It's true that conservatives ought to embrace same-sex marriage, and their recent support has been hugely helpful. But it's one thing to say same-sex marriage is consistent with conservative values, and quite another to claim it as a conservative cause.

Maybe understanding the historic events and behavioral roots that have produced these venomously angry polarized times can help us let go of at least a little of our own deep instinct to align with the tribe in the name of safety and protection.

The Republicans are threatening to tank the economy so they can cut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, education and other things that matter. We should just tell them, and nervous Democrats who want to cave to them, absolutely not.

It's easy to interpret the 2012 election as a ratification of Barack Obama's first term. But down in Austin, the LBJ Presidential Library is making a strong case that the legacy voters cemented in November was Lyndon Johnson's.

Words are contested terrain in political debate. The words we use to label issues and ideas shape how people think about them.

More than any other candidate or issue, the election of 2012 is all about the extraordinary legacy of America's most overlooked, complicated, liberal ...

We're heading toward an environment where myth is repackaged as fact.

It's strange that President Obama doesn't show any indignation about our long slide into economic oblivion. He's certainly not "fighting mad" about it. He draws a line in the sand, the Republicans cross it, then he steps back and draws another line in the sand.

The United States has lost its philosophical soul. The nation's predominant motivations are money, sex, power, domination, fame and indulgence. These are the motivations of children and adolescents.

Barack Obama understands the evils of Reaganism even better than Bill Clinton. He also knows what ought to be done and what he, as President, must do to get it done. Shame on him, therefore, all the more.

It's time for all Democrats to dust off their reluctance to mention LBJ and help our people understand that government is key in times like these, that in 2010 the Great Society is the difference between the Great Recession and another Great Depression.

Here's a question: Can America's political system resolve our country's poverty? Do the poor matter, or is everything in Washington aimed at those wealthy enough to give campaign contributions?

by Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium blogger In 1993, anti-choice extremists murdered a doctor, burned 12 buildings, set off a bomb, and blockaded ...

Tomasky's notion that anything that happened before today cannot be adequately invoked to derive lessons or guidance negates the very idea of looking to history for inspiration, hope, and direction.

The Tea Partiers are not entirely wrong to warn about the potential of the state to repress freedom, but in overlooking the role of the state in ensuring these freedoms, they foolishly misread history.

The fight over a Supreme Court nomination that we are likely to see with the reported impending retirement of Justice Stevens could be a major teachable moment for progressives. Bring on the Court fight.

The new liberalism will have to prove that it can say no as well as yes by terminating ineffective and obsolete programs, as well as instituting promising new ones.

Over the last few months, a number of prominent political columnists have pointed to historian and social critic Richard Hofstadter to explain what is happening to the Republican Party. Here's why they shouldn't.

Right now, the President may appear to have a meager stack of chips in front of him, but it's because his entire bankroll is in the pot. And as it turns out, he's holding a couple of aces.

No matter what healthcare bill passes, it is not going to remain static. It is going to be revisited again and again over the next few decades. That's how lawmaking works.