Rights and Democracy
Caving on Immigration
This was supposed to be Marco Rubio's big year. Back in February, the junior senator from Florida made the cover of Time magazine — billed as "The Republican Savior." The supposedly rising star was proclaiming himself ready to lead on the thorny issue of immigration....
The Dark Side of Internships
This is my fifth unpaid internship. I've worked for non-profit organizations that couldn't have afforded to pay me and a fancy magazine that could. Some were worth it, others weren't. But I accepted each one with the same sense of desperation and vulnerability....
A Better Budget Deal
Tea-partying Republicans supposedly pine for smaller government, lower taxes and, of course, the Affordable Care Act's demise. The conventional wisdom is that these rigid, Republican extremists need to be countered by "moderate" Democrats who will behave like the...
Washington’s “R” Word
On a recent Sunday, as Dallas and Washington revived their annual NFL football rivalry, they also landed in the middle of an escalating fight over the Washington football team's name. As part of its "Change the Mascot" campaign, the Oneida Indian Nation is running...
This Truce May Not Bring Peace to Washington
Well, that was certainly worth 24 billion bucks, don't you think? I mean the entertainment value of Sen. Ted Cruz's faux filibuster alone was worth a couple billion or so. And House Speaker John Boehner's face when he would come out during the 16-day-long government...
Charting a Better Path for Our Public Schools
Nearly 60 years after the Supreme Court handed down its Brown v. Board of Education decision, separate but unequal school systems still stunt our nation's potential. After the 1954 ruling, segregating racially within a town or county became much more cumbersome...
Taking the Fight for Electronic Privacy to the Streets
It's been four months since Edward Snowden exposed the NSA's spying regime. Since then, we've discovered that the agency tracks our phone calls, our emails, our browsing history, and our contacts. It also tracks our contacts' contacts…and their contacts. We've also...
How to Honor the March on Washington’s Legacy (or Not)
Remember that inspiring 50th birthday party for the March on Washington at the end of the summer? Unfortunately, those moving speeches didn't slow the emergence of a new Jim Crow system. The Supreme Court kicked off its celebration of the occasion a month early by...
Monumental Government
Forging Ahead at 50
Fifty years ago, two progressive former Kennedy administration officials opened the doors of the Institute for Policy Studies. Ever since, IPS public scholars have channeled our independence — from government and corporate money— to blend fresh, bold ideas with...
