BY FROMA HARROP This was the Year of the Middle Class – as in, its falling incomes, loss of job security and anger. The global economic forces fueling the decline, such as foreign competition and computers, have been well reported. But what about cultural factors? Is the middle class going down partly because it stopped […]

BY JOE CONASON The latest evidence of simmering racial resentment on the American political fringe showed up recently in a Facebook post by a California man who urged the assassination of the president and his two daughters in obscene, racist language. Aside from the Secret Service, there was little reason for most of us to […]

BY SHARON MARTIN A column in the Washington Examiner lamented that members of Congress were banned from saying Merry Christmas in letters mailed to constituents....

BY RALPH NADER Recommended Holiday reading for the caring, agitated mind: 1. America Beyond Capitalism by Gar Alperovitz . If you want to see how community...

BY JIM HIGHTOWER It’s at this time of the year that generous, big-hearted Americans reach out to aid the less fortunate among us – like those who’ve recently been knocked down by the recession and seen their incomes plummet. I speak, of course, about our nation’s severely squeezed millionaires. Yes, many in the infamous 1% […]