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American Futures Update: Nation Building At Home
Reinvention and resilience across the nationRead more OK, that headline is my attempt at a transition from the past few days of Syria-related items to our ongoing American Futures exploration. I've...
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Syria: Some Arguments for Intervention, and a Response
Please read the American Futures post I put up late last night, with an intro (and beer reference) here. Then ... back to Syria. Here are a few of the pro-intervention messages that have come in, some...
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A Very Wise Decision by Obama
The two crucial parts of his announcement just now. 1) No rush about doing whatever needs to be done with Syria. 2) Recognizing the higher wisdom -- for himself, for the country, for the world -- of...
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The Surprising News From One Small Town About Immigration Reform
When I was thinking like a DC policy person, what was the biggest surprise from the time my wife and I spent in Holland? It involved immigration, in a way I would not have expected from what is now our...
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Your Labor Day Syria Reader, Part 1: Stevenson and Lofgren
In the wake of President Obama's (welcome) decision to seek Congressional authorization before striking Syria, long-time Congressional defense-policy expert Charles Stevenson offers these guidelines...
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The Next Lesson From Holland: Why Local Money Matters
There is a category of things you "learn" from travel or other experience that you simply weren't aware of before. Example: it is obvious once you travel around in the Dakotas that they really should...
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Your Labor Day Syria Reader, Part 2: William Polk
Many times I've mentioned the foreign-policy assessments of William R. Polk, at right, who first wrote for the Atlantic (about Iraq) during Dwight Eisenhower's first term, back in 1955, and served on...
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Escalation Rhetoric, in Six Simple Steps
Thanks to a reader who pointed me a two-year-old article by Eric Martin that has surprising modern relevance. It's about the predictable stages of pro-intervention rhetoric. This pattern of rhetorical...
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Another Set of Questions About Syria
A few minutes ago I posted the six-step pattern of pro-escalation rhetoric that Eric Martin laid out two years ago. That followed William Polk's lengthy and important 13-question examination of a...
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American Futures: Grand Finale Holland-Palooza
Over the past few weeks my wife and I have had a lot to say about the little lakeside manufacturing town of Holland, Michigan. Main themes: conservative Dutch-religious influence for better and...
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Welcome to Sioux Falls
Reinvention and resilience across the nationRead more Those are townspeople playing in the falls of the Big Sioux River for which the town is named, right downtown. A decade ago this was a sketchy...
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How to Make Nice With the Call Center
By Deborah Fallows When we arrived in Sioux Falls, I was very excited about hearing the Dakota accent. Think Frances McDormand in the movie Fargo. Or try listening to the language in this mash-up...
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Syria Reader Part 3: Robert Pastor
Previous installments are #1 from Mike Lofgren and Charles Stevenson, and #2 from William Polk. This version comes from Robert Pastor, a friend of mine since our time as colleagues in the Carter...
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Welcome Marketplace Listeners, to American Futures
This evening on public radio's Marketplace, Kai Ryssdal -- shown at center above, talking with me recently in South Dakota -- kicks off our Atlantic / Marketplace / Esri software reporting...
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'When's Your Birthday? January First!' Report from Sioux Falls
By Deborah Fallows When the Sioux Falls, S.D., public schools opened the doors for the new school year a few weeks ago, they welcomed speakers of 60 different languages, an astonishing number. Over...
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The Best Result From Congress: A 'No' Vote on Syria
One week ago at exactly this time -- it seems like a year -- the political world was on waning-moments countdown for the expected U.S. strike on Syria. Then about an hour later, President Obama took...
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Why Local Money Matters: The Middletown Story
The two big lessons my wife and I keep encountering in our travels are these: First, the profound economic and and cultural effect of immigration even in places where you might not necessarily expect...
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What Can We Do About Syria? Reader Suggestions
Yesterday I said that if I had a vote on the Syria resolution, I would (on current knowledge) vote No. The reason is that the Administration has convinced everyone that atrocities are underway in...
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Broadening the Syria Options, Beyond Bombing-or-Nothing
From a reader with a lot of experience in politics and negotiation, following this post earlier today:It's odd that the choice seems to be framed as airstrikes vs. do nothing. As I understand it, the...
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A Dakota Boom Town, but Not the Kind You'd Expect
Everyone has heard stories about the shale-oil boom towns that are transforming North Dakota, for better and worse. "Man camps" for oil-field workers, jobs for anyone who can work a rig or drive a...
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