ILLEGAL ATTACK ON SYRIA OFF TO THE RACISTS PHYLLIS BENNIS DONNA MINKOWITZ MAY 14, 2018 To understand why evangelicals support HOW the president, look to the founder of MARTIN Protestantism. LUTHER BY MICHAEL MASSING PAVED THE WAY FOR DONALD TRUMP The Pope is a true werewolf. Sad! THENATION.COM 2 Join the conversation, every Thursday, on the Start Making Sense podcast. by Joan W A Worthy Tribute legal construct, but what does it mean in the real world? How is it that a Victor Navasky, who knows a thing person comes to our shores seeking or two about the enduring power of refuge, and we incarcerate him for an political cartoons (see his brilliant indefinite but lengthy period under book on the subject, The Art of Con- poor conditions, although he has troversy), is wise to celebrate Robert done exactly as we prescribe asylum Grossman [“Comic Genius,” April Subscribe wherever you seekers should do? And how dare we 16]. Grossman was my friend since get your podcasts or go to tell him that he hasn’t been tortured the age of 19, through thick and thin, TheNation.com as our children grew up together and enough to merit our help? /StartMakingSense Kevin McKinney as our later chapters intertwined in a camden, s.c. to listen today. swell, enduring friendship. This man was a one-of-a-kind What Took So Long? KAREEM ABDUL-JABBAR genius who knew how to use his wit, Re “A Voice of Dissent in the GOP,” wisdom, artistic talent, and sweetness MARGARET ATWOOD by Barry Yeoman [April 2]: I was a to make our struggling American teenager and young adult while the CHARLES BLOW NOAM CHOMSKY democracy more aware of its foibles Vietnam War raged. I knew then PATRICK COCKBURN DAVID COLE and challenges. His most powerful that the United States had no busi- works were often his portraits and MIKE DAVIS BARBARA EHRENREICH ness fighting there and, moreover, strips on the dreadful failed politi- KEITH ELLISON SUSAN FALUDI that the war was unwinnable. The cians who have let us down again and futility and idiotic lack of reasoning FRANCES FITZGERALD again. My favorite was his “Emperor’s behind the debacle was even more ERIC FONER THOMAS FRANK New Clothes” illustration of Richard evident after the publication of out- Nixon, Spiro Agnew, John Mitchell, ALEX GIBNEY AMY GOODMAN standing books by Gary Hess, Neil et al., marching forth to their own ADAM GOPNIK CHRIS HAYES Sheehan, David Halberstam, and destruction in nothing but their un- others. This lesson has stuck with MARGO JEFFERSON derwear. More recently, his “Dump me throughout my life. NAOMI KLEIN LAILA LALAMI Trump” bags to collect your dog’s Republican Congressman Walter droppings made me laugh in celebra- NORMAN LEAR GREIL MARCUS Jones Jr. is a decade or so older than tion once again. Anne B. Zill JANE MAYER BILL MCKIBBEN portland, maine I am. I fail to see why he had to wait WALTER MOSLEY JOHN NICHOLS until after our Iraq War effort caused Beyond the Border of Cruelty JOSHUA OPPENHEIMER such chaos and mayhem in the Middle East to finally figure out that these RICK PERLSTEIN LAURA POITRAS Laila Lalami’s description of the shift in US immigration policy “from types of conflicts must be avoided. KATHA POLLITT ROBERT REICH the corrective to the punitive, and Why didn’t he learn that lesson from JOY REID FRANK RICH BERNIE now to the abusive” [“The Cruelty the Vietnam experience? SANDERS ANNA DEAVERE SMITH of ICE,” April 16] is spot-on. A few Barry Yeoman’s praise for the EDWARD SNOWDEN REBECCA months ago, I visited two inmates at congressman’s stance against further a for-profit immigration detention ventures of this sort seems a bit mis- SOLNIT OLIVER STONE center. One of the men was an asylum placed. Yes, it is certainly better that MARGARET TALBOT CALVIN TRILLIN seeker from an African nation where, Jones finally gleaned some obvious KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL as a conscript, he had suffered incar- lessons regarding his uncritical sup- JOAN WALSH AMY WILENTZ ceration and torture. He had been port for this country’s wars, but what at the center for over a year. He told took him 35 years? It seems that The GARY YOUNGE DAVE ZIRIN me that during his asylum hearing, Nation could find better “heroes” to —Hosted by Jon Wiener the judge had ruled that his claims of enlighten progressives about. torture were “well-founded but not Harry E. Antoniou sufficient.” I’m sure that statement redondo beach, calif. made sense in terms of some accepted [email protected] UPFRONT 12 Online Privacy: Sell-By The Nation. Data; 13 India: Protest since 1865 3 Red-State Rebellion 4 Illegal Attack on Syria Phyllis Bennis 5 Q&A: Daniel Ellsberg 6 An About-Facebook? Micah L. Sifry Red-State Rebellion COLUMNS 8 The Liberal Media No News Is Bad News Eric Alterman 12 Between the Lines n the days since House Speaker Paul Ryan announced his After the Raid retirement from Congress, much of the commentary has Laila Lalami 13 Deadline Poet focused on his failures. Barring a sudden bout of legislative John Bolton Replaces I H.R. McMaster productivity, Ryan will relinquish the Speaker’s gavel with Calvin Trillin a deficit-expanding tax cut for corporations and the rich as his only significant achievement. Fortunately, his career- Features defining goals to privatize Social Security, convert Many states are facing similar funding chal- 14 How Martin Luther Medicare into a voucher system, and dismantle the lenges. In all, 29 states are now spending less per Paved the Way for rest of the social safety net remain unfulfilled. And student on K–12 education than they were a decade Donald Trump then, of course, there is his humiliating failure, ago, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Michael Massing dating back to the 2016 campaign, to stand up to Priorities. A number of these states have also cut The paradox of the President Trump. income taxes. Notably, the 10 states that have expe- Reformation and its legacy. Ryan’s legacy, however, is far bigger than any rienced the largest percentage decline in spending 18 Off to the Racists single policy or political battle. For the past decade, per student since 2008 all currently have Republican Donna Minkowitz he has been the leading advocate of an ideology governors and Republican-controlled legislatures. The Trump phenomenon that divides Americans into “makers” and The ongoing wave of teacher-led activ- is emboldening more white nationalists to run for office. “takers,” as he infamously put it, and EDITORIAL ism in red states is heartening for several whose main function is advancing the reasons, not least of which is the fact that 22 How Progressives economic interests of the former at the the teachers are achieving real victories. Can Engage Russia David Klion expense of the latter. By putting a friendly Last month, striking West Virginia teach- Whoever our next president face on punishing, plutocratic policies, ers won a 5 percent raise, among other is, one immediate problem Ryan hoodwinked a credulous media es- advances. Oklahoma lawmakers approved facing him or her will be tablishment into believing that he was an an increase in teacher pay funded in part how to deal with Russia. earnest wonk instead of the cruel reac- by higher taxes on the oil and gas industry, Books & tionary he really is. And while his ideas though they failed to provide additional the Arts have mostly stalled at the federal level, funding that is still badly needed. they have thrived in Republican-controlled states Meanwhile, the groundswell of support that 27 Progress and Poverty around the country—to devastating effect. teachers have received from students, parents, and Steven Hahn The consequences of Ryan-style conservatism activists is further evidence of what progressives 32 Ode to the Belt (poem) have provoked a growing backlash in the form of have long known: that the Republican Party’s devo- Sam Sax teacher demonstrations in West Virginia, Okla- tion to gutting public services is deeply unpopular, 33 Seeing Through homa, Kentucky, and Arizona. In Oklahoma, where including with many of the party’s own voters. As a Glass teachers staged a nine-day walkout in April, tax cuts one parent who supports the protesting teachers Barry Schwabsky for the wealthy beginning in 2004 were followed in Arizona told The New York Times, she normally 36 Hook Me in the by deep cuts to spending on public services. These votes Republican but “would switch party lines” First Five cuts deprived public schools of more than $350 over education funding. Briana Younger million per year, according to the Oklahoma Policy The key question, in these states and elsewhere, is 37 Waste My Life (poem) Institute, contributing to low teacher pay, large class how to effectively counter the ascendant right-wing Hera Lindsay Bird sizes, deteriorating textbooks, and four-day school populism that has enabled Republicans to retain weeks in parts of the state. Before teachers began power in spite of their policies. One promising model VOLUME 306, NUMBER 14, planning the walkout, which ended on April 13, state can be found in the Working Families Party, which May 14, 2018 lawmakers had not merely neglected these pressing recruits progressive candidates to run in Democratic The digital version of this issue is issues for years; they had exacerbated them by pass- primaries and mobilizes grassroots activists in 19 available to all subscribers April 19 ing additional tax cuts for the rich and renewing a states. (The party made headlines on April 14 by en- at TheNation.com.