The New Republic

It may be tempting to view the New York transit workers' strike as a local story. After all, the local narrative--the nation's largest city shut down at the whim of an arrogant and reckless union--is pretty compelling. But, in fact, the transit strike is part of a national phenomenon: In cities across the country, voters may cast ballots, but it's really the public employees who rule.

During the past 30 years, public-employee unions have largely won… more

Before a storm sank New Orleans and a pair of Boeing 767s gored the Twin Towers, officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) drew up a list. It escaped notice in the months of second-guessing after the September 11 attacks but took on an air of prophecy within hours of Hurricane Katrina's landfall. There were three disasters, FEMA managers concluded at an August 2001 training session, that Americans should beware above all others: a terrorist attack on New York… more

President Bush's inept response to the Katrina disaster has called into question whether his brand of conservatism is capable of responding to national emergencies--and rightly so. From the administration's pre-hurricane reluctance to fund infrastructure upgrades to its appointment of political cronies to crucial federal agencies, the last few weeks have showcased the American political right at its very worst.

But if Katrina has laid bare the shortcomings of Bush-style conservatism, it has also exposed problems with contemporary urban liberalism.… more

It has become trite to say that, on September 11, 2001, Americans realized anew that it was important to pay attention to what was happening on distant shores, that developments taking place half a world away could suddenly and devastatingly threaten the lives of people here at home. This realization was important, but it cemented a view of Islamist terrorism as an external threat. The West--the United States and Europe--was the target of this terrorism, but not its source, which… more

Nearly a year ago, voters following the presidential race heard a stirring call for social reform: "The times in which we work and live are changing dramatically. The workers of our parents' generation typically had one job, one skill, one career. ... And most of those workers were men. Today, workers change jobs, even careers, many times during their lives, and ... two-thirds of all moms also work outside the home." As a result, "many of our most fundamental systems--the… more

A review of Karen J. Greenberg and Joshua L. Dratel's The Torture Papers: The Road to Abu Ghraib and Mark Danner's Torture and Truth: America, Abu Ghraib, and the War on Terror

The Canaanite king Adoni-bezek has just a single line of dialogue in the Bible, but it is one not easily forgotten. Defeated by the combined forces of the tribes of Judah and Simeon, he is subjected to the ordeal of having his index fingers and great toes cut off.… more

Usually journalists get accused of overemphasizing bad news. Yet in the case of America's cities, the media has often made things appear rosier than they really are. The idea that American cities, indeed cities worldwide, are experiencing a renaissance has been widely, and often uncritically, accepted since the late 1990s. This new optimism rests largely on the impact of globalization and the worldwide shift from a manufacturing to an information economy. "Neither western civilization, nor western cities," historian Peter Hall… more

Last night Antonio Villaraigosa became Los Angeles's first Latino mayor in more than 100 years. In the coming days, his win will no doubt be seized upon by liberals as evidence of a growing alliance between labor and Latinos. This notion has some credence in Los Angeles itself, where Latinos have been growing in demographic strength and politics has moved leftward in recent years. Yet it would be a vast overstatement to ascribe national implications to Villaraigosa's victory. There is… more

[Note: Since this article was published, Hertzberg has conceded, meaning that a Hahn-Villaraigosa runoff--which is described in the piece as "likely"--is now assured.]

Last night Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa finished in first place in the initial round of voting in the Los Angeles mayor's election. With some ballots still to be counted, incumbent James Hahn appears likely to finish second, meaning that Villaraigosa and Hahn will probably face each other in a May runoff. If these results hold, more revealing than… more

On March 8, Los Angeles residents go to the polls for the first round of voting in their city's mayoral election. The incumbent, Democrat Jim Hahn, is dull, bland, a shameless servant of labor, and under investigation for widespread corruption at the highest levels of his administration. In short, he is a mediocrity, one who is closely linked with a period of nationwide urban political malaise that has come on the heels of a bold era of mid-to-late-1990s civic reform.… more