In a fawning softball interview with New Republic editor Jamil Smith on NBC’s web-based Meet the Press feature Press Pass, moderator Chuck Todd urged the liberal journalist to justify racially divisive reporting: “So let me start with this idea of why we should, in the media, report on identity politics essentially. Why does it matter?”
New Republic
By P.J. Gladnick | July 3, 2015 | 7:58 PM EDT
Nowadays it seems as if the Left is politicizing everything with a plethora of new taboos. The latest item on their taboo list is your Fourth of July picnic, specifically hot dogs and hamburgers. As you gather with family and friends to munch on those treats fresh off the grill, little did you know that you are destroying the planet according to leftist political orthodoxy. Here is Rebecca Leber of The New Republic as she tries to guilt trip you over hot dog and hamburger carbon emissions:
New Republic Writer Warns Left That Roberts Court, Obamacare Ruling Aside, ‘Is Still Plenty Conservative’
By Tom Johnson | July 2, 2015 | 9:17 PM EDT In the week since the Supreme Court upheld certain Obamacare subsidies, some on the left, applying the wisdom that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” have gratefully praised majority-opinion-writer John Roberts. But now liberals need to put their warm fuzzies for the chief justice behind them and guard against “complacency” regarding the court, advised Brian Beutler in a Tuesday article.
“Nothing inspires spasms of rage on the right quite like Obamacare, which explains why the conservatives feel as if Roberts has betrayed them on a Shakespearean scale,” wrote Beutler. Nonetheless, Roberts has established his right-wing bona fides on many other matters, including “affirmative action, voting rights, [and] campaign finance regulations,” and conservatives see the Roberts court as a “useful tool” in their effort to “litigate federal regulatory laws.”
New Republic Writer Cheers Hillary’s ‘Leftward Shifts Toward Sanity’ and ‘Jabs At Trickle-Down Economics’
By Tom Johnson | June 17, 2015 | 10:11 PM EDT From her years at Yale Law School until early in her Senate career, Hillary Rodham Clinton’s liberal credentials rarely were questioned. Since then, many on the left have come to doubt that Hillary is one of them, for reasons that include her support for the Iraq war and her alleged coziness with Wall Street.
Rebecca Traister believes that it’s been twenty-five, not fifteen, years since Clinton started backing away from liberalism, but in any event Traister’s message to the doubters is that Classic Hillary is back. In a Sunday TNR piece, Traister rejoiced that Hillary the presidential candidate seems to have abandoned “power-appeasing, over-careful politics” in favor of “leftward shifts toward sanity.”
Given that Hillary is “recalibrating to the left,” Traister contended, America is “facing a test: How much more—if at all—tolerant is this nation of difficult, disruptive liberal women, and how willing is Hillary to really commit to being one again? These answers will matter a lot to those American[s] who liked original Hillary—and haven't much cared for the revised versions.”
By P.J. Gladnick | May 7, 2015 | 12:18 PM EDT
It almost sounds like Hillary Clinton is a hostage who needs to be rescued according to New Republic writer Rebecca Traister. And who is holding poor Hillary hostage? Why, her own husband, Bill Clinton. According to Traister, Hillary is a poor innocent who has been tainted by the activities of Bill, especially as regards the Clinton Foundation. Traister's solution can be seen in the very title of her article: "The Best Thing Hillary Could Do for Her Campaign? Ditch Bill."
New Republic Writer: Baltimore’s Problems Worsened Because Liberals Bought Into Conservative Policies
By Tom Johnson | May 2, 2015 | 1:59 PM EDT All week, liberals and conservatives have accused each other of causing the longstanding socioeconomic woes of Baltimore. TNR's Rebecca Leber had a subtler take in a Friday piece: she put part of the blame on liberals, but only because they went along with conservative ideas.
“Democrats exacerbated these problems [in Baltimore] not by embracing the policies of the left. Rather, they dug the hole deeper by yawing to the right,” contended Leber. “Aggressive policing, tougher drug sentencing, slashing the budgets of school and public housing and parks—throughout Baltimore’s history, lawmakers at the local, state, and federal level adopted policies that entrenched poverty and segregation in the city.”
By Tom Johnson | April 14, 2015 | 9:50 PM EDT
The title of a famous essay by Jonathan Swift and that of Tuesday's article by Brian Beutler each starts with “A Modest Proposal.” There are, however, many differences concerning the two pieces. One is that Swift’s was a satire, whereas Beutler’s is a fantasy. Another is that pretty much anyone who somehow took Swift’s proposal seriously would find it horrifying, while Beutler’s suggestion -- that the 2016 Democratic ticket should consist of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama -- will horrify mostly conservatives (and opponents of dynastic politics who already were upset over the prospect of a Hillary v. Jeb race).
By Tom Blumer | April 7, 2015 | 2:49 PM EDT
New Republic staff writer Elizabeth Stoker Bruenig has clearly run out of defenses for the conduct of those involved in the disgraceful, scandalous journalistic malpractice which gave rise to the now-retracted and thoroughly discredited "A Rape on Campus: The Struggle for Justice at UVA" at Rolling Stone.
So here's her last refuge: Conservatism deserves some of the blame, because Sabrina Rubin Erdely and others associated with the story supposedly "Used Rightwing Tactics to Make a Leftist Point" (links are in original; bolds and numbered tags are mine):
By P.J. Gladnick | April 4, 2015 | 10:38 PM EDT
You know how Hillary Clinton can make a big splash when she announces that she is running for president? Not with some old fashioned message. No, the key to making herself the inevitable nominee according to New Republic senior editor Elspeth Reeve is to use the right apps for the announcement.
New Republic Writer: Cruz’s Strategy For Winning the White House Based On ‘White Voter Shock and Awe’
By Tom Johnson | March 26, 2015 | 11:39 AM EDT Brian Beutler of The New Republic thinks no one who’s as far to the right as Ted Cruz is can be elected president, and, to support that opinion, he enlisted (or perhaps drafted) a conservative hero, albeit one who died in 1998. In a Monday article, Beutler asserted that “if Barry Goldwater were still alive, he’d be a guest on cable news somewhere warning Republicans that Ted Cruz is too conservative to win the presidency.”
By Tom Johnson | March 21, 2015 | 11:01 AM EDT
Elizabeth Stoker Bruenig claims that the use of “taxpayers” (rather than "people") in discussions of fiscal and economic issues benefits conservatives for reasons including that it “seems to subtly promote the idea that a person’s share in our democratic governance should depend upon their contribution in taxes” and bolsters the makers-vs.-takers argument that became associated with Republicans during the 2012 campaign, so "we should eliminate it from political rhetoric and punditry."
By Tom Johnson | February 27, 2015 | 10:12 PM EST
Well before Obama moved into the White House, he believed his presidency would have “the potential for shifting the national paradigm” to the left as Reagan’s moved it to the right, and Brian Beutler contends that such a shift still could happen if “the economy’s rapid growth in recent quarters” continues.