Harold Meyerson

The Revolt of the Elites

So what do we do with our boy Bill, our empath-in-chief whose own pleasures and pains, and the consequences thereof, now render all other politics moot? The Clinton haters cry out for quick impeachment. The Republican congressional leaders want a slow, deliberative process that will drown out all Democratic attempts......

Five Big Ideas

1. We should privatize Social Security and direct Americans to invest their retirement nest eggs in the market. As things stand now, of course, Social Security funds are invested in those low-yielding U.S. government securities. How dull! How collective! How safe! 2. The greatest threat to the U.S. economy is......

War Without Borders

"Conflict With Terrorism Called War of Future," read the headline in Sunday's New York Times, and that's certainly the message that administration officials, from the president on down, were conveying this week. But is it really terrorism with which we're in conflict? That's like saying the Cold War was a......

President Clinton – On the Attack

Now we know what it takes to make Bill Clinton give a short speech. It's actually a rhetorical achievement, I suppose, to pack that much contrition (well, a dollop), self-pity (a healthy dose) and rage (a flood tide) into a four-minute address. It's the rage that raises all the questions......

No Justice, No Growth

From the perspective of the executive suites atop Universal's famous Black Tower, the demonstration that spread out on the lawn below at noontime on July 2 must have seemed passing strange. There were, of course, some irate homeowners protesting Universal's proposal to enlarge its theme park and theaters and CityWalk......

Central Americans Invade Beverly Hills

Shortly after Rick Chertoff assumed his duties as Executive Director of the L.A. chapter of the Jewish Labor Committee (JLC), a colleague called and said he should hotfoot it over to Beverly Hills to check out the picket line outside the Summit Rodeo Hotel. "I went over," Chertoff recalls, "and......
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Central Americans Invade Beverly Hills

Shortly after Rick Chertoff assumed his duties as Executive Director of the L.A. chapter of the Jewish Labor Committee (JLC), a colleague called and said he should hotfoot it over to Beverly Hills to check out the picket line outside the Summit Rodeo Hotel. "I went over," Chertoff recalls, "and......

Sam Yorty, 1909-1998

In the life of the political leader, there sometimes comes a defining moment, an episode in which he creates himself indelibly and for all time. For Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty, that moment came on the morning after the mayoral primary in April, 1969. On primary night, two-term incumbent Yorty......

Wedgeless

I. Conventional Wisdom Error No. 1 - The Lungren Lock The talk in political circles these days is all about how the affable and passionate Dan Lungren will dispatch the painfully cautious Gray Davis - a candidate whose emotional constipation rivals Bartleby the Scrivener's - in the gubernatorial runoff this......

Famous Victories

I. CLASS WAR AND OTHER BIG DEALS In the end, what really doomed Proposition 226 in Tuesday's primary election was its pedigree: This was a measure that, politically, came from nowhere. That is, 226 didn't emerge out of a mass discontent with unions or with union political-action programs, which it......