New
York, NY—(August 16, 2018)—The New Republic today published its September issue, which
features a cover package that explores who the Democrats need to be in the
Trump era and poses the question, “Can the Democrats fix Washington?”.
Nearly 50
years ago, a group of young, liberal lawmakers swept into Congress on a mission
to overturn the status quo. In a year when the stakes of the congressional
election are so high for Democrats, Michael
Tomasky asserts that the party must learn from that Congressional class of
1974, the last pivotal midterm to favor Democrats, that resulted in a raft of
liberal legislation. “If ever America needed a big, earthshaking election to
change the course of the country, it’s now,” declares Tomasky.
Additional
information about the September 2018 issue is included below.
[FEATURES]
In
“Overdose and Punishment,” Jack
Shuler examines the prosecution of Tommy Kosto, charged with killing his
friend and fellow drug user Chad Baker, who overdosed on a lethal combination
of cocaine and heroin. Shuler uses this example to demonstrate that the
Reagan-era war on drugs tactics are only worsening today’s opioid crisis,
stating “there’s no evidence that stiffer penalties have reduced drug
overdoses.”
Isaac
Stone Fish analyzes the
epidemic of self-censorship at U.S. universities on the subject of China in
order to protect the hundreds of millions of dollars Chinese individuals and
the Chinese Communist Party contribute to universities. Stone Fish explains in “The Other Political Correctness,” that self-censorship within American
institutions is an issue as it “restricts the ability of U.S. policy makers,
businesspeople, human rights advocates, and the general public to make smart
decisions about how to interact with China.”
[U.S. & THE WORLD]
Heather
Cox Richardson evaluates
how Hillary Clinton’s loss in the 2016 election encouraged Democrats to develop
a new narrative about who they are and what they stand for as a political party
in “The Language of Patriotism”.
“After decades of being excoriated as un-American, Democrats are the ones sticking up for the FBI, the CIA, the
Constitution, and the rule of the law,” claims Richardson, to defend the
country against a hostile president.
“What
Was Keith Ellison Thinking?” by
David Dayen answers the question of
why the influential congressman is leaving Washington to run for Minnesota
attorney general. Dayen argues, “in Donald Trump’s Washington, where partisan
blood wars on Capitol Hill have ground the federal legislative machinery to a
halt, his decision is less career suicide and more common sense.”
In “The
Soccer Mom Has Returned,” Lily Geismer examines how candidates
must appeal to today’s suburban soccer mom in order to win nominations by
forgoing strategies and definitions of the past. Geismer says this
demographic’s influence has gone even further because, “In 2018, Democratic
strategists aren’t just trying to reach soccer moms. They’ve recruited
candidates who are soccer moms.”
The issue of Democrats’ lack of investment in
Hispanic voter outreach is explored in “Taking
Latino Voters for Granted.” Author
Adrian Carrasquillo recognizes that
Democrats have not engaged Latinos, neither organizationally nor financially,
which is in part due to the lack of diversity amongst those in power who decide
how campaign money is spent. Carrasquillo states, “Without funds devoted to
Latinos specifically, it’s going to be difficult to turn them out, let alone
register them to vote.”
John
B. Judis asserts that
“abolishing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency” is a losing message
for Democrats in the 2018 midterm elections and beyond. In his piece “Don’t Abolish ICE,” Judis explains that sharp moves to the far left could “prove
disastrous in a general election. The fact that growing numbers of Democratic
politicians seem to support them suggests that they have not figured out how to
resurrect themselves in as a party.”
Lara
Putnam and Theda Skocpol counter with “Accentuate the Activists,” in which they declare activists are
rebuilding the Democratic Party, rather than tearing it apart. “Women (and some
men), activated by the current moment and aided by civic groups of their own
making, are heading out into neighborhoods, church halls, and country party
committees—working to oust unresponsive incumbents and rebuild participatory
democracy,” write Putnam and Skocpol.
[BOOKS & THE ARTS]
“Money
for Nothing,” by Atossa Araxia Abrahamian explores
whether automation and UBI will eliminate work by examining two new books, Bullshit Jobs: A Theory by David Graeber
and Give People Money: How a Universal
Basic Income Would End Poverty, Revolutionize Work, and Remake the World by
Annie Lowrey. Abrahamian writes, “While
many of us might hate our individual jobs, most of us love the idea of a job.
Our world is constructed around the idea that a job is not just a paycheck:
It’s a status symbol and a form of social inclusion...Now that a jobless (or
less job-full) future may be within reach, the question is how to reimagine our
relationship with work.”
“Utopian
Visions” from Jillian Steinhauer takes a look at the
egotism and idealism of art from Burning Man and delves into whether it can
make sense outside the desert. She explains, “Indeed, the artworks of Burning
Man don’t always make sense outside of the desert because, as much as they
exist (or fail) on their own merits, they’re just as importantly only one facet
of the demonstration of human creativity that is Burning Man. Art helps Burners
tell a story about the kind of enlightened people they are and the kind of
glorious place they’ve created. In many cases, that is the only story it can
tell.”
Daphne
Merkin reviews The Wife, a film by Björn Runge
that showcases how a Nobel Prize win jolts an unequal marriage in “Second Place”. Merkin writes, “[the
film] attempts to penetrate that mystery and the enigma of creative genius by
suggesting that, in order for good writing to take place, someone else—in this
case, a woman—must not write, or must
at least sacrifice her own talent to aid and abet male artistry.”
In “Spare
No Trend,” Rachel Syme explores how TV Land’s Younger skewers the caprices—and prejudices—of the publishing
industry. Syme explains that the show
“has become a clever conduit through which to take on a wider range of issues.
Publishing, at its heart, is about trying to capture and disseminate the
zeitgeist; many of the conversations that the characters end up having on
Younger are about how best to shepherd these new stories into the world and
about the bumps they hit along the way.”
Timothy
Shenk examines the
rise of predictions of democracy’s end in “Crisisology”.
Using How Democracy Ends by David
Runciman and How the Rebirth of
Tribalism, Populism, Nationalism, and Identity Politics is Destroying American
Democracy by Jonah Goldberg, Shenk notes that “by 2021, Trump could be
working in real estate full-time again, the blandest of Democrats could be in
control of government, and pundits could be heralding the revenge of the norms.
But it’s also possible that a more profound shift is underway. As the political
theorist Corey Robin has observed, when an old order is collapsing... it is
easy to confuse the waning of a particular political system with a more
fundamental breakdown of democracy.”
Poems by Jesus
I. Valles, Aline Mello and Tiana Nobile are featured this month.
For Res Publica, Editor-in-Chief Win
McCormack explores how to argue with a Koch brother in “False
Concepts of Liberty”.
The entire September 2018 issue of The New Republic is available on newsstands and via digital subscription now.
For additional information, please contact newrepublic@high10media.com.
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