Reihan Salam

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… more

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… more

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… more

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

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… more

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

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.

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… more

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

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… more