Nation Conversations

During this year's Nation Cruise, senior editor Richard Kim and Washington correspondent John Nichols explained how the Tea Party's influence and the Democrats' dreaded enthusiasm gap will play out in this election.

On October 7th, The Nation's film critic Stuart Klawans joined David Sterrit of the National Society of Film Critics and Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly for a panel discussion moderated by Cinema Journal’s Heather Hendershot on the future of film criticism and the new methods for disseminating thoughtful writing about film. Klawans, Sterrit, Schwarzbaum and Hendershot expressed optimism for the upcoming generation of movie makers and critics, saying that though the publishing industry's shift from print to the web has rendered the older business model of film criticism largely unsustainable, the avenues for exploring cinema's role in society will only expand. Held in CUNY Graduate Center’s Skylight Lounge, the panel also offered advice to young reviewers hoping to contribute to the general conversation surrounding film. Cinema Journal’s Heather Hendershot moderated the panel, which was held in CUNY Graduate Center’s Skylight Lounge. Read Stuart Klawans's most recent Nation article, "Traps," which takes a look at The Social Network, A Film Unfinished and Nuremberg: Its Lesson for Today.

On October 5, exactly one month from the midterm elections, Howard Dean joined The Nation's Ari Berman onstage at 92YTribeca in New York City to examine the future of the Democratic party in the face of lagging enthusiasm and partisan attacks. Berman's debut book, Herding Donkeys: The Fight to Rebuild the Democratic Party and Reshape American Politics, published this month by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, tells the inside story of Dean's visionary yet controversial fifty-state strategy, charts his unpredictable journey from an insurgent presidential candidate in 2004 to the chairman and conscience of the Democratic Party and shows how President Obama's campaign—particularly its groundbreaking embrace of grassroots organizing and activism—built upon Dean's blueprint. The Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel moderated the talk, which runs one hour and eight minutes.

On September 9 AFL-CIO president Trumka dropped by The Nation to discuss the state of the labor movement today—the challenges unions face in this economic climate, their relationship to political parties and why it's so important that progressives not forget about the principle of collective bargaining.

If the environmental movement wants to reach a wider audience and have any success influencing politicians and the public, says Kumi Naidoo, Executive Director of Greenpeace International, it's going to have to expand its repertoire of protest tactics.

The challenges facing progressives of late are many, but so are the avenues through which they can be tackled. New York City Public Advocate Bill De Blasio stopped by The Nation's offices July 15 to explain some of the ways these challenges can be turned into opportunities for progressives. The left, de Blasio says, must refocus and re-energize attention around corporate money in politics and the Supreme Court's decision in the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission case. "That decision will warp our democracy forever if we let it do so. It's such a horrible, beautifully written decision that it leaves us very few courses of action." he said. "We have to demand a recalibration of our approach, and the only way that happens is through the grassroots." Listen to De Blasio's discussion of the tools we have at our disposal in this insightful Nation Conversation.

This past March, Obama signed the healthcare reform bill into law, putting an end to some of the most egregious abuses of the insurance and pharmaceutical industries. Though the legislation may be imperfect, the protections it affords go a long way toward ending the incredibly unequal access to healthcare that has plagued this nation for decades. Jeff Blum's USAction helped form the 1,000-organization Health Care for America Now coalition, which played a major role in the healthcare battle. On June 24, Blum stopped by The Nation's offices to argue that progressives need to embrace Obama's healthcare reform as a major victory for the social justice movement. "We actually established a new right in America," Blum says. "Healthcare is now a right. That's huge."

Ann Wright, longtime activist and critic of the ongoing siege of Gaza, took part in the Freedom Flotilla that was attacked by Israeli Navy commandos on May 31. A retired US Army colonel and a former high-level diplomat, Wright has served as deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy in Afghanistan, which she helped to open after the US invasion of 2001, as well as in several other countries, including Sierra Leone, where after helping to evacuate several thousand people during that country's civil war she received the State Department's Award for Heroism in 1997. Wright's distinguished career came to a sudden end in 2003 when she publicly resigned from the State Department to protest the invasion of Iraq. Since then, she has campaigned against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and for human rights for Palestinians. After working with Code Pink to organize several humanitarian missions to Gaza to break the Israeli blockade last year, Wright joined the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, only to see the activists' humanitarian mission terminated by Israel's raid. On June 9 she visited The Nation and gave this account of what she and her fellow activists experienced.