Innholdsfortegnelse for September 9, 2019 i The Nation

There Is No Debate I was surprised and saddened that several recent letters to The Nation [“The Imperfect vs. the Irredeemable,” July 29/Aug. 5; “Debating Biden,” Aug. 12/19] argued against criticizing Joe Biden’s record of opposition to desegregation busing, which one reader described as a “narrow issue.” On the contrary, desegregation busing was perhaps the most important test of white America’s commitment to racial equality in the 1970s and of politicians’ willingness to uphold or betray the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It was a test that found Biden wanting. Pleas that his opposition must be understood in light of the historical context ignore the examples set by more courageous elected officials, such as Michigan’s Senator Philip Hart, who rejected the cruel fiction of “separate but equal” despite…

A Catholic friend once told me that as a child, she knew which priest to stay away from. The savvy kids, the self-confident ones could tell there was something off about him. He went after the sad ones, the lonely ones, the naive, obedient ones. We’re told that child sex abuse is a secret crime, hidden by shame and fear, and it too often is for the victim. Yet it’s striking how often the abuse is known to others—employers, supervisors, employees, colleagues, friends, family—who do little or nothing to stop the abuser. Priests were moved to a different parish. Teachers were fobbed off on another school. Prestigious physicians like USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar and Rockefeller University pediatrician Reginald Archibald molested young patients for years and years, and despite…

About 25 years ago, I asked Paul Begala, then an adviser to Bill Clinton, how the Democrats failed to pass a health care bill when they controlled the presidency and both houses of Congress. Begala identified the party’s fatal mistake as follows (I paraphrase from memory): “We were depending on the media to explain the plan to people, and they had no interest in doing that.” The Democrats’ misplaced trust that the mainstream media would allow them to make their case to the public above the din of right-wing misinformation continues to derail their legislative and electoral success. It’s as if party leaders have bought into the lie that the media has a liberal bias and so expect at least a fair shake when they present their case to the…

Ever since Donald Trump attained the presidency with his signature combination of nativist xenophobia and half-baked economic populism, the leftward side of the political spectrum has argued furiously over the origins of his support. The typical debate frame thus far has been economic anxiety versus racism, with moderates stressing the latter and the left emphasizing both. Identity Crisis, the new book by John Sides, Michael Tesler, and Lynn Vavreck, attempts to settle this question once and for all. Like Christopher Achen and Larry Bartels’s Democracy for Realists, the book argues that people do not vote out of economic self-interest. Instead, they vote in response to things like race and religion—as was the case in 2016, when Trump supporters voted out of a sense that white Christians have lost ground in…

The conspiracy theories made sense. It was utterly plausible that something fishy happened with the death of Jeffrey Epstein. He died in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which reports to the Department of Justice, which reports to Attorney General William Barr, who has been a dishonest hack since he took the job. No reasonable person would believe a single word out of Barr’s mouth; he has forfeited his right to the benefit of the doubt. But was Epstein murdered by powerful people who wanted him dead? From the beginning, the biggest hole in the conspiracy theory was that those with the means and opportunity to see it done had no motive to get their hands dirty with the wet work. If the wolves in federal lockup didn’t…

Sharp-eyed readers might have noticed some changes to The Nation’s masthead besides the new name at the top. Jeet Heer, a writer of extraordinary range and depth, has joined us as a national affairs correspondent covering politics, culture, and the many crossovers between them. In addition to catching Jeet several times a week on TheNation.com, his fans will also find him in these pages and on Twitter @HeerJeet, where his B sides would be a full body of work for most of us. And because we realize that there is a great deal more to politics than winning elections or passing legislation—crucial as those are—we are delighted to welcome Jane McAlevey as our strikes correspondent. A longtime contributor to The Nation, brilliant organizer, and trenchant observer of organized labor, Jane…

LEAH GREENBERG SAYS THE LEADERSHIP OF INDIVISIBLE, THE PROMINENT ANTI-TRUMP RESISTANCE GROUP SHE COFOUNDED in 2016, just wanted “feedback” on whether to endorse someone in the crowded 2020 Democratic presidential primaries when it surveyed supporters in March. Instead, it got clapback: More than 30 local Indivisible groups, big and small, urban and rural, in areas blue, red, and purple, signed a letter asking the national leaders to stand down. “With such a large field of candidates, we run the risk of sowing discord and alienating members,” it read. In the end, Indivisible’s survey of 204 local groups found that only 18 percent of respondents thought a national endorsement was a good idea, 48 percent flatly opposed it, and the rest were unsure or divided. “We got some… information,” Greenberg tells…

This July was the warmest month in recorded history, nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit higher than the earth’s 20th century average. Around the world, temperatures soared, permafrost melted, and people sweated. Closer to home, Megan Thee Stallion (government name: Megan Pete) declared it a “Hot Girl Summer”—her way of encouraging everyone, regardless of race, creed, or gender, to live life to the fullest, whatever that might mean for you. In her own tweeted words, “Being a Hot Girl is about being unapologetically YOU, having fun, being confident, living YOUR truth, being the life of the party etc,” which feels unexpectedly pure and wholesome in light of the worsening news around the globe. The term spread like wildfire in a drought-stricken forest. Suddenly it was on everyone’s lips, from the actress Jada…

43 Times that Donald Trump has used the phrase “the hell out of our country” at his rallies since 2017; in virtually every case, he was referring to undocumented immigrants 286 Times that Trump has said “criminal,” “animal,” “predator,” or “killer” when talking about immigrants at his rallies 241 Times that Trump has tweeted that he is the victim of a “witch hunt” since January 2017 9 Mass shootings since Trump’s election that have proven links to white nationalism 70 People who have died in white-nationalist-linked mass shootings since Trump’s election—twice the number of such deaths in the four years prior…

On August 18, about 100 mourners hiked two hours to gather at the foot of what was once Okjökull, a glacier in Iceland. They were marking the fifth anniversary of the world’s first known climate-change-induced death of a glacier—now known simply as Ok. (Jökull means “glacier” in Icelandic and was axed when it lost that status.) Children, scientists, and politicians participated in the ceremony, which involved poems, eulogies, and moments of silence. Locals spoke of their early memories of the glacier. Youth activists carried signs, and one teen promised to pass the memory of it to her grandchildren. One participant, Rice University professor Dominic Boyer, told Reuters that the memorial service should serve “as a prototype for other communities around the world who are interested in finding ways to come…

The Department of Homeland Security’s new “public charge” rule will lead to mass denials of green cards and visas. Starting in October, the Trump administration will begin rejecting those immigrants it deems “likely” to rely on benefits like food stamps, housing subsidies, and other forms of government assistance. The revamped “public charge” legislation will especially harm noncitizen US residents and migrants with disabilities and will force many into a horrible choice: legally remain in the US or try to access medical care. The Trump administration will penalize immigrants with disabilities who are the primary beneficiaries of programs like Medicaid or are supported by a household member receiving cash benefits—even if that beneficiary is a US citizen. As a result, health care enrollment will almost certainly decline among the 19 million…

THE SUNSETS FROM SHARON LAVIGNE’S HOME IN ST. JAMES, LOUISIANA, ARE OTHERWORLDLY. IN THE EVENINGS, THE 67-YEAR-old can look out from her porch onto the 20 acres she inherited from her grandfather, the land bathed in orange and pink light. Once farmland, today it is mostly grass, which gives off a sweet, earthy smell as the heat leaves with the day. Interrupting the quiet murmur of cicadas is the steady clank and hum of machinery. Tall metal tanks are visible from Lavigne’s property, with twisted pipes running between them and plumes of white smoke curling above. St. James sits smack in the middle of Cancer Alley, a series of communities, mostly majority African American, that line the banks of the Mississippi River from New Orleans to Baton Rouge. For decades,…

ACROSS 1 Heard location makes sense (5) 4 Vessels with a hint of serious trouble try to return filled with oxygen (9) 9 Escape from reef? (5,4) 10 Take too much in Asian politician’s home (5) 11 Discover logical argument that might go over your head (4) 12 Irregular Orange County electronics firm brought back small electronic grid (10) 14 Start of sexual relations, leading to thoughtless eruption on the body (4,4) 15, 18, 5D, and 21D Weak theater delivery person entered, shuffling six letters (6,6,6,4,2) 18 See 15 19 Possibly cold case lost in translation (8) 22 Weight means I’m left with broken cane (10) 24 Scandalous data provides cover for government agency (4) 26 Pronounce vegetable as measure of fineness (5) 27 Weaving rug behind place for tartan…