News at Home

How Long Will We Let the National Rifle Association and Corrupt Politicians Kill Our Children?

by Juan Cole

An FAR-15 rifle, with a collapsible stock, ten-round magazine, and flash suppressor. It is legal for civilians to purchase this weapon in the United States. Credit: WikipediaPolice in Aurora, Colorado say that they do not think that James Holmes had an accomplice.Of course he had an accomplice. He had lots of them. He had much of the gun lobby and much of the U.S. Congress as accomplices.Police are said to be puzzled how Holmes got off so many rounds so fast -- killing 12 people and wounding dozens in only two minutes.

View from the Right: American Exceptionalism and the Difference Between the Left and the Right

by Jarrett Stepman

Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States, Howard Chandler Christy, 1940.The debate over the meaning and value of American exceptionalism is perhaps the greatest political battle of our time, and the national divide echoes the deep schism that tore America apart during the Civil War.On taxes, government spending, regulation, public unions, federalism and adherence to the Constitution, there is currently an unbridgeable gulf between the Left and Right, creating gridlock in the American political system.America’s current problems can’t be solved by simply taking the middle ground and creating a few “grand compromises.” That strategy didn’t work in the lead up to the Civil War, and it won’t save the country today. The path to repair will come down to two competing philosophies, two visions for how the world and the United States are and should be.My debate with Dr. Eli Zaretsky demonstrates at least several opinions in the ongoing debate between the Left and the Right, and, of course, do not represent all opinions on our respective sides.

View from the Left: American Exceptionalism and the Difference Between the Left and the Right

by Eli Zaretsky

The March on Washington, August 28, 1963. Credit: National ArchivesIn “Leftists Continue to Misuse and Undermine American Exceptionalism,” (Human Events, May 23) Jarrett Stepman argues that American exceptionalism is one of the “primary pivot points that now divides the political right and left in America.”As an example of the Left, Stepman cites Barack Obama, who pooh-poohed American exceptionalism, explaining that most peoples think their nation is exceptional. As a second example, Stepman discusses my recent book, Why America Needs a Left: A Historical Argument, which contends that the Left’s essential contribution to American history has come during periods of crisis, such as the slavery crisis, the Great Depression and the 1960s.

The Future of Newspapers? Watch the Nineteenth Century

by Adam Arenson

November 16, 1864 edition of the New York Tribune. Credit: WikipediaOpinionated millionaires purchase newspapers to champion their political views and ideas about urban growth and economic renewal. The same stories appear in morning papers around the country, the result of ever-more reliance on wire services. New production processes allow vivid images to practically jump off the page, and the variety of topics covered increase. Some newspapers appear daily, but others seek out niches that work best for their readers and advertisers, whether publishing morning and evening, once a week, or -- perhaps most interestingly -- in a tri-weekly format.Welcome to the twenty-first century in the newspaper business. Or, rather, welcome back to the nineteenth.In recent weeks, media stories have focused on the use of the San Diego Union-Tribune by local real-estate developer Doug Manchester, while covering the latest revelations in the scandals surrounding Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers.

Should You Own Property to Be Able to Vote? Even Thomas Jefferson Couldn't Make Up His Mind

by Matthew E. Crow

In recent years, we have seen conservative and populist originalism reasserted with great political effect. Tea Party thinkers like Judson Phillips and Elizabeth Price Foley have given historical, constitutional grounding and political direction to that reassertion, bemoaning the right of every citizen to vote regardless of property ownership, and writing democracy itself out of the collection of legitimate conceptual tools at the disposal of the citizenry. The most recent efforts to rewrite voter registration laws in multiple states draw on a naked quest for political advantage, it is true, but at least as important here is the no doubt deeply held belief that the people turned away from the polls as a result of such laws lack the independence and propriety to be voting in the first place. On his appearance before the NAACP, Mitt Romney summed up his message: no more “free stuff,” and we can assume that he meant things like education, access to health care, and perhaps more.

New Scandals Show the Financial System Needs Repair

by Robert Brent Toplin

The City of London. Credit: WikipediaDuring the Great Depression, angry Americans responded to news about bankers’ shenanigans by demanding that Washington rein in risky behavior. Politicians in Washington responded to those protests by passing tough regulations that fostered stability in America’s financial industry for nearly half a century. The situation is quite different today. Recent investigations show that bankers and traders at major firms violated the public’s trust. Yet this news has not excited much discussion in the media, and legislators in Washington are slow in adopting measures aimed at preventing future abuses.

The Obamacare Challenge to American Individualism

by Ruth Rosen

Early in the morning, half awake, I heard my husband let out a whooping cheer from somewhere in the house. “I can’t believe it,” he kept saying. Like most of my friends, he -- a Director of Public Health -- was sure the Supreme Court would never uphold the patient Affordable Care Act (ACA), President’s Barack Obama’s signature effort of his years in office. 

How Four Supreme Court Justices Misquoted Alexander Hamilton

by Ian Mylchreest

Americans have always used the Revolutionary era as a cabinet of historical curiosities. When we need authority for our beliefs, we rummage around in the cupboard and pull out some suitable analogy or quotation to bolster the argument we want to make.The Tea Party sees itself as the modern incarnation of the anti-tax rhetoric of the Sons of Liberty. The more zealous among them even channel Paul Revere and other Patriots by donning tricorn hats and frock coats as if this will defeat their political enemies.Thomas Jefferson is now the small-government guru, but he was once the patron saint of reform. In the 1850s, Abraham Lincoln invoked the idea that “All Men are Created Equal” to discredit slavery. He used the words of a slaveholder to condemn human bondage. Martin Luther King, Jr. used those same words a century later to attack segregation. They both knew how difficult it is to face off with the demigods of the national pantheon.

Don't Just Blame the Republicans for the No-Tax Pledge -- Democrats are Allergic to Tax Hikes, Too

by Molly Michelmore

Only moments after the Supreme Court announced that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) passed constitutional muster, GOP legislators, right-wing pundits, and conservative strategists launched a new attack on the health care law. The right’s talking point was as simple as it was predictable. Obamacare wasn’t an unconstitutional power grab by the federal government. It was something much worse. It was a new tax on the middle class.Republicans hope that tax politics will let them snatch electoral victory out of the jaws of judicial defeat. Almost immediately after the Court handed down its decision, the Republican National Committee responded with a new Internet ad featuring the word “tax” 12 times and accusing Democrats of celebrating “another Obama tax increase.” Americans for Prosperity, the Super PAC founded by conservative billionaires David and Charles Koch, released its own television ad in 12 swing states labeling the ACA the “largest tax increase in history.”

Reclaiming Beaches for the People on the Fourth of July

by Andrew W. Kahrl

Montrose Avenue Beach, Chicago. Credit: Wikipedia

Why All the Fireworks on the Fourth?

by Ira Chernus

Fireworks over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Credit: Wikipedia I live in Colorado, where rainstorms don’t put out fires. Rainstorms start fires, at least in this parched endless summer of 2012. And the burning question in towns throughout the state, including my home town, is this: fireworks or no fireworks on the Fourth of July? Common sense tells us to skip the pyrotechnics this year. So does half of most Coloradans’ hearts, the half that bleeds for the victims of the terrible fires we’ve already endured and the ones that are likely to come. But there’s that other half of the heart -- call it the red, white, and blue half -- that says, “Yes, but, how can you have a Fourth of July without fireworks?” For a good part of American history, the biggest Independence Day fireworks were verbal. Orations were the centerpiece of the public celebration, extolling the unique virtues of the republic born on July 4, 1776. But that tradition ended long ago.

Roberts Acted to Preserve the Legitimacy of the Supreme Court

by Daniel R. Ernst

I'm not going to pretend that I know exactly why Chief Justice John Roberts left the four other Republican appointees on the Supreme Court and joined the four Democratic appointees to uphold the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act -- after all, after seventy-five years, we still don't know exactly why Chief Justice Charles Evan Hughes broke with the four implacably conservative members of his Court and, bringing Owen Roberts with him, joined three liberal justices to uphold landmark New Deal legislation. Still, I would be very surprised if (John) Roberts was not moved by the same concern for legitimacy of the institution over which he and Hughes have presided. Although he could not bring Justices Alito, Kennedy, Scalia or Thomas with him, he nonetheless avoided what Jeffrey Rosen of the George Washington University Law School called on Thursday’s Diane Rehm Show “the kind of partisan, polarized, five-to-four, Republicans-versus-Democrats” outcome that was the great “fear of many people who care about the bipartisan legitimacy of the Court.”

Is Mitt Romney Going to Go the Way of Thomas Dewey in '48?

by Robert Brent Toplin

Mitt Romney’s reluctance to take stands on controversial issues was particularly notable in a recent interview with Bob Schieffer on Face the Nation. On several occasions the Schieffer asked whether Romney intended to overturn Barack Obama’s new immigration policy, which allows some young illegal immigrants to stay in the United States. Each time Romney refused to answer Schieffer’s question.Romney's evasiveness echoes that of the Republican nominee in 1948, Thomas E. Dewey. Dewey avoided taking stands in 1948 because he thought firm commitments were unnecessary. Public disapproval of Democratic president Harry S. Truman seemed likely to propel Dewey to the White House. Mitt Romney is noncommittal for precisely the same reason. Romney is aware that many Americans blame President Obama for their economic difficulties. Hoping to stoke that discontent, Romney’s speeches and television ads claim the president’s policies have failed. Yet Romney does not offer many details about how he plans to fix the economy.

HNN's History of Healthcare Reform

Lyndon Johnson signing the Medicare bill, July 30, 1965. At left is former president Harry Truman. Credit: NARAA Century of American Healthcare ReformFor the first century of United States history, medical care was simple to access and relatively inexpensive. Services were, from a twenty-first century perspective, inadequate and primitive. Today the quality of care is far better, but Americans have to deal with a complex, confusing, and—by some standards—inefficient system, with terms like HMO, PPO, HSA, and FSA becoming household acronyms. Was it inevitable that the system become as convoluted as it is today, with health care costs passing 15% of GDP?1900-1920

The Supreme Court: What You Need to Know Before the Health Care Ruling

by David Austin Walsh

The Authority of Law, outside the Supreme Court Building. Credit: Wikipedia.Worth Reading Ken Shear: Why Justices of the Supreme Court Make Bad Historians NYT Judicial Correspondent Anthony Lewis: "The Supreme Court is a Very Great ... Institution," but Today It's "Outrageous"Marc Bacharach: The Supreme Court and Judicial Activism Tony Mauro: Obama's Unprecedented Criticism of the Supreme Court BackgroundThe Supreme Court of the United States has been a fountain of controversy throughout its 223-year history. Cries of "polarization," "judicial activism," and "legislating from the bench," however, have grown louder over the past ten years from both liberals and conservatives (albeit for very different reasons).

Obama’s America: Transcending Whiteness

by Ian Reifowitz

For the first time in our history, more than half the babies being born in the United States are non-white. This milestone signals a new chapter in the centuries-long struggle over who is included in what we call “the American people.” At the time of the American Revolution, only those of Anglo-Saxon origin were considered “real Americans,” in terms not only of citizenship, rights, and liberties, but also in the dominant cultural understanding of the term. As large numbers of Irish Catholics, Jews, Italians, Russians, and others from all over Europe arrived in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the definition of “the American people” expanded. Soon, our commonly understood notion of ourselves as a people had come to include all whites. Now, in the twenty-first century, we must inculcate a truly inclusive definition of Americanness that transcends whiteness.  

Gail Collins Almost Remembers the Alamo

by John Willingham

The first chapter of New York Times columnist Gail Collins’s new book about Texas is called “Remember the Alamo,” and the last chapter concludes with the words “Victory or Death,” proclaimed to the world by Alamo commander William Barret Travis before the fall of the old mission and the deaths of Travis and the other defenders.The witty, incisive, but occasionally flippant story that emerges between these bookend pages is indeed defined by the columnist’s own battle with the Alamo, or, rather, with what may be called the Alamo mentality. From this battle she emerges with an impression that will be shared by many outside the state, reviled by most Anglos within the state, and welcomed by the state’s emerging majority of Latinos.

We Need to Stop Using the Phrase "American Civil Religion"

by Ira Chernus

“The use of civil religion as a historical lens has enjoyed something of a revival lately,” Raymond Haberski wrote in a recent article on History News Network. he was kind enough to include me in a list of scholars who have recently written on the topic of “American civil religion.” Seeing my name on that list reminded me of a funny story.I did indeed write a survey of the study of American civil religion for a comprehensive reference work on American religion. When I was invited to write that piece, I figured the best way to do the research was to teach a seminar on the subject. So for a whole semester my students and I worked through the scholarly literature on the topic. Of course we started with a big dose of Robert Bellah, who is still always cited in anything written on American civil religion. It’s a sort of ritual requirement, but in fact one can’t understand the civil religion tradition in America without carefully scrutinizing Bellah’s work. By the time we were done with that scrutiny, I was beginning to suspect that there was something fundamentally wrong with the whole category.

Channelling George Washington: Us Against Them

by Thomas Fleming

"Don’t people realize this election is being infiltrated by the most tired idea in the political lexicon?""I haven’t heard from you for a good while, Mr. President.""I try to stay neutral in presidential elections. After all, I have to deal with the winners when they eventually transfer to Elysium. But I can’t stay silent about the current election. The Democrats -- and, I regret to say, President Obama -- are promoting the world’s worst and oldest idea.""What would that be?""The 1 percent versus the 99 percent and the so-called Buffett Rule, named after the billionaire who supposedly pays less taxes than his secretary.""It’s become a very popular slogan. You hear it on TV and radio constantly."

Racism, Wheeling, and a Small-Town Newspaper, 1968 and 2008

by Walter G. Moss

In a recent opinion piece (“How Racist Are We? Ask Google”) on The New York Times “Campaign Stops” blog by Harvard Ph.D. candidate Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, he writes of his use of Google Insights to determine “racially charged search rates ... in different parts of the United States.” Two “media markets” he compared were Denver, which had one of the lowest such rates, and Wheeling, West Virginia, which had one of the highest.Based on the presidential votes John Kerry received in 2004 plus the average gain made by Democratic congressional candidates in 2008, he concluded that “Mr. Obama should have received about 57 percent of votes in both Denver and Wheeling.” In fact, however, while winning 57 percent in the Denver area, Obama obtained less than 48 percent of the Wheeling vote. The discrepancy, Stephens-Davidowitz believes, is mainly due to racism.