Rutgers University Press Blog

Positive Partisanship for a New Era

"Bipartisanship. Other than 'stimulus' or 'bailout,' perhaps no word has been written or spoken more often by politicians and pundits alike in Washington since the inauguration of Barack Obama. Commentators have generally characterized President Obama's attempts to engage Republicans as almost completely unsuccessful, while Republicans have derided his efforts as charming but ineffective, especially in light of the more partisan approach of his party’s Congressional leadership. Liberals such as Thomas Frank dismissed bipartisanship as a 'silly Beltway obsession,' calling it 'the most cynical stance possible.'

This article continues on the NDN Blog.

Morley Winograd and Michael D. Hais are fellows of NDN and the New Policy Institute and co-authors of Millennial Makeover: MySpace, YouTube, and the Future of American Politics, named one of the 10 favorite books by the New York Times in 2008.

Dr. Guy Clifton on Washington Journal

Dr. Guy Clifton, author of Flatlined: Resuscitating American Medicine discussed his book on C-SPAN's Washington Journal recently. Flatlined deals with problems in the current health care system, and offers possible solutions.

Rebells All! On C-SPAN's BookTV

Watch Kevin Mattson, author of REBELS ALL!: A Short History of the Conservative Mind is Postwar America, on C-SPAN's Book TV on February 14 at 11:30am, 11:00pm, or on February 16 at 6:00am.

Kevin Mattson contends that the right co-opted the radicalism of the 1960's in fusing a new brand of conservatism. Mr. Mattson is critical of conservatives, who he argues have cast themselves as perpetual underdogs and populists, which are two labels that he deems contradictory to the truth. This event was hosted by the Harvard Coop in Cambridge, Massachusetts.