Reihan Salam: All Publications, Events and Press

Chinese Largesse

Articles — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 10:08:00 -0400

The financial crisis is raising serious questions about the future of American power. Can the United States sustain the burdens of global leadership while we dust ourselves off from what looks like a near-knockout blow to our economy?

As Zachary Karabell has argued, we are now seeing a globalization of finance that parallels the globalization of manufacturing that began in earnest in the 1970s. Wall Street is no longer the center of the financial world as wealth flows from our shores to the Gulf and Asia's rising states. The sharp increase in the quantity and quality of consumption, which we owe to a combination of Wal-Mart (i.e.,… more

Reihan Salam in Conde Nast Portfolio | 'Health Care Nation'

Communications — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 15:55:00 -0400

New America in the News:

Herzlinger--who stresses that she speaks for herself, not the campaign--and Republican thinkers like Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam, co-authors of Grand New Party, think they see a politically sellable economic tradeoff: The idea is to use sweeping governmental rules to open health-care markets to more diverse and efficient private companies...

To Douthat and Salam, embracing old bugaboos is the cost of strengthening the G.O.P. in national elections. They note that the traditional conservative answer to health care--less regulation, spending caps, tax-code adjustments--will drive up health-care costs for the poor and the old, just as Republicans are trying to erase the memory of what Bush has done to average wage earners: “No working-class political movement can succeed, though, unless it makes a push for reform in what may be the greatest source of anxiety for working families--the country’s health-care system.” LINK

A National Party No More?

Articles — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 14:14:00 -0400

Does Sarah Palin represent the future of the Republican Party? Well, yes and no.

First, Palin speaks to the right constituencies. For the Republican Party to flourish, it needs to speak to the aspirations of working-class voters in general and to women in particular.

You might say that John McCain is the candidate of the first half-hour of the Today Show--the hard-news gruel that most viewers simply endure as they wait for light entertainment--while Palin represents the softer focus of the rest of the program. That is the same terrain occupied by Mike Huckabee, who spoke more forcefully and intelligently about fighting obesity than about fighting radical jihadists, and… more

Reihan Salam's book in Bloomberg News | 'Republicans Seek to Restore Reputation as Source of New Ideas'

Communications — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:51:00 -0400

New America in the News:
Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam, two authors in their 20s who wrote Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream, argue the party can woo such voters by championing tax breaks for families with children and promoting vocational education, while leaving much of Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal intact. LINK

Reihan Salam on NBC Nightly News | 'GOP Youth Look for New Approach to Republican Party'

Communications — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 09:45:00 -0400

New America in the News:

MARIA MENOUNOS reporting:

Young Republican activists like Brian Smith say they are not giving up the fight for young voters who thus far have been crucial to Barack Obama's success.

Mr. BRIAN SMITH: What we find important--individual liberty, national security, you know, limited government--are still going to be the same, but the approach is going to be different.

MENOUNOS: Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam, both 28, agree, they're among the youngest thinkers looking for that new approach to the grand old party, saying the old Republican message doesn't work today.

Mr. REIHAN SALAM: We can make government more responsive. We want you to have ownership of government.

MENOUNOS: Looking to re-cast the GOP message in new terms, these young Republicans want to secure the working class and pivotal new voters by focusing on kitchen table issues like tax breaks for young families as opposed to handouts, arguing government spending is OK as long as it's productive.

Mr. ROSS DOUTHAT: Conservative politicians have to readjust and move to address the challenges facing America today.

Mr. SALAM: If the Republican Party doesn't wise up and start talking about those issues that matter urgently now to young families, they're going to be extinct. LINK to video

Reihan Salam in Marketplace | 'McCain Must Focus on the Payroll Tax'

Communications — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:58:00 -0400

New America in the News:
Commentator Reihan Salam says some Republicans have lost touch with the economic anxiety of average Americans. He offers a suggestion for self-improvement. LINK to audio and transcript

RNC Event: America's Next Foreign Policy

Communications — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:00:00 -0400

A New America Event
09/03/2008 - 9:00am

Panelists will discuss the challenges the next president will face in building a new equilibrium in the Middle East.

The dialogue will moderated by Steve Clemons and will be advanced by four short provocations delivered by foreign policy experts.

Light breakfast fare and coffee will be served beforehand.

Reihan Salam in USA Today | 'Grand Old Party Seeks Fresh Faces'

Communications — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 10:42:00 -0400

New America in the News:

None, though, has embraced the sort of radical change outlined in the book Grand New Party, which conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks called "the best single road map of where the party should and is likely to head." In the book, 20-something authors Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam of The Atlantic magazine argue that Republicans need to address growing economic inequality and working-class insecurity with subsidies for wages, child care and health care.

"Anything like this is going to take a decade," Salam said in an interview. LINK

Reihan Salam on NPR | 'Emerging Conservatives Discuss 'McCain Appeal''

Communications — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 10:46:00 -0400

New America in the News:
The Republican National Convention kicks off in St. Paul, Minnesota today with the GOP poised to take back momentum gained by Democrats at their National Convention last week in Denver. Author Reihan Salam, of the Atlantic, is joined by Laura Elizabeth Morales, of Young Conservatives of Texas, discuss emerging conservatives and what John McCain can do to persuade voters with his message. LINK to audio

Reihan Salam in The Denver Post | 'The Republican Party Gets Ready'

Communications — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 10:31:00 -0400

New America in the News:

Part of addressing different challenges includes making a pragmatic shift, says Reihan Salam, 28, who is part of the GOP's younger generation and co-author of "Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream."

He contends family values should include kitchen-table economics. Acknowledging global warming isn't an embrace of liberalism, he says, but the first step in discovering solutions. Instead of lambasting entitlement programs or just denying that a problem exists, he adds, Republicans should find a way to make them better, less bureaucratic and more cost-effective. LINK

Reihan Salam in the Christian Science Monitor | 'Is the Republican Party in Peril?'

Communications — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 09:26:00 -0400

New America in the News:
One of the most talked-about books of the genre is “Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream.” The authors, Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam, young editors at Atlantic Monthly, assert that while the GOP has learned to speak to the cultural concerns of working-class whites, it has failed to address their economic unease. They propose a mix of wage subsidies for the working poor, a bigger child tax credit, and steps toward a universal healthcare system rooted in the free market. LINK

Here's How McCain Can Beat Obama to the White House

Articles — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 12:06:00 -0400

In January, I met a friend of mine to discuss his impending departure from Washington DC. He was moving to Chicago to join Senator Barack Obama’s budding presidential campaign. At the time, it was hard not to have an instinctive sympathy for Obama, not least because the Clinton campaign had by that point attracted many of the most loathsome careerists in Democratic politics. Among other things, we discussed the general election landscape. My friend, confident even then that Obama would win the Democratic nomination, was convinced that New York mayor Rudy Giuliani would be Obama’s toughest opponent in a general election. Despite the many skeletons in Giuliani’s closet, he… more

Reihan Salam's book in the New York Times | 'How Obama Reconciles Dueling Views on Economy'

Communications — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:59:00 -0400

New America in the News:
Even some Republicans have started to wonder whether the Reagan strategy on taxes has run its course. Earlier this year, two young conservative writers, Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam, came out with a book called “Grand New Party.” Their basic thesis is that the Republican Party, for all its successes over the past generation, has failed to cement its majority because of economics. If the party’s agenda continues to revolve around tax cuts that mostly benefit the well off, the book argues, Republicans risk allowing a generation-long Democratic majority, like the kind that ruled the country from F.D.R. to L.B.J. To avoid this outcome, the authors offer an agenda of what they call Sam’s Club Republicanism, focused on the working class. LINK

Reihan Salam discusses his book on WILL-AM | 'Grand New Party'

Communications — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:21:00 -0400

New America in the News:

Ross Douthat, Senior Editor at the Atlantic and Reihan Salam, Associate Editor at the Atlantic and a Fellow at the New America Foundation, discuss their widely acclaimed book Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream with David Inge. LINK to audio

Crash Course

Articles — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 05:37:00 -0400

Human beings are clever, bigheaded animals that have proved very formidable against predators like the now-extinct woolly mammoth and the near-extinct Bengal tiger. But we humans, particularly we modern humans, are also strangely vulnerable: fleshy, pudgy, and almost entirely bereft of natural defenses, such as thick outer shells, tusks, or sharp claws. Moreover, our gangly, awkward, injury-prone bodies are not particularly good at getting from place to place. Chimpanzees can at least swing from tree to tree — when was the last time you saw a human do that? It is thus a very good thing that we humans have SUVs, those hulking armored chariots that serve,… more

Reihan Salam in the Associated Press | 'Pawlenty: GOP Must Lure 'Sam's Club Republicans''

Communications — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 11:55:00 -0400

New America in the News:

Reihan Salam and Ross Douthat lean heavily on it in their recently published book, Grand New Party.

In an interview, Salam defined "Sam's Club Republicans" as working class voters without a college education who are anxious about the economic future of themselves and their children and looking to government to help ease those concerns. Ignoring their needs would cost the GOP, he said.

"What's happening now is Republicans are in danger of losing the middle-class suburbs," Salam said. "When you lose those middle-class, working-class suburbs, you lose the country." LINK to Article

Reihan Salam's book in the New Republic | 'Family's Value'

Communications — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 14:58:00 -0400

New America in the News:
In their smart and fun new book, Grand New Party, Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam urge Republicans to spend trillions of dollars on policies to shore up working-class families. Several critics have pointed out that the Republican Party will likely remain much more interested in spending trillions of dollars on tax breaks for rich people. What's been less noticed is that Democrats could easily adopt much of the family agenda Douthat and Salam propose--and that, more than his opponent, Barack Obama already has... LINK

Reihan Salam's book in the Washington Post | 'McCain's Problem Isn't His Tactics. It's GOP Ideas.'

Communications — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 14:54:00 -0400

New America in the News:

...Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam, a pair of conservative authors decades younger than Gingrich and Norquist, argue in their new, much-hyped book Grand New Party that the time has come to "move beyond the Reagan legacy and the mindset of the current Republican power structure." They suggest plenty of proposals that many progressives would support, including a fairly ambitious and expensive national health-care plan, subsidies for entry-level jobs and more investment in infrastructure.

But while Douthat and Salam deserve credit for alerting fellow conservatives to the perils of staying the course, their embrace of a relatively activist government -- if adopted by the broader movement -- would shift political battles to a playing field on which progressives have a much stronger footing. Once conservatives concede that something like national health insurance is desirable, it becomes hard to discern what will remain of their Reaganite identity... LINK

Reihan Salam's book in Roll Call | 'Obama Makes Gains Among Workers Hurt By Bush Economics'

Communications — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:33:00 -0400

New America in the News:

...Much-discussed and deservedly praised, Grand New Party by Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam paints a grim picture of working-class prospects, both economically and socially, under prevailing circumstances.

Instead of being a society where anybody can "make it," Douthat and Salam describe the United States as increasingly becoming an "inherited meritocracy" where the wealthy and well-educated get more so and those without education and skills get left behind and face a life of stress and insecurity... LINK

Reihan Salam on MSNBC TV's 'Race for the White House' | 'Breaking Down Obama's Vulnerabilities'

Communications — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:21:00 -0400

New America in the News:
A Race for the White House panel featuring Gene Robinson, Chrystia Freeland, Rachel Maddow, and Reihan Salam debates: Where is Barack Obama weak politically and how effectively has the McCain campaign been capitalizing on those weaknesses? LINK to video