Reihan Salam: All Publications, Events and Press

Battle For the 'Burbs

Ron Tang — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 05:34:00 -0400

* This article is adapted from Reihan Salam's and Ross Douthat's Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream.

It was only four years ago that conservatives -- and a great many liberals -- were convinced that the Democratic party was doomed to become a purely regional institution: "a national party no more," to borrow the title of Georgia Democrat-turned-Bush supporter Zell Miller's 2003 memoir. Pundits brandished county-by-county maps showing blue enclaves drowning in a sea of red; they talked up the growth of GOP-leaning regions and constituencies and the daunting demographic… more

Reihan Salam's book in Dallas Morning News | 'Why GOP is Losing the Working Class'

Communications — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 10:41:00 -0400

New America in the News:

...In their thoughtful and important new book, Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream, young conservative journalists Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam point out that while Democrats are clueless about why cultural values can produce material suffering, Republicans fail to grasp how economics can affect cultural decline.

Liberals correctly call out conservatives, they write, for "diagnosing the working class' cultural problems and then pretending that those problems are the only ones there are."

"In reality, you can't disentangle the sociological trends that have created familial instability from the economic trends, at home and worldwide, that have increased financial insecurity for working-class voters," they continue. "Divorce and illegitimacy lead to economic disadvantage, but the reverse is also true..." LINK

Reihan Salam in Newsweek | 'Expertinent: Building a 'Grand New Party''

Communications — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 09:27:00 -0400

New America in the News:

...Experts expect the GOP to lose between four and seven seats in the Senate and 10 and 20 seats in the House--giving the Democrats their largest majorities in a generation. And John McCain hasn't led Barack Obama in a single poll since May 3.

Enter Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam. Named by David Brooks of the New York Times as "two of the most promising" of "an emerging "group of young and unpredictable rightward-leaning writers," they're editors at the Atlantic Monthly and co-authors of "Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream," released earlier this week....

Q: People lay blame at the feet of President Bush. Obviously the historical backdrop has changed over time, but how much do the mistakes of the past eight years contribute to the current collapse of the GOP?

SALAM: There have been plenty of other books that have offered a litany of what went wrong with the Bush Administration. We don't disagree. But it's certainly true that 2000 presented Republicans with a rare opportunity. When you look at the rhetorical shifts that George W. Bush made in his campaign, it seemed like the public and certainly the conservative public was receptive to a broad shift in political orientation toward a domestic, reformist agenda. When you look at a lot of the policies that John McCain was pointing to, you saw a willingness to break with some conservative orthodoxy. But no one really seized that mantle, in part because 9-11 presented such an attractive opportunity to go back to the kind of rock-ribbed conservative fundamentals of the Reagan era--namely, national security, this time under the guise of terrorism rather than communism. There was an ability to draw on the classic tropes that this generation of conservative politicians was very familiar with. But I think there could've large-scale Republican realignment had they married that national-security politics to more meat on the bone domestically...LINK to the Newsweek: Stumper Q&A session

Reihan Salam in the New York Times | Book Review 'Grand New Party'

Communications — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 10:05:00 -0400

New America in the News:

...The conservatives Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam, both with The Atlantic Monthly, neither hard-core party activists nor longtime political operatives, want to provide a road map to get the party to brighter and more long-lasting sunshine.

The core thesis of their book “Grand New Party” is that the working class in America — the non-college-educated half of the electorate — continues to ping-pong between the parties and is there for the taking by any group that can seriously and directly address its concerns. The authors note: “Since 1968, these voters have provided the ‘silent majority’ that elected Nixon, the ‘Reagan Democrats’ who gave the Gipper his landslides and the ‘angry white men’ who put the Gingrich G.O.P. over the top in 1994. ... Yet after each Republican triumph, this working-class constituency ... has become disillusioned with conservative governance and returned to the Democratic column...” LINK

Reihan Salam's book in the New York Times | 'Grand New Party' Review by David Brooks--'The Sam's Club Agenda'

Communications — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 04:44:00 -0400

New America in the News:
...Several years ago, Tim Pawlenty, the Minnesota governor, said the Republicans should be the party of Sam’s Club, not the country club. This line is the animating spirit of “Grand New Party.” Douthat and Reihan Salam argue that the Republicans rode to the majority because of support from the Reagan Democrats, and if the party has a future, it will be because it understands the dreams and tribulations of working-class Americans...LINK

Reihan Salam on Hardball with Chris Matthews | 'Grand New Party'

Communications — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 09:26:00 -0400

New America in the News:

CHRIS MATTHEWS: We`re back with the politics fix. Let`s bring in the round table, MSNBC political analyst Michelle Bernard and the Atlantic magazine`s Reihan Salam, whose new book is called Grand New Party.What`s your book about?

REIHAN SALAM, THE ATLANTIC": It`s about the white working class and about how the Republican party needs to win them back…LINK

Reihan Salam in Politico | 'Grand New Ideas are GOP’s Only Hope'

Communications — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 08:36:00 -0400

New America in the News:

In fall 2005, the Republican Party experienced a long, sleepless night. Concerned with Iraq, confounded by Katrina and cast into despair by Harriet Miers, party activists worried about the party’s future.

During this dusk, Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam took to the pages of The Weekly Standard to urge Republicans to embrace the first light of a new era. How? By winning back working-class voters, or “Sam’s Club Republicans,” to use Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s phrase. In Washington, the article was widely read and well-regarded. The incomparable Michael Barone was so impressed he suggested that “numerous copies get over to the White House.”

Now, three years later, Douthat and Salam, both writers at The Atlantic, have expanded their article into a book, “Grand New Party: How the Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream.” They define working-class voters as “the non-college-educated voters who make up roughly half of the American electorate” and describe them as the swing voters. . .LINK

Grand New Party

Ron Tang — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 10:42:00 -0400

Grand New Party lays bare the failures of the conservative revolution and presents a detailed blueprint for building the next Republican majority. Blending history, analysis, and fresh, often controversial recommendations, Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam argue that it is time to move beyond the Reagan legacy and the mind-set of the current Republican power structure.

In a concise examination of recent political trends, the authors show that the Democrats' cultural liberalism makes their party inherently hostile to the interests and values of the working class. But on a host of issues, today's Republican Party lacks a message that speaks to their… more

Reihan Salam on WBUR | 'Reinventing the GOP'

Communications — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 08:43:00 -0400

New America in the News:

Young conservatives Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam are the toast of Republican thought circles right now. But their call to Republican revival is also a broadside.

Bush-era crony capitalism and government neglect, they charge, have pushed the USA toward a Latin American model of rich and poor and nothing in between.

If the Grand Old Party wants a comeback, they argue, it's going to have to do something serious for American workers. But something conservative.

This hour, On Point: "Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class" -- they say -- "and Save the American Dream." LINK to audio

Grand New Party

Ron Tang — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 05:18:00 -0400

* This article was excerpted from "Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream" by Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam.

The Old Consensus

When Barry Goldwater lost the 1964 presidential election by 16 million votes, carrying only six states and faring worse than any major-party candidate since Alf Landon in 1936, nobody seriously entertained the possibility that conservatism would rise from his defeat, let alone that the race might mark the beginning of a decades-long realignment in American politics. The Goldwater debacle was greeted instead as a welcome affirmation of a political and cultural… more

The New Woodstock Generation

Ron Tang — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 05:35:00 -0400

In late May, New York magazine noted a highly unusual advertisement that appeared on Craigslist. A young Brooklyn couple had decided to sell virtually everything they owned, from electronics to furniture to designer shoes, for $8,500. As it turns out, the couple was planning on taking their two young children and setting out for the open road. Two weeks earlier, the New York Times profiled several other couples who had made a similar choice -- to surrender their accumulated possessions and, with toddlers in tow, to leave a dreary, consumption-driven urban existence behind for something nobler and more environmentally sound.… more

McCain Is In For a Terrible Shock If He Wins

Ron Tang — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 03:59:00 -0400

Britain’s Conservatives might be plotting a triumphant return to power but America’s Republicans are in a state of utter collapse. And it’s not just because the tide is turning after two terms of George W. Bush. For better or for worse, the Cameron Conservatives have adapted to a more culturally liberal, urban, diverse society. They have reconciled themselves to the welfare state in a way that Keith Joseph and Margaret Thatcher never did. Republicans, in contrast, are labouring under the illusion that America remains the yeoman democracy of yesteryear, full of plucky individualists. Slowly but surely, American politics is catching… more

The War Over the War (cont.)

Ron Tang — Mon, 19 May 2008 08:05:00 -0400

There's the war in Iraq and then there is the war over the war in Iraq. The first is about gaining ground against the sectarian militias and terrorists who plague that country. The second is about storytelling.

Advocates of staying and fighting in Iraq are at a distinct disadvantage in the second war. The burden of the Iraq fighting falls on such a small number of military families that it is easy to portray the troops in the field as victims. This has proved an effective strategy for Virginia's junior senator, Jim Webb, a staunch opponent of the surge. Once seen… more

Our Urban Future

Ron Tang — Wed, 14 May 2008 06:45:00 -0400

Half of the world’s population now lives in cities, a number that will climb to 75% by the middle of the century. This development marks a radical break in human history, for humanity has until recently been overwhelmingly rural, concerned first and foremost with brute survival.

In “The Communist Manifesto,” Karl Marx referred to “the idiocy of rural life” -- or so the mistranslation goes -- as an enduring problem. In fact, Marx wasn’t talking about “idiocy” at all. Rather, he was referring to the isolation and stasis of rural life, and how it had long stymied creativity and the diffusion… more

Go For the Bitter Bloc

Ron Tang — Fri, 09 May 2008 10:17:00 -0400

Last week's Pennsylvania primary demonstrated that Barack Obama is not unbeatable. This might sound a strange way to put it. Hasn't it always been true that Obama is beatable?

Well, consider an alternate reality in which Obama had won Pennsylvania. His people certainly thought long and deeply about this alternate reality -- why else spend a staggering $12 million on one state's primary? Hillary Clinton would have dropped out. Obama would have shown that he can win white working-class votes in a big, diverse, populous state. Way back after the Iowa caucuses, he playfully observed that everywhere he goes becomes Obama… more

The Music Industry's Extortion Scheme

Ron Tang — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 11:40:00 -0400

What would you do if a bully -- let's call him "Joey Giggles" -- kept snatching your ice-cream cone? OK, now what if Joey Giggles then told you, "If you pay me five bucks a month, I'll stop snatching your ice cream." Depending on how much you hate getting beaten up, and how much you love ice-cream cones, you might decide that caving in is the way to go. This is what's called a protection racket. It's also potentially the new model for how we'll buy and listen to music.

Let's back up for a second. Four companies (Universal Music Group,… more