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Toward a New New Deal (Forum)
The Nation
07 April 2008 Issue
Seventy-five years ago, facing the catastrophic, worldwide failure of the free
market, Franklin Roosevelt launched what is perhaps the greatest democratic
experiment of the twentieth century. Touching nearly every aspect of American
life, the New Deal transformed banking, business, labor, agriculture, arts and
literature, urban and rural landscapes and, of course, the relationship of citizens
to government itself. Today, decades of conservative rule have jeopardized much
of the New Deal's legacy. Many of its reforms and regulations have been gutted,
and much of the infrastructure it built crumbles from neglect. Yet the New Deal
endures, not just in institutions like the FDIC and Social Security but in the
very idea that where and when there is crisis government should rise to the
challenge for the good of the common people. How can a look back help us confront
the challenges of the present - from the tangled housing, credit and financial
market crises to global warming to the small-mindedness of public policy and
debate today? What is the unfinished business of the New Deal? And what can
we learn from its failures and limitations? On this historic occasion we asked
an esteemed collection of activists, writers, scholars and artists to reflect
on the "usable past" of the New Deal. Their answers follow.
Featuring:
Bill McKibben: A Green Corps
http://thenation.com/doc/20080407/mckibben
Michael J. Copps: Not Your Father's FCC
http://thenation.com/doc/20080407/copps
Andrea Batista Schlesinger: A Chaos of Experimentation
http://thenation.com/doc/20080407/schlesinger
Eric Schlosser: The Bare Minimum
http://thenation.com/doc/20080407/schlosser
Frances Moore Lappé: The Only Fitting Tribute
http://thenation.com/doc/20080407/lappe
Adolph Reed Jr.: Race and the New Deal Coalition
http://thenation.com/doc/20080407/reed
The Rev. Jesse Jackson: For the 'FDR'
http://thenation.com/doc/20080407/jackson
Andy Stern: Labor's New Deal
http://thenation.com/doc/20080407/stern
Anna Deavere Smith: Potent Publics
http://thenation.com/doc/20080407/smith
Sherle R. Schwenninger: Democratizing Capital
http://thenation.com/doc/20080407/schwenninger
Stephen Duncombe: FDR's Democratic Propaganda
http://thenation.com/doc/20080407/duncombe
Howard Zinn: Beyond the New Deal
http://thenation.com/doc/20080407/zinn
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