Inaugural flunks education history, limits aspirations
In an address that otherwise reprised many of the noblest principles from this country's history, President Obama's remarks on education offered only a bleak vision of schools as training grounds for employers. Neither the principle that a good education is an essential requisite for developing active citizens nor the idea that education has intrinsic value independent of its utility in the job market made it into the speech.
When Democrats sang a different tune
25 Democratic and Independent Senators voted to continue Bush tax cuts for 99.3 percent of households. What did they say when those cuts were enacted?
“Stayin’ Alive” in the 1970s
A History for the Future interview with labor historian Jefferson Cowie on the death of the New Deal order and the rise of working class conservatism over the course of the 1970s.
Disrespect for Senator McGovern at his final hour
Former Senator George McGovern, the 1972 Democratic candidate for president who issued a clarion call to “Come home, America,” died earlier this week. His New York Times obituary reflected all too well the problem of image over substance in our politics, and failed — 40 years on — to appreciate the consequences of the 1972 election.