility drowning itself in irrelevance. It’s the face of a conservatism that, facing […]