It’s tempting to view government meltdowns abroad through the relatively sterile lens of American democracy. We cling to a fantasy that other nations should adopt our way of life and as long as they have freely elected leaders, all ills will be cured. Naiveté like this led the neoncons of the Bush years into Iraq, […]

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Those exultant cheers you heard last week were business organizations, like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, celebrating the Obama administration’s decision to delay the “employer mandate” provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This section of the “Obamacare” law requires employers with 50 or more full-time workers to provide health benefits or pay a penalty. […]

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After the Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), conservative pundits took to the air to declare themselves the winner of the victimization game. Talk-show host Rush Limbaugh decried the 5-4 decision as “filled with venom and rage.” DOMA’s defenders were being insulted and demonized—and probably much worse. They’re the real victims […]

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Over at Slate, Barry Friedman and Dahlia Lithwick’s two-part series on the future of progressive politics has sparked, as they put it, a “tiny firestorm.” In the first piece, “What’s Left?: Have progressives abandoned every cause save gay marriage?” they accuse progressives of having serially abandoned choice, the death penalty, religion in the schools, gun […]

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For most of Mad Men‘s five seasons, Don Draper—the super cool, super successful Madison Avenue creative director—has been something of a superhero, with the seemingly infinite ability to reinvent himself. But in season six, which ended last month, Don Draper has come closer to the edge, as his tragic childhood comes back to haun him […]

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