Author Archives: Josh Eidelson

After the 2000 election, Gary Gregg set out to comfort conservatives that while “on the surface it would seem that Gore was able to appeal to a broader band of the American electorate … Gore’s votes came overwhelmingly from densely populated urban areas.” A county-by-county map, he wrote, shows “only small islands (mostly on the »

In my last column, I asked why so many liberals were getting taken for a ride on John McCain’s so-called Straight Talk Express (“Dems lose out in courting McCain,” 3/21). Since then, Jerry Falwell has proudly announced that McCain will be the keynote speaker at this year’s commencement ceremony for Falwell’s Liberty University. Hopefully, McCain’s »

Twenty years before Jack Abramoff became a household name, the Senate Ethics Committee investigated five U.S. senators for taking cash raised by Lincoln Savings & Loan operator Charlie Keating while working to scuttle investigations of the company. The investigations effectively ended the careers of four of the “Keating Five.” The only one left in Congress »

Over the past few years, students have raised concerns about an array of Yale’s financial investments. Without fail, those dubious toward each of these criticisms have invoked a popular myth: that in the 1980s, Yale’s leaders moved quickly to avoid abetting apartheid and fully divested Yale’s endowment from companies dealing with the South African government. »

“Have you left your mark yet?” ask cards left in dining halls by the Yale Alumni Fund. “Join the ranks of thousands of Yalies who came before you,” they entreat current seniors, “by giving back to the Yale Alumni Fund.” It’s clear why many students feel compelled to make donations before graduating: The chance to »

A generation ago, activists and progressive academics fought for the right of professors to express unpopular views without fear of losing their jobs. Today, under the borrowed banner of academic freedom, conservatives are lobbying state governments on behalf of the ostensible right of students not to be exposed to professors whose views they don’t like. »

A week ago, GOP lobbyist extraordinaire Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty to charges of tax evasion, fraud and conspiracy. Under a plea bargain, he’ll likely spend a decade in jail at most, after testifying against a rogue’s gallery of right-wing operatives, congressmen and senators. Democrats in Congress and across the country are understandably glad to see »

Three weeks ago, feeling the heat from newly organized and emboldened critics, Wal-Mart executives gathered to launch a charm offensive. Aiming to win back wavering Americans, the company promised slight improvements to its healthcare plan and its energy consumption and ostensible support for an increase in the minimum wage. Any dent the company may have »

People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired,” Rosa Parks wrote, “but that isn’t true … the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.” Over a decade before her 1955 arrest, Parks endured the first of many ejections from buses for refusing to give up her seat. »

When the Yale–Harvard Game comes to New Haven next month, many students will drink. Many of them will get drunk. And not all of them will be 21. Given that reality, the question facing Yale that weekend — and the rest of the year as well — is how a university concerned about the health »

American labor law is broken. Or rather, it’s fixed. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election process creates obstacles for union supporters seeking to communicate with undecided workers, gives employers wide leeway to intimidate and punish employees who speak out in favor of the union, and offers management the chance to delay the recognition process »

I don’t have to tell you that a lot of Yalies go on to get involved in American government. Depending on your convictions, you can make your own list of the good, bad and ugly examples. (We may even agree about where to place, say, William Howard Taft). Should you be nurturing secret (or not-so-secret) »