The Change I Believe In

September 5, 2011
Nation editor vanden Heuvel lays down the left-liberal line in these earnest, stolid essays culled from her columns and editorials in the magazine. It’s a newsy compendium that covers the past three years of roiling politics while advancing recurring themes: the need to rein in Wall Street, tax the rich, create green jobs, pull out of Afghanistan, get money out of politics and Republicans out of office. It’s also an anguished narrative of the left’s disillusionment with Obama, lapsing from hope to disappointment as the president proffers one cave-in after another to intransigent conservatives. Vanden Heuvel isn’t much of a stylist, unfortunately. There are few surprises or grace notes in her prose; as her statistically fortified arguments proceed from problem to policy to exhortation—“It is a time for global, non-violent challenge to anti-democratic forces wherever they may be.” Still, there’s much to be said for her well-supported, fact-filled account: vanden Heuvel elaborates a cogent progressive alternative to the skewed choice between banker-friendly Democrats and Tea Party fanatics.

September 15, 2011

A collection of columns written by Nation publisher and editor vanden Heuvel (Meltdown: How Greed and Corruption Shattered Our Financial System and How We Can Recover, 2009, etc.) covering the run-up to the last presidential election and events since.

The pieces first appeared on the Nation website or the Washington Post blog, where the author is a guest columnist. They chronicle the six years from the 2006 congressional election, during which the high expectations of pro-Obama progressives gave way to the disappointment now felt by many of his erstwhile supporters. In the introduction, vanden Heuvel writes that she counters times when she becomes depressed by the current political stalemate by "taking the long view of [what Dr. King called the] arc of history that bends toward justice." While she is disappointed in President Obama's failure to deliver on his campaign promises, she writes that she still believes in his message that "real change comes about by 'imagining and then fighting and then working for what did not seem possible before.' " The book is divided topically, with each section arranged chronologically, and the author provides a useful record of the period and progressive talking points--during a time which, for progressive Democrats, represented a series of defeats. In a piece written in January 2011, vanden Heuvel takes the long view, comparing the present period to the end of the 19th century when the Progressive Movement succeeded in opposing large monopolies despite what seemed to be overwhelming odds.

A welcome contrast to the frequently overheated political dialogue of the moment.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

November 1, 2011
While the inauguration of Barack Obama inspired hope in liberals and progressives, it also inspired a cautionary warning from vanden Heuvel, editor of the Nation, that progressives needed to redouble their efforts to ensure real reform. In this collection of her commentaries from the first year of the Obama administration, vanden Heuvel expresses a range of feelings, from disappointment that the president hasn't been assertive enough in pushing for financial or health-care reform to optimism that, with the help of progressive organizers, idealism can triumph over crises and the Tea Party. Her commentaries reflect early and constant advice to the administration to put more emphasis on job creation than deficit reduction. She also examines election financing, electoral politics, the economy, the growing influence of the right wing on Republican politics, and capitalism and the need for a social contract to protect Americans in need, and she offers a broader perspective on American democracy. A fascinating, passionate chronicle of the Obama administration and national politics of the past few years from a progressive's perspective.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)