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Democrats Have Reached a Watershed?

Harold Meyerson; Sarah Jaffe
Democrats have reached a watershed. After two decades in which the party has moved leftward on social issues but has largely accepted the financial sector's economic preferences - the abject failures of the market economy are pushing the party leftward. The revolt against Summers was less about his positions on today's economic issues but his opposition to regulating derivatives. In Congress, in New York City and Chicago, Democrats are feeling the heat of the people.

'Dante'

These 30 seconds capture how the de Blasio campaign has upended the Bloomberg 1% era in New York politics

The Rise of the New New Left

Peter Beinart The Daily Beast
Bill de Blasio's win in New York's Democratic primary isn't a local story. It's part of a vast shift that could upend three decades of American political thinking. Americans don't necessarily grow more conservative as they age. Sometimes they do. Economic circumstances that have pushed Millennials left are also unlikely to change dramatically anytime soon. de Blasio's mayoral campaign offers a glimpse into what an Occupy-inspired challenge to Clintonism might look like.

The Koch Brothers' Secret Bank

Mike Allen and Jim Vandehei Politico Exclusive
The right-wing billionaire Koch Bros. raised and spent $250 million in 2012 to shape political and policy debate nationwide. Freedom Partners, the front for the mysterious Koch brothers, cut checks as large as $63 million to groups promoting conservative causes, according to an IRS document to be filed shortly.

The Case for Not Bombing Syria

Matthew Yglesias Slate
At a recent Washington meeting I heard a chilling phrase: Obama had “no good options” in Syria. Obama’s good option would be to reread his administration’s official National Security Strategy, which sagely argues that “[a]s we did after World War II, we must pursue a rules-based international system that can advance our own interests by serving mutual interests.”

Britain's Bump in the Road to War

D.D. Guttenplan The Nation
Last night David Cameron’s government lost a House of Commons vote on a measure designed to approve—-in principle-—military action in Iraq pending a report from UN weapons inspectors. This was the first defeat of a government motion related to military action in modern times. The UK Parliament voted—-what about US Congress?

What I Learned From Getting Shot

Brian Beutler Salon
Defenders of stop-and-frisk and racial profiling have made me break my public silence about the night I almost died

The Rise of the Religious (and Non-religious) Left

Katie McDonough Salon
While it’s probably too early to declare victory over the Pat Robertson types, a new opinion survey definitely suggests a new political future — with religious progressives wielding growing influence — is possible.
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