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Lessons Learned (And Not Learned) from McCarthyism

by Ruth Rosen

McCARTHYISM. The very word conjures up the image of someone using smear tactics to question a person's patriotism and to silence dissent. Could such political persecution happen again in our country? That is the question some Americans pondered last week when the U.S. Senate unsealed 4,000 pages of transcripts from secret sessions held by Sen. Joseph McCarthy in 1953-54. He used these closed hearings to weed out witnesses who refused to be intimidated and as dress rehear

Judging George: A Mid-Term Assessment

by Fred Greenstein

In his last book, The Presidential Difference: Leadership Style from FDR to Clinton, Mr. Greenstein provided certain criteria by which presidents should be judged. He ended with Bill Clinton. At a conference at Princeton in April, Mr. Greenstein extended his analysis to George W. Bush. Mr. Greenstein's conclusions appear below. The professor's full lecture can be accessed by clicking here.Emotional In

What Passes for Worldly Objectivity in Bent Space

by P. M. Carpenter

By all accounts Thomas Friedman has become the leading anti-ideology scribe of centrist reason, purportedly the brand of journalism most Americans favor. The New York Times columnist so firmly straddles the fence separating left and right he must have blisters on his butt. To be fair, though, he’s usually fair. A little boring maybe … but fair. And because he’s so centrist as well as gosh-darn fair, it could be said that Friedman is Middle America writ large. Yet on the continuing Ira

Our Latest Wars Are Killing a Lot More Americans than You Think

by Chalmers Johnson

Most young Americans who enlist in our all-volunteer armed forces -- roughly four out of five -- specifically choose non-combat jobs, becoming computer technicians, personnel managers, shipping clerks, truck mechanics, weather forecasters, intelligence analysts, cooks, or forklift drivers, among the many other duties that carry a low risk of contact with an enemy. They often enlist because they have failed to find similar work in the civilian economy and thus take refuge in the military's long-e

Is George W. a "Dry Drunk"?

by Katherine van Wormer

Dry drunk is a slang term used by members and supporters of Alcoholics Anonymous and substance abuse counselors to describe the recovering alcoholic who is no longer drinking, one who is dry, but whose thinking is clouded. Such an individual is said to be dry but not truly sober. Such an individual tends to go to extremes.

Is George W. the Demagoguer in Chief?

by P. M. Carpenter

Anyone with a lick of common sense and a penchant for prophecy could easily call the 2004 presidential election without further ado: a Democrat, almost any Democrat, will mop up the floor with George W. Forget Iraq. Today's ill-reasoned hoopla over that wagged dog will be long forgotten tomorrow. And let us even grant that America's greatest foreign policy blunder - otherwise known as Operation Iraqi Freedom - doesn't blow up in our face till at least 2005. The economy, our

Should We Be (Really) Worried About SARS?

by Ross Collins

Again a disease explodes out of nowhere -- a new flu that spreads easily, sickens people quickly and kills them sometimes. It also pays its call on a world that has no antidote.We once assumed that infectious diseases such as influenza could be controlled. The availability of modern antibiotics persuaded many of us that any real threat from a flu microbe was as quaint as wind-up phonographs and rumble seats. In the 1960s the surgeon general's office declared

Do Yale's Students Need a Lesson in Manners?

by Jim Sleeper

As a supporter of the current war who is dismayed at how some others have supported it, I'd be glad if the worst of the controversy on this campus were confined to a few instances of barging into people's rooms, spitting on them, or defacing property. Such acts have been so widely and rightfully condemned that I doubt we'll see more. But we do endure something more chronic and perfectly legal: the belligerence of some students who think themselves entitled to subject their peers and

It's too Early to Declare Victory

by Ron Briley

Baghdad has fallen, and the tyrannical regime of Saddam Hussein has collapsed. We are treated to television images of Iraqis dancing in the streets of America and Baghdad. American troops join Iraqi citizens in toppling a statue of Saddam. Surely, those of us who protested the invasion of Iraq must admit the error of our ways. Unfortunately, life and history are rarely as simplistic as Fox News would have us believe. One of the major problems in observing this televised war from ou

Why the Right Has Fallen Victim to Wishful Thinking

by P.M. Carpenter

In the April 10 edition of Slate, founding editor Michael Kinsley sketched a portrait of America's consensus on the seemingly erstwhile Iraq Question ("Unsettled: Victory in the war is not victory in the argument about the war"). "We've won," he wrote on the majority's behalf, and "there is no quagmire. Saddam is dead, or as good as [dead]…. It was all fairly painless…. Those who opposed the war look lik

If Martin Luther King Were Alive Today

by Ruth Rosen

AS THE MARCH passes through the streets of Memphis, elderly people line the streets and kids wave at the civil rights activists -- college students and union members who, every year on April 4, commemorate the day when the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated as he stood on the balcony of a Memphis motel. This is the 35th anniversary of King's death and I am here with a contingent of historians. As hundreds of Memphis residents pass by, we wonder how many Americans out

Why We Care So Much About POW's

by David Greenberg

To judge by the intensity of feeling that has attached to the fates of the Americans captured as POW's, something more than idle curiosity is at work, something deep in the national subconscious. A mystique has always surrounded the prisoner of war and the missing in action. On the one hand, their experience embodies the ultimate nightmare: being captured by, and at the mercy of, a demonized enemy, out of reach of America's laws and protection. On the other hand, the POW gains

Column: Yesterday's Emergency Has Been Cancelled Due to Political Inconvenience

by P.M. Carpenter

Yesterday's Emergency Has Been Cancelled Due to Political Inconvenience There are some things any hardcore political junkie is compelled to admire about this administration. For instance when it comes to propaganda, the Bushies outdo with ease the wiliest of opposing spin rascals, and that includes the wiliest of them all -- Iraq's information ministry, which defiantly declared the absence of U.S. forces near Baghdad even as the 7th Cavalry was pummeling the city's elite

Stop with the World War II Analogies Already

by Ron Briley

History Shows. . . . In making his case for the American military invasion of Iraq, President George W. Bush relies upon historical analogies and examples from his father's World War II generation. For example, the president argues that failure to use force against Saddam Hussein will render the United Nations an impotent and meaningless organization just as the League of Nations collapsed before the aggressive expansionism of Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany. Usin

Stop With the World War II Analogies Already

by Ron Briley

In making his case for the American military invasion of Iraq, President George W. Bush relies upon historical analogies and examples from his father's World War II generation. For example, the president argues that failure to use force against Saddam Hussein will render the United Nations an impotent and meaningless organization just as the League of Nations collapsed before the aggressive expansionism of Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany. Using the rhetoric of such World War II fi

Column: When in Doubt, Wave the Flag and Wag the Tail

by P.M. Carpenter

The logic of your average American war booster leaves a considerable something to be desired. As I was watching one of the seemingly White House-operated cable networks last week, a flag-waving California lass being interviewed said we should prosecute the war in Iraq to the fullest because "there are people over there with guns trying to kill us." She appeared genuinely insulted, puzzled and ticked off that more than a few Iraqis have chosen to defend their homeland. On

Do Democratic Presidential Candidates Have to Remain Mute During the War?

by Don Higginbotham

Although one might think from reading some letters to the press that dissent from government policies that result in war is by definition unpatriotic if not treasonous, American history provides a very different conclusion. In fact, from the War of Independence through the Vietnam War, every major conflict, with the exception of World War II, has witnessed substantial opposition. Moreover, influential critics, even though their opinions were not shared by a majority of Americans, did n

Is God on Our Side?

by Fred Nielsen

God is on our side, President Bush assures us. Speaking at the National Cathedral on September 14, 2001, he declared that America's "responsibility to history" was to "rid the world of evil." The service ended with the singing of the Civil War anthem, "Battle Hymn of the Republic." To rid the world of evil is as much a theological task as it is a military one. President Bush seems confident t

What Will the Supreme Court Do About the Pledge?

by Ralph Luker

In nine western states covered by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, public schools are now barred from including the words "under God" in students' pledge allegiance to the flag.The circuit court’s ruling, re-affirming the judgment of a three-judge panel last June, will be appealed to the United States Supreme Court, where it is likely to and should be overturned. The Pledge of Allegiance has no ancient lineage. It was drafted as a patriotic gesture by Francis Be

You Call this Democracy?

by Stanley Kutler

Passivity and a sense of powerlessness are pervasive everywhere. Tabloids and cable channels refer to the "treason" of celebrities who oppose President Bush. Our political leaders march in lockstep with the president. The so-called "opposition" hedges its bets, "patriotically" supporting Bush's actions, but ever hopeful he will stumble on the economy and give them the opportunity of 1992 all over again. The freedom and diversity we so cherish