"Our nation can no more survive as half democracy and half oligarchy than it could survive 'half slave and half free'" (alternative non-PDF link). "Understanding the real interests and deep opinions of the American people is the first thing. And what are those? That a Social Security card is not a private portfolio statement but a membership ticket in a society where we all contribute to a common treasury so that none need face the indignities of poverty in old age without that help. That tax evasion is not a form of conserving investment capital but a brazen abandonment of responsibility to the country. That income inequality is not a sign of freedom-of-opportunity at work, because if it persists and grows, then unless you believe that some people are naturally born to ride and some to wear saddles, it's a sign that opportunity is less than equal. That self-interest is a great motivator for production and progress, but is amoral unless contained within the framework of community. That the rich have the right to buy more cars than anyone else, more homes, vacations, gadgets and gizmos, but they do not have the right to buy more democracy than anyone else."
Bill Moyers "tends the flame of democracy."
posted by fold_and_mutilate on Jun 11, 2003 - 75 comments

Everyone in America, including me, has been driven completely insane by this war. Neal Pollack once again graces us with his opinions of America, freedom and war. Really, give it a chance
posted by elwoodwiles on Apr 3, 2003 - 48 comments

High Finance Run Amok [latimes free reg req] is a Kevin Phillips editorial on the "financialization" of the US economy. "As the financial sector, in short, became too important to fail, the Fed and the Treasury abandoned market economics to embrace socialization of credit risk. No other sector of the U.S. economy, save possibly defense, received such governmental assistance."
posted by electro on Jun 24, 2002 - 13 comments

Our enemies the Saudis. In a must-read editorial, Michael Barone makes a scathing attack on U.S. support of Saudi Arabia. Does anyone else cringe when they hear G.W. Bush speak on how much he wants to protect freedom and fight totalitarianism?
posted by bobo123 on May 27, 2002 - 12 comments

A Good Summary, albeit in the form of a NYPost Editorial, as to why Israel should ignore 95% of the criticism it gets regarding it's current policy towards negotiating withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza. President Bush: are you listening?
posted by ParisParamus on Mar 18, 2002 - 33 comments

How did FoxNews get it before I did? Somehow I did not get word of this in a dozen e-mail messages: Ode to America from Romanian news editor Cornel Nistorescu.

It doesn't really say anything that we don't know already, but I guess it's special to hear it from someone on the outside, i.e. the much-loved 1973 essay from Canadian Gordon Sinclair.
posted by Tubes on Oct 19, 2001 - 3 comments

The Tragedy in Cartoons. One of the more interesting effects of a national tragedy is that it always somehow causes the nation's editorial cartoonists to suffer massive, collective brain damage. Across the country, they rush to their easels and whip up cheesy, embarrassing caricatures of Uncle Sam crying. Or the Founding Fathers crying. Or - in this case - a comparison to Pearl Harbor. Or - if your local cartoonist is feeling particularly creative - the always crowd-pleasing weeping Statue of Liberty. As Cagle notes, "Fully half the nation's cartoonists drew the same cartoon on the same day." Including Cagle himself. A tragedy in cartoons indeed. Some psychiatrist really ought to study this phenomenon.
posted by aaron on Sep 14, 2001 - 20 comments

WTC Editorial cartoons I don't know if they trivialize or symbolize, but they're often part of the artifacts we use to remember events like this.
posted by owillis on Sep 11, 2001 - 14 comments

"Red vs. Blue" gets a whole lot worse On Slate.com, Mark Strauss makes a (I hope) sarcastic argument for the secession of the North from the South... or the South from the North, based on perceived intractable divisions between Northern states and Southern states. Basically, his whole thesis is "Those Southern Yahoos like NASCAR and pro wrestling; so we should get rid of them and have an entire society modeled on the way my freelance journalism and fiction-writing friends here in New York think." On this post, my tongue is in my cheek about as far as Strauss' is. Tell me if I'm overreacting on this one.
posted by GriffX on Mar 13, 2001 - 22 comments