This magazine’s founder, Charles Peters, 1926-2023. His impact on literary writing was as important as his impact on journalism and politics.
Gregg Easterbrook
Gregg Easterbrook has published three novels with a fouth coming next year and nine nonfiction books, most recently, It’s Better Than It Looks: Reasons for Optimism in an Age of Fear. He was an editor at the Washington Monthly from 1979 to 1981.
Posted inMagazine, November/December 2019
The Pundits Who Get It Wrong—and Pay No Price
In the 1980s, they predicted the end of natural gas. They were wrong. Now, they occupy powerful positions.
Posted inMagazine, September/October 2014
Religious criminals belong in jail … Use Amazon to order an X47B … Nowhere to go by up
Fire Mary Barra Early last winter, the Justice Department fined Toyota $1.2 billion for failing to disclose a possible electronic defect that turned out not to exist. Shortly afterward, it became clear that General Motors had spent years covering up an all-too-real defect that, by the Reuters count, killed seventy-four people. If $1.2 billion was […]
Posted inPolitics
Who Would Obama Rather Run Against: Mitt or Newt?
Conventional wisdom says the Republican presidential nomination will go to Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich. This could change – don’t be surprised if it changes more than once. But suppose conventional wisdom proves correct. If you were Barack Obama, which would you rather run against? A follower of polls might say, “Of course Obama wants […]
Posted inPolitics
Fire Politics
The Senate just rejected President Barack Obama’s proposal to raise taxes on multimillionaires in order to “create or protect 400,000 jobs for teachers, firefighters, police officers and other first responders.” Whether the country needs more teachers and police is a fair question for debate. But firefighters? Firefighting is already featherbedded. With stricter building codes, built-in […]
Posted inPolitics
An Election to Anticipate
Tired of cookie-cutter political contests between very similar candidates? Then you’re going to like the upcoming race for one of the Senate seats in the late Ted Kennedy’s haunting grounds. Elizabeth Warren, best known for creating and fighting for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is hoping to challenge Republican incumbent Scott Brown. They’re both qualified, […]
Posted inPolitics
The Former Governor Factor
If you’re thinking the jumbled Republican presidential field does not matter because whomever gets the nomination can’t win – think again. A Republican could well take the White House in 2012. At this point in the 1992 election cycle, the elder George Bush held an 89 percent approval rating. Back then, Democratic figures including Mario […]
Posted inPolitics
Conservatives who Hate Government, But Want Government Jobs
All the leading Republican presidential contenders except Jon Huntsman are denouncing government, with high vituperation. Yet all have spent some to most of their adult lives as office-holders, enjoying the perquisites of government and pocketing some of the public spending they say they oppose. This a bit like a used-car salesman claiming to be a […]
Posted inPolitics
The First Bogeyman of the 2012 Campaign
If an election is coming, that means each side needs a bogeyman. The Republicans have chosen first, and theirs is the Environmental Protection Agency. Michele Bachman calls the EPA “the job-killing organization of America,” promising to “padlock” its doors. Tea Party leader Eric Cantor says environmental rules are “job-destroying”. Texas Gov. Rick Perry says he […]
Posted inPolitics
How to Fix Presidential Politics in Time for 2012
In 2000, the Electoral College put the wrong person in the White House. Al Gore won the popular vote, but George W. Bush took the presidency. In 2004, this came amazingly close to happening again. Bush had a clear edge in the popular vote, but a slight difference in the Ohio outcome would have made […]
