The Progressive Case Stalled
The Progressive Case Stalled

Author: David Coates

Publisher:

Published: 2016-11-19

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9781618460240

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Picking up from the point at which Pursuing the Progressive Case ended, this second volume of essays observing the Obama presidency in real time charts the increasingly difficult conditions under which progressives within and beyond his administration struggled for leverage and impact during the President's second term. Foreign policy concerns play a bigger part in this second collection than in the first, reflecting the re-immersion of the US military in the Middle East conflict in spite of the run-down of the Iraqi occupation. But domestic issues surface here too, though in this volume less around presidential initiatives than around the defense of the achievements of Obama's first four years in office. Readers will find in The Progressive Case Stalled? critical reflections on economic and housing policy, on policy on poverty-alleviation and the easing of student debt, and on the contentious issue of trade deals and employment out-sourcing. Together, the essays gathered in this volume constitute an important contemporary evaluation of the blockages on progressive politics that were such a feature of Obama's second term: blockages coming from unexpected foreign developments, from unique levels of Republican Party opposition and intransigence, and from limitations in the President's own vision and leverage. Taken together with volume 1, the running commentary that is Observing Obama in Real Time will be an invaluable source of guidance both to future historians in years and to contemporary progressives attempting to build on the Obama legacy and to move beyond its shortcomings.

Observing Obama in Real Time
Observing Obama in Real Time

Author: David Coates

Publisher:

Published: 2017-01-25

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9781618460318

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Commenting on political events in real time used to be the preserve of the well-placed political journalist and of no one else. But no longer: with the emergence of the blogosphere, commentary on contemporary events has become a privilege available to each one of us. Doing it and doing it well, however, remains a time-consuming and ultimately a highly-skilled job. If commentary is to be worth reading, it needs to be more than opinion. It needs to be opinion informed by research and scholarship. What follows here is, hopefully, opinion of that kind.

Making the Progressive Case
Making the Progressive Case

Author: David Coates

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2011-06-16

Total Pages: 263

ISBN-13: 0826433065

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The book presents the conservative and liberal arguments related to the current economic issues faced by the Obama administration, including market regulation and green economy.

How Many Is Too Many?
How Many Is Too Many?

Author: Philip Cafaro

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2015-02-06

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 022619065X

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How many immigrants should we allow into the US annually, and who gets to come? The question is easy to ask, but hard to answer, for thoughtful individuals and for our nation as a whole. Philosopher Philip Cafaro answers the question as a political progressive who, perhaps surprisingly, wants to reduce immigration into the United States. Cafaro details how current immigration levelsthe highest in American historyundermine attempts to achieve progressive economic, environmental and social goals. He shows that by thinking through immigration, liberals can get clearer on their own goals. These do not include having the largest possible percentage of racial and ethnic minoritiesbut creating a society free of racial discrimination, where diversity is appreciated. They do not include an ever-growing economybut an economy that works for the good of society as a whole. They most certainly do not include a crowded, cooked, polluted, ever-more-tamed environmentbut a healthy, spacious landscape with sufficient room for wild nature. Finally, liberals goals should include playing our proper role as global citizenswhile paying attention to our special responsibilities as Americans. Like it or not, those responsibilities include setting US immigration policy."

The Big Stall
The Big Stall

Author: Donald Gutstein

Publisher: James Lorimer & Company

Published: 2018-10-02

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 1459413482

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In fall 2015, the newly elected Trudeau government endorsed the Paris Agreement and promised to tackle global warming. In 2016, it released a major report which set out a national energy strategy embracing clean growth, technological innovation and carbon pricing. Rather than putting in place tough measures to achieve the Paris targets, however, the government reframed global warming as a market opportunity for Canada's clean technology sector. The Big Stall traces the origins of the government's climate change plan back to the energy sector itself — in particular Big Oil. It shows how, in the last fifteen years, Big Oil has infiltrated provincial and federal governments, academia, media and the non-profit sector to sway government and public opinion on the realities of climate change and what needs to be done about it. Working both behind the scenes and in high-profile networks, Canada's energy companies moved the debate away from discussion of the measures required to create a zero-carbon world and towards market-based solutions that will cut carbon dioxide emissions — but not enough to prevent severe climate impacts. This is how Big Oil and think tanks unraveled the Kyoto Protocol, and how Rachel Notley came to deliver the Business Council of Canada's energy plan. Donald Gutstein explains how and why the door has been left wide open for oil companies to determine their own futures in Canada, and to go on drilling new wells, building new oil sands plants and constructing new pipelines. This book offers the background information readers need to challenge politicians claiming they are taking meaningful action on global warming.