The Change I Believe In Fighting for Progress in the Age of Obama

by Vanden Heuvel, Katrina

• ISBN13: 9781568586885
• ISBN10: 1568586884
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-10-25
• Publisher: Bold Type Books

Summary

On the night of the 2008 presidential election, Nationeditor Katrina vanden Heuvel spoke for many: "For the first time in decades, electoral politics became a vehicle for raising expectations and spreading hope." But, she cautioned, "We progressives need to be as clear-eyed, tough, and pragmatic about Obama as he is about us." Where I Standcollects vanden Heuvel's commentaries and columns from the first years of the Obama administration, an era that has come to be defined by reform and reaction. In the wake of the economic crisis and challenges from the insurgent Tea Party movement, it is clear that it will take more than one election (and one person) to reshape American politics and repair the damage wreaked by a decade of calamitous conservative rule. Vanden Heuvel challenges the limits of our downsized political debate, arguing that timid incrementalism and the forces of money and establishment power that debilitate American politics will be overcome only by independent organizing, strategic creativity, bold ideas, and determined idealism.

Author Biography

Katrina Vanden Heuvel is the Editor and Publisher of the Nation. A frequent commentator on MSNBC, CNN, and NPR, she also writes a weekly column for Washingtonpost.com. Vanden Heuvel lives in New York City with her husband and daughter.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. xi
Obama and Progressive America
Transformational Presidency	p. 3
The First 100 Days	p. 7
How Audacious Will Obama Choose to Be?	p. 11
100 Down, 900 to Go	p. 13
Let's Get Real about Obama	p. 17
Obama Must Reclaim the Debate	p. 20
The Burden and The Nobel	p. 22
Give Up on Postpartisanship	p. 25
Obama, One Year On	p. 26
Obama Can't "Plug the Damn Hole," but He Can Seize the Damn Crisis	p. 30
An Undeserved Win for the GOP	p. 33
Obama: On the Way to a Failed Presidency?	p. 35
A Progressive's Answer to Obama	p. 38
Hope in 2011	p. 41
Obama Needs a Budget to Match His Progressive Ideals	p. 44
A New Economic Narrative
The Bailout and Small-"d" Democratic Capitalism	p. 51
A Trillion Dollar Recovery	p. 58
Obama's Economic Sermon on the Mount	p. 61
The Front Lines of the Economic (and Democracy) Crisis	p. 64
Resisting Foreclosures	p. 69
The Deficit Hawks' Road to Ruin	p. 73
If Only Financial Reform Really Were Funny	p. 75
The Senate's Attempt at Goldman-like Fraud	p. 78
Where's the Will to Get Americans Back to Work?	p. 81
A Vote for Tax Sanity	p. 84
Tough Reforms, but Not Tough Enough	p. 86
Making the Economy More Just	p. 89
America Has a Financial Watchdog. Now It Should Fight to Keep It	p. 93
Among the Wealthy, a New Voice for Fiscal Sacrifice	p. 95
Banking for the People	p. 98
It's the Economic Debate, Not the US, That's Bankrupt	p. 102
Find True Centrism in the People's Budget	p. 105
Why Aren't the Powers That Be Tackling the Jobs Crisis?	p. 107
Herding Elephants
The Folly of Palin's High-Priced "Populism"	p. 113
Eric Cantor's Cant'	p. 115
The Right-wing Witch Hunt Against ACORN	p. 117
Time to Revise the Conservative Gospel	p. 119
Enough with the Partisan Posturing	p. 122
Predator's Ball	p. 124
Americans Aren't Buying the GOP Agenda	p. 127
The GOP: Gobbling Up Our Blessings	p. 129
Paul Ryan's State of the Union Response	p. 132
Are Conservatives Endangering the High Court?	p. 135
Conservative Zealotry vs. Economic Reality	p. 138
Are There No Standards for Punditry?	p. 141
Emperor Trump Has No Clothes	p. 144
Keep Your Hands Off My Medicare!	p. 148
On Food Stamps, Gingrich Hasn't a Clue	p. 152
The Michele Bachmann I know	p. 155
Toward a New National Security
Needed: New National Security Thinking	p. 161
Smart Defense	p. 163
Obama Must Get Afghanistan Right	p. 167
Helping Afghan Women and Girls	p. 172
Reset with Russia	p. 181
On 9/11/09	p. 185
No Defense for This Budget	p. 190
Gorbachev at 80	p. 194
The Cost of Libyan Intervention	p. 197
Why Afghanistan Could Upend Obama's Reelection Strategy	p. 201
A Chance to End the "War"	p. 204
Reconstructing the Social Contract
The Most Patriotic Act of All	p. 211
In the Trenches and Fighting Slavery	p. 214
Van Jones and the Green Revolution	p. 219
Senator Webb's Act of Strength	p. 222
Gun In(Sanity)	p. 227
Rediscovering Secular America	p. 230
Wealth for the Common Good	p. 236
Healthcare, History and Kennedy	p. 239
Metropolis Now	p. 244
Modern Slavery	p. 250
Michelle Obama's Food Fight Revisited	p. 257
Happy 75th Birthday, Social Security	p. 260
No Holiday for Labor Unions	p. 262
As 44 Million Americans Live in Poverty, a Crisis Grows	p. 265
Just Say Yes to Common Sense on Pot Policy	p. 267
The Horror in Arizona	p. 270
Wisconsin-It's About Democracy	p. 273
Real Political Courage	p. 275
Perfecting Our Democracy
Ways to Perfect Our Democracy	p. 281
Let's Make Every Vote Count	p. 286
A Call For Universal Voter Registration	p. 292
True Populism	p. 296
Supreme Power	p. 298
How to Turn Congress, Inc. Back to Just Congress	p. 303
A Coalition Builder's Lesson for Progressives	p. 305
Chamber of Commerce Backlash	p. 308
Filibuster Reform at Last?	p. 311
Reversing Citizens United	p. 314
A Time for Resistance	p. 318
Lets End the Secret Money Arms Race	p. 320
Reflections
Address to the Return to Chicago Rally	p. 325
On Political Alternatives	p. 329
Remembering Studs Terkel	p. 331
Remarks to the 28th Annual Bill of Rights Dinner	p. 334
Intellectuals and Pop Culture	p. 343
Rising to the Task of Slowing Down	p. 348
Acknowledgments	p. 351
Index	p. 353
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