Jesse Jackson was furious over injustice. He was also full of hope. His funeral was a reminder that the two were never meant to be separated.
Lyndon Johnson
Posted inPolitics
Trump’s Troop Deployment: Why It’s Both Ominous and Stupid
Where have all the Jeffrey Epstein files gone, long time passing? Being slowly handed to the House Oversight Committee, but not made public, so the details of Donald Trump’s connection with Epstein will stay a mystery. Don’t expect the Justice Department files to help. Trust Attorney General Pam Bondi not to release embarrassing information to […]
Posted inHigher Education
Student Loan Debt: What Went Wrong and How to Fix It
Student Loan Debt: From Educational Opportunity to Generational Grievance: The history of student loan debt shows how noble programs and soaring tuition have often left too many students underwater. Fortunately, there are ways to fix the problem.
Posted inBooks
Secretary of Enablement
Robert McNamara’s subservience to Lyndon Johnson led America to disaster in Vietnam.
Posted inPolitics
Hubert Humphrey’s Liberalism for Our Time
“Liberalism always finds itself beleaguered at a moment of radical polarization,” journalist and historian James Traub writes in his deft and thoughtful biography of Hubert Humphrey to be published next month. While the right wing has organized around the destruction of liberalism and the far left denounces liberals as gutless sellouts, Traub argues that studying […]
Posted inPolitics
McCarthy, Biden, and the Washington Snub
The House Speaker is reportedly still angry over a two-year-old incident with the president. It reminds anthropologists studying capital culture that real or perceived slights can drive policy and politics.
Posted inPolitics
What Joe Biden and LBJ Have in Common
Each saw the expansion of rights as key to their national ambitions, writes a noted historian. For LBJ, it was civil rights; for Biden, it was abortion.
Posted inPolitical Animal
To Reduce Income Inequality, Lift Up Those on the Bottom
Several potential 2020 Democratic contenders have put forward serious proposals to reduce poverty.
Posted inPolitical Animal
Coalition Politics: Trading Perfection For Permanence
There’s a reason why many of LBJ’s Great Society programs have stood the test of time.
Posted inJanuary/February/March 2019, Magazine
The Forgotten Lessons of LBJ’s Domestic Legacy
From food stamps to Medicare, Johnson’s Great Society offers a model for how to create enduring federal initiatives by pulling together broad, diverse coalitions.
