Eugene Robinson's Blog, page 100

The Iran deal isn’t perfect - but what deal is?

To understand why the Iran nuclear deal is such a triumph, consider the most likely alternative: war.Imagine a U.S.-led military strike — not a pinprick but an extended bombing campaign robust enough to eliminate 98 percent of Iran’s enriched uranium, put two-thirds of the Islamic republic’s centrifuges out of action and erase any capability of producing plutonium. Imagine that the attack did so much damage that for the next 10 or 15 years it would be utterly impossible for Iran to build a nuclear bomb. Such an outcome would be hailed as a great success — achieved, however, at a terrible cost.Read full article >>

Jeb Bush suffers from Foot in Mitt Disease

Jeb Bush ought to be running away with the Republican nomination. He isn’t, and his persona as a national candidate looks increasingly — how shall I put this? — Romneyesque.Bush is supposed to be the safe, establishment-approved choice, which is where the Republican Party usually turns. He and his allied super PAC have raised a phenomenal $114 million thus far. The hot mess that is Donald Trump ought to be sending GOP primary voters toward Bush’s column in droves. But the scion-in-waiting hasn’t yet consolidated the establishment’s support.Read full article >>

South Carolina’s losing battle to rewrite its racist history

For most of my life, a flag representing white supremacist violence against black people flew at the capitol of my native state. It is a very big deal that this emblem of hatred and oppression is finally coming down.Read full article >>

The non-Clinton alternative for Democrats

Is Bernie Sanders the political reincarnation of Eugene McCarthy? I doubt it, but let’s hope he makes the Democratic presidential race interesting.I don’t know if front-runner Hillary Clinton shares my wish, but she ought to. I’m not of the school that believes competition for competition’s sake is always a good thing. But Sanders has an appeal for younger, more liberal, more idealistic Democrats that Clinton presently lacks. If she competes for these voters — and learns to connect with them — she will have a much better chance of winning the White House.Read full article >>

Donald Trump: A farce to be reckoned with

Anxiety-ridden GOP masterminds will eventually find a way to solve the Trump Problem. Until they do, however, the Republican Party threatens to become as much of a laughingstock as what David Letterman used to call “that thing on Donald Trump’s head.” Read full article >>

Charleston shows ‘the power of God’s grace’

Charleston, S.C.It is impossible to know whether the Charleston tragedy will someday be seen as a turning point in the nation’s long, difficult struggle with race. But we can hope.At Friday’s funeral services for the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, one of nine men and women who were slain June 17 at historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, hope was very much in the air. But what was the alternative? The slaughter of innocents at prayer, allegedly by a young white racist who killed black people to make a point, was an act of monstrous evil. Despair is one way to process such an event; imagining that some measure of good can come of it the other.Read full article >>

150 years later, America is still battling the Confederate mentality

CHARLESTON, S.C.One hundred fifty years too late, the Confederacy may finally be coming to an end. Finishing it off, however, will require more than getting rid of an offensive flag.Not that the astounding progress this week toward consigning the Confederate battle flag to the ignominy it deserves is a small thing. Flags are among the most important symbols because they signify allegiance — in this case, to a treasonous rebellion that sought the unimpeded right to buy and sell human beings and brutally compel their unpaid labor.Read full article >>

America will only end racism when it stops being racist

If American racism were a thing of the past, nine men and women who went to church last Wednesday evening would be alive. What happened in Charleston, S.C., is not unfathomable or even ambiguous. It’s a story much older than the nation, a story that began when the first Africans were brought to Jamestown in 1619: the brutalizing and killing of black people because of the color of their skin. Read full article >>

After Charleston, will America finally do something about guns?

Maybe it was white rage that provoked a young man to kill nine innocent worshipers as they prayed. Maybe it was mental illness or some other twisted motivation. The one thing about which there can be no debate is that he had a gun.Read full article >>

Jeb’s logo can’t hide the troublesome family name

Substituting an exclamation point for his inconvenient last name, Jeb! has officially entered the presidential race. Why isn’t everyone else quaking in fear?I can see why Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front-runner who also downplays a familiar surname, might welcome Jeb Bush’s candidacy. If the general election is Bush versus Clinton, the dynasty issue becomes a wash. Americans would just have to deal with the fact that these two families are never, ever going away.Read full article >>