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Robert Kuttner

Robert Kuttner is co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect, and professor at Brandeis University's Heller School. His latest book is Can Democracy Survive Global Capitalism? In addition to writing for the Prospect, he writes for The Huffington Post, The Boston Globe, and the New York Review of Books. 

Follow Bob at his site, robertkuttner.com, and on Twitter. 

Recent Articles

Yes, Democrats Need to Run Left -- on Economics

Robert KuttnerJul 24, 2018
AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana Senator Bernie Sanders with Maryland gubernatorial candidate Ben Jealous at a campaign rally in Silver Spring H ave you noticed the irritating spate of articles in the mainstream press expressing alarm that the Democratic Party may be moving too far to the left? This has become a trope among commentators. The lead piece in Sunday’s New York Times , for instance, is headlined, “Democrats Brace as Storm Brews to Their Left.” So right from the headline, the progressive energy that is bringing new people into politics and challenging Republican incumbents is condemned as some kind of threat to “Democrats.” The reporter, Alexander Burns, goes on to quote party leaders warning of the possible ill-effects: “‘There are a lot of moderate and even conservative Democrats in Michigan,’ Mr. Brewer (the former state party chair) cautioned.” Note the use of the loaded verb, cautioned. This is a classic sort of piece in which the writer has a point of view that he wants to...

History’s Most Incompetent Demagogue

Robert KuttnerJul 17, 2018
AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais President Donald Trump, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin shake hand at the beginning of a meeting at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland No one likes us I don't know why We may not be perfect But heaven knows we try But all around Even our old friends put us down Let's drop the big one And see what happens —Randy Newman, “Political Science,” 1972 S inger, songwriter, and satirist Randy Newman, almost half a century ago, was channeling the know-nothing sentiments that eventually produced a President Trump—a figure who didn’t know much about history or geography, but who knew only that the rest of the world was failing to respect the United States. Trump’s famously thin skin reflects what psychiatrists call a narcissistic wound , a deep sense of rage that is triggered by anything that seems like a slight. Trump in turn channels Americans who feel slighted, disrespected, or disdained as citizens and as patriots—by the turn that the...

Putin Must Love Having Trump on His Side

Posted on July 16, 2018 at 5:10 pm
By Robert Kuttner | Jul 16, 2018

It must be nice to have Washington on your side.

Vladimir Putin has to be heading home scratching his head. His meeting with Trump was choreographed to be cordial. But why on earth did Trump need to repeat, in even stronger terms, that he believes Putin’s denials over the extensive investigations of the entire U.S. intelligence establishment?

“They said they think it’s Russia; I have President Putin, he just said it’s not Russia,” Mr. Trump declared at the joint press conference—right after the Putin admitted that he had favored Mr. Trump in the election because of his promises of closer relations with Moscow.

Why did Trump not even go through the motions of asking Putin to keep his mitts off the American election process?

This makes no sense, either in domestic political terms or in terms of Trump’s tactical effort to discredit the special counsel. And it strengthens the case for what will be the strongest count in the impeachment of Trump—namely, treason.

Trump's mission to Finland is a political catastrophe for him, capping his buffoonish performances at NATO and in Britain. There is no good explanation for any of it, except a psychiatric one.

Those Democrats who say that raising impeachment will set back their chances of taking the House in the November elections are profoundly wrong. Impeachment just became inevitable.

Trump Is Giving Democrats Everything They Need for the Midterms

2018 is very likely to be a blue-wave election—so long as Democrats respond strategically to the administration’s actions.

Robert KuttnerJul 10, 2018
(Oliver Contreras/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images)
(Oliver Contreras/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images) This column originally appeared at The Huffington Post . P resident Donald Trump and the Republican Congress either had a great Fourth of July week or a terrible one, depending on how you interpret the suite of recent events and how Democrats respond. Take the resignation of Justice Anthony Kennedy and the chance for Trump to lock in a solidly right-wing Supreme Court for a generation. On its face, this is a huge gain for the right. The chances are slim that Democrats plus two renegade Republican senators will block a far-right nominee who would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade and do a lot of other mischief. The always unreliable Senator Susan Collins of Maine has indicated she might vote no, but Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska is even cagier, and there is always the leverage of patronage. If the future of the republic hinges on these two mostly bogus Republican moderates, God save America. Riskier still is the likelihood that Democratic...

It's Still the Economy, Stupid

Robert KuttnerJul 03, 2018
AP Photo/Richard Drew The logo for Wells Fargo appears above a trading post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange B y focusing attention on issues such as immigration and Korea, Trump has managed to deflect attention from the economic resentments that helped get him elected—namely, outrage that the rules are rigged on behalf of the wealthy and the powerful. Will he keep getting away with this, as Republican policies make the rich even richer and regular people more economically precarious? That depends on how astutely blue wave candidates keep pocketbook issues at the forefront. Exhibits A and B of the Republican doubling down on corrupt plutocracy are the 2017 Tax Act and the coddling of the biggest banks. The Tax Act costs $1.9 trillion in revenue over a decade. Almost all of the breaks went to rich individuals and corporations, but it was supposed to produce trickle-down benefits in the form of more jobs and better pay for workers. Now the verdict is on pay increases. Worker...

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