Well, your trusty BooMan did it. I got the new issue of the Washington Monthly online and you can go peruse our many fine articles. I had quite a bit of assistance with this task, but it was a lot of work. And now I can say that I know how to do it. The cover story was a joy to read and edit. It’s a really important piece of journalism and you should make sure to follow Haley Sweetland Edwards because she just does outstanding work. She and Paul Glastris worked on that piece for a very long time. Simon van Zuylen-Wood’s profile of Michael Smerconish is also an impressive accomplishment. And Paul’s big piece on the minimum wage is going to be talked about a lot over the next couple of weeks.
There are more good articles and some interesting book reviews. So, check out our work.
CONGRATS, BooMan!!!
I look forward to reading it in depth over the coming weekend.
Very impressive! Well done.
Washington Monthly needs to get that Frog Pond guy doing more with their publication. Good job, BooMan.
I found the Stanley Greenberg article especially good. There are a lot of stereotypes that Democrats (and progressives as well) need to get beyond.
And the regional issues with the Mountain West, Appalachia, and the South have as much to do with a rural mindset and a rural mindset come to the suburbs of the big cities as much as anything else. The farmer part of the old Democratic farmer-labor coalition is rearising in Kansas, primarily as a result of property rights issues connected with the KXL pipeline and a growing awareness that anthropomorphic climate change is not only real but a certain level of its effects are locked in without rapid mitigation. And that western Kansas is toast if the worst effects play out. That realization however is not widespread among farmers and ranchers generally because of the pervasiveness of 24/7 Fox and Rush.
On the other hand the me-too, business-friendly Democrats are working as hard as they can to lose the working class that Greenberg describes.
The Teixeira/Halpin article is basically a companion piece to the Greenberg one. Make sure to check it out, too.
Yes, diverting the issues into identity politics always were a way of dividing working class unity behind their economic interests. Up to the New Deal, Democrats were masters of racial politics–South and North. The Civil Rights movement and the various liberation movements that drew from its strategy and tactics were reactions to post-Civil War Democratic politics.
Jesse Jackson’s attempt in the 1970s to cut over against isolating identity politics was what he called “rainbow coalitions”. Too bad the business-oriented Democrats marginalized this effort; it could have created strong coalitions that could turn out in midterm elections. Fear of free, non-coopted working class power with progressive instead of reactive ambitions has stopped this sort of appeal at every turn.
There was a time when working class ambitions were for education and cultural amenities and at least local governments obliged to a degree. Or so many working-class graduates of CUNY during the interwar period have written about their ambitions and experiences.
Good job! It’s all a pleasure to read.
Congratulations BooMan!
Congrats, Booman! I guess everyone is linking to it b/c I can’t get it to open. looking forward to reading it when I can open it
Congratulations and well done!
Congratulations Booman. Lots of work, lots of great articles from the few I’ve read so far.