Public Opinion

The Joe Lunch Bucket Strategy

Ron Tang — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 08:52:00 -0400

If Americans are such huge fans of big dreams and high rolling, self-made tycoons and upward mobility, why then do we insist on seeing our national political elites -- who are also generally our economic and educational elites -- throw back a shot of whiskey or lace up bowling shoes?

Why do we need to pretend that high-flying politicians who graduated from the fanciest schools and dine at the toniest restaurants really don't live in a different world and -- dare I say it -- class than the rest of us?

The easy answer is that we want to identify with them,… more

Iran's Election: What the Polling Says

Communications — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 04:30:00 -0400

A New America Event
03/14/2008 - 9:30am

When the Iranian people vote for their parliamentary representatives on Friday, March 14, the results may be surprising. But will the rising dissatisfaction with the government and an increased desire for compromise with the United States translate into change?

The New America Foundation's American Strategy Program along with Terror Free Tomorrow, a leading non-partisan public opinion research organization, will discuss the full results of TFT's most recent poll of Iranian public attitudes.

For more information see Robin Wright's coverage of the TFT polling in The Washington Post.

Engine of Assimilation

adminn — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 19:25:00 -0500

Americans have little confidence that assimilation is happening today as it once did. According to a 2006 Pew Research Center poll, 44 percent of Americans believe that today's immigrants are not as willing to assimilate as those who came during the early 1900s. Their confidence is not likely to grow with the release of a new Pew Hispanic Center report, which shows that by 2050 nearly 1 in 5 people in the United States will be foreign-born. Nativists, such as columnist Patrick J. Buchanan, who has gone so far as to claim that the refusal of immigrants to assimilate is… more

The American Public and the Next Social Contract

Next Social Contract — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 11:21:00 -0500

The first premise of the New America Foundation’s initiative on the Next Social Contract is that the structures that help American workers and their families balance economic security and opportunity involve much more than a set of government programs. What we call the social contract is a set of formal and informal systems and assumptions, involving individuals, employers and government, that provide, as Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. put it, “security in the context of freedom and freedom in the context of security.” These assumptions have evolved through the course of American history, shaped by the crises and historical accidents from which they were born. Together, they are rooted in the… more

The 'Something for Nothing' State

Ron Tang — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0500

You could see California's 2008 budget mess coming years ago.

In 2003, it loomed on the horizon, in long-term fiscal projections that Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill published just days before Arnold Schwarzenegger became governor. Without "actions to bring spending and revenues into line," she wrote, California's budget gap in 2008-09 would be "in the range of $10 billion, assuming the [vehicle license fee] increase remains in place, and $15 billion if it is rolled back." Borrowing to cover up the deficit would only put California on "a slippery slope" toward permanent crisis.

Despite Hill's warning, Schwarzenegger rolled back the vehicle… more

L.A.'s 'Race War' That Isn't

Articles — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 13:43:00 -0400

Get this: A new study by three UC Irvine criminologists has concluded that Los Angeles is not on the brink of a major interracial crime wave. Surprised? That’s understandable. Because for the last several years, the media have been increasingly fixated on the specter of black-versus-brown violence.

Last January, a CNN anchorwoman asked a visibly perturbed Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa whether Los Angeles was "in the middle of a race war." That same month, this newspaper published an opinion piece claiming that "Latino ethnic cleansing of African Americans from multiracial neighborhoods" was an "increasingly common trend."

Yes, there have been high-profile incidents of… more

Belgium's Identity Crisis

Articles — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 14:26:00 -0400

When you think of international ethnic hot spots, Belgium probably doesn’t jump to mind. Its 10 million inhabitants are relatively prosperous, and its two main ethnic groups, the Flemings and Walloons, with their different languages and cultures, aren’t blowing each other up with car bombs or hacking each other to bits with machetes. But that doesn’t mean Belgium is the model of inter-ethnic cooperation it’s cracked up to be.

Four years ago, outgoing Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt called his nation "the laboratory of European unification." In 1989, then-Prime Minister Wilfried Martens referred to Belgium as "the prototype of Europe." The… more

Spin Means Always Having to Say You're Sorry

Articles — Tue, 01 May 2007 16:49:00 -0400

Who’s sorry now? Lots of people these days are rushing to the cameras, claiming to be misunderstood -- but none of them seems truly regretful.

Saying that one is sorry, of course, is just the beginning. Those who are genuinely apologetic know that repentance is a stern taskmaster. According to Catholic doctrine, for example, "contrition" is "a sorrow of soul and a hatred of sin committed, with a firm purpose of not sinning in the future."

In other words, if you are contrite, you really have to mean it. So we can make short work, then, of Randall Tobias, who, until resigning… more

Dems Boost Bush's Sagging Approval Ratings

Articles — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 10:31:00 -0400

The pundits seem to agree: George W. Bush is toast, kaput. So how come the president’s holding steady, even rising, in the polls? And what does that mean for 2008?

Let’s consider the weight of the punditical pile-on: Joe Klein, writing in Time magazine, sees "An Epic Collapse" -- specifically, the Iraq war, the Walter Reed hospital mess, the flap over the fired U.S. attorneys. Concludes Klein: "It is increasingly difficult to imagine yet another two years of slow bleed with a leader so clearly unfit to lead."

David Ignatius, writing in The Washington Post, opines, "Simply… more

Anatol Lieven on the Blair-Bush Relationship in The Times

Communications — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 13:21:00 -0500

New America in the News:

From the outset, Kendall Myers appeared determined to explode what he described as the “myth” of the special relationship between Britain and the United States. It had never existed, he said in his opening remarks, “or, at least, not one that we noticed”.

Instead, relations had been “altogether too one-sided” for a very long time. “The poodle factor did not begin with Tony Blair, it began, yes, with Winston Churchill.”

At this point Dr Myers acknowledged that “as an employee of the State Department” he perhaps ought not to say so much. But analysis is what he does for Condoleezza Rice, he was at an academic forum — speaking at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington on Tuesday night — and his provocative historical views were gathering an unstoppable momentum...

The other speakers on Tuesday night all agreed that, if there ever had been a special relationship, it would never again be quite as special as it had been during the Bush-Blair era — even though culture, economy and defence would still bind the two nations.

Anatol Lieven, a fellow of the New America Foundation, described how British public opinion had moved decisively against America, and not just against Mr Bush...

For the complete article, please visit The Times website.