The Real State Of The Union: From The Best Minds In America, Bold Solutions To The Problems Politicians Dare Not AddressResulting from a collaboration between The Atlantic Monthly magazine and the New America Foundation, The Real State of the Union features 18 original essays on the most important facets of our national well-being. Written by many of our nation's most insightful observers, the essays provide an objective and penetrating analysis of the most critical challenges facing America as well as innovative solutions to many of them. The State of the Union Address is among the nation's oldest rituals, but one that has deviated from its original purpose: Rather than a candid assessment of the country or a meaningful self-evaluation by the current administration, it has become a political spectacle marked by self-congratulation and spin. The Real State of the Union seeks to turn an empty exercise into a more meaningful national dialogue about the social, political, and economic health of our country. Rejecting the political correctness of both parties, this volume tells the American public what it needs to know about the real problems that plague the country and why the political solutions that are offered too often fail to address the real nature of those problems. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 11
Page 7
... social contract. Nothing illustrates America's profound contradictions more starkly than a comparison with other advanced democracies: among these the United States is either the very best or the very worst performer on a wide range of ...
... social contract. Nothing illustrates America's profound contradictions more starkly than a comparison with other advanced democracies: among these the United States is either the very best or the very worst performer on a wide range of ...
Page 8
... social indicators is so poor, in fact, that an outsider looking at these numbers alone might conclude that we were a ... contract for America. Our current social contract is now as antiquated as it was once innovative. Its primary author ...
... social indicators is so poor, in fact, that an outsider looking at these numbers alone might conclude that we were a ... contract for America. Our current social contract is now as antiquated as it was once innovative. Its primary author ...
Page 9
... social contracts, each of which reflected the political forces of its time. The purpose of the first, in the eighteenth century, was to found a nation. The. BESTS Gross domestic product ... social contract.” The American Paradox 9.
... social contracts, each of which reflected the political forces of its time. The purpose of the first, in the eighteenth century, was to found a nation. The. BESTS Gross domestic product ... social contract.” The American Paradox 9.
Page 10
... social contract that simultaneously enhances both flexibility and fairness will require new roles and responsibilities for all three parties to the contract: government, business, and the citizenry. In the public sector our political ...
... social contract that simultaneously enhances both flexibility and fairness will require new roles and responsibilities for all three parties to the contract: government, business, and the citizenry. In the public sector our political ...
Page 11
... social contract ultimately hinges on a new conception of citizenship. Yet our collective expectations of one another have atrophied in recent years, to the point where even voting—the most basic act of citizenship—is done by only a ...
... social contract ultimately hinges on a new conception of citizenship. Yet our collective expectations of one another have atrophied in recent years, to the point where even voting—the most basic act of citizenship—is done by only a ...
Contents
XXXVII | 139 |
XXXVIII | 145 |
XXXIX | 153 |
XL | 155 |
XLII | 162 |
XLIII | 167 |
XLV | 173 |
XLVI | 175 |
XIII | 51 |
XV | 63 |
XVII | 71 |
XIX | 78 |
XXI | 83 |
XXII | 85 |
XXIII | 92 |
XXV | 97 |
XXVII | 102 |
XXIX | 109 |
XXX | 111 |
XXXI | 116 |
XXXIII | 123 |
XXXV | 127 |
XXXVI | 129 |
XLVII | 185 |
XLVIII | 191 |
XLIX | 197 |
L | 199 |
LII | 217 |
LIII | 229 |
LIV | 242 |
LV | 250 |
LVII | 261 |
LVIII | 263 |
LIX | 275 |
LX | 279 |
LXI | 281 |
Other editions - View all
The Real State Of The Union: From The Best Minds In America, Bold Solutions ... Ted Halstead No preview available - 2009 |
Common terms and phrases
accounts Afghanistan airwaves Amer America Foundation American American middle class anger Asia benefits billion Bush administration capital China citizens Clinton Cold War cost countries country’s coverage create decades decline democracy Democrats dollars dominance economic employers Europe European European Union families federal forces fuel cells funding global growth health insurance Homestead Act immigrants incentives income increase industrial institutions investment Iraq Islamic Islamic democracy Japan Korea Latinos less major manufacturing Medicare ment Michael Lind Middle East middle-class military Muslim nation-building nomic North Korea parole party pension percent political population aging President prison problem productivity programs rates recent reform region regressive taxes Republicans retirement risk saving schools sector share social contract Social Security society spectrum spending subsidies tax cuts teachers Ted Halstead tion today’s Union United wages women workers
Popular passages
Page 6 - The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.
Page 16 - Here the rewards of his industry follow with equal steps the progress of his labour; his labour is founded on the basis of nature, selfinterest; can it want a stronger allurement? Wives and children, who before in vain demanded of him a morsel of bread, now, fat and frolicsome, gladly help their father to clear those fields whence exuberant crops are to arise to feed and to clothe them all, without any part being claimed, either by a despotic prince, a rich abbot, or a mighty lord.
Page 241 - The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s the world will undergo famines — hundreds of millions of people are going to starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now.
Page 16 - The American is a new man, who acts upon new principles; he must therefore entertain new ideas, and form new opinions. From involuntary idleness, servile dependence, penury, and useless labor, he has passed to toils of a very different nature, rewarded by ample subsistence. — This is an American.
Page 15 - ... poverty. This conception of American life and its Promise is as much alive to-day as it was in 1780. Its expression has no doubt been modified during four generations of democratic political independence, but the modification has consisted of an expansion and a development rather than of a transposition. The native American, like the alien immigrant, conceives the better future which awaits himself and other men in America as fundamentally a future in which economic prosperity will be still more...
Page 9 - Faith in America, faith in our tradition of personal responsibility, faith in our institutions, faith in ourselves demand that we recognize the new terms of the old social contract. We shall fulfill them, as we fulfilled the obligation of the apparent Utopia which Jefferson imagined for us in 1776, and which Jefferson. Roosevelt and Wilson sought to bring to realization. We must do so, lest a rising tide of misery, engendered by our common failure, engulf us all.
Page 4 - As we gather tonight, our nation is at war, our economy is in recession, and the civilized world faces unprecedented dangers. Yet the state of our Union has never been stronger.
Page 250 - I don't think our troops ought to be used for what's called nation-building. I think our troops ought to be used to fight and win war. I think our troops ought to be used to help overthrow a dictator that's in our — and it's in our — when it's in our best interests.
Page 250 - We meet here during a crucial period in the history of our nation, and of the civilized world. Part of that history was written by others; the rest will be written by us.