Progressive Opinion

truthdig.com — The fact that African-American patriotism is never simple doesn’t mean it's in any way halfhearted; to the contrary, complicated relationships tend to be the deepest and strongest. It doesn't, of course. It never has. Black Americans are just more intimately and acutely aware of some of our nation's flaws than many white Americans might be.

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huffingtonpost.com — Realpolitik is one thing. Realstupidpolitik is quite another.

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truthdig.com — The conservatives on the U.S. Supreme Court have shown again their willingness to abandon precedent in order to do whatever is necessary to further the agenda of the contemporary political right.

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openleft.com — Just because right-wingers use words and phrases like faith, family, values, hard work, self-reliance, country and patriotism doesn't mean we shouldn't be proudly using them as well. That's not using their framing; it's using words that rightly belong more to us than to them.

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thenation.com — Young people who want work and cannot find it are being sent the wrong message. Is this a country that really respects hard work if it places no value on creating work? Indeed, what message does this nation want to send its youth?

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alternet.org — Republicans do not own the rights to this word. Obama has an opportunity to change how we think about patriotism. Will he take it?

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progressive.org — Before heading out for summer recess, the Democratically controlled Congress is on the cusp of handing Bush two big victories — and the American people two big defeats.

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thenation.com — While the nation pats itself on the back for finally offering up a serious black presidential candidate, racial inequality and what — if anything — to do about it, have not been part of the discussion. Yet race remains a fundamental divide in American society.

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huffingtonpost.com — When I think of today's blunt, fact-based online hell-raisers, my mind quickly flashes on Izzy Stone. You may think of Josh Marshall or Glenn Greenwald or Arianna Huffington. I think of Izzy.

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huffingtonpost.com — Today almost no one wants to get caught openly acknowledging the limits of public opinion. We are all populists now. The voice of The People is the voice of God. In a profound and disturbing way, our worship of The People has grown so rigid that we are in danger of losing touch with our own history. It is one thing to pay ordinary people the respect due them as human beings, quite another to pretend that everything they believe is beyond questioning. We used to understand this, but no longer seem to.

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