New York, NY (February 8, 2018) — The New Republic today published its March Issue cover story, “Capital Offenses,” in which eight influential women examine how sexual discrimination and harassment works in Washington.
Elizabeth Drew, a contributing editor at TNR, examines the fallout from the #MeToo movement’s migration from Hollywood to Washington, D.C in “Goings on About Town.” Ana Marie Cox, Founding Editor of Wonkette, takes a critical look at the backlash to the #MeToo movement in “Overdue Diligence,” whereas Eve Fairbanks, a writer in Johannesburg currently working on a book on South Africa, offers a first-hand account in which she revisits online conversations she has had in the past with men in power. In “The Flirting Trap,” Fairbanks writes, “I lost a kind of innocence: the sense that I could seek a connection with a man that I wouldn’t have to manage carefully; that enthusiasm shown for my mind was just that and not veiled foreplay.”
Sarah Jones, staff writer at TNR, examines misdeeds of the Christian right in “The Immoral Majority,” in which she explains, “Again and again, it becomes apparent that a society dominated by the beliefs and practices of the Christian right is one in which misconduct can expect to flourish.” In “Gaps in the Market,” Heather Boushey, Executive Director and Chief Economist at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, writes about the discriminatory bias that female economists face. She writes, “If men cannot overcome their sexism toward women when discussing the qualifications of female economists, then how can they assume that any job market—or any market—is free of discriminatory bias”
In “Domestic Workers, Too,” Ai-jen Poo, Executive Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, writes about the “breeding ground for abuse created in the nation’s capital by some of the world’s most powerful men—and it is usually men—for the domestic workers laboring behind the closed doors of their Washington residences.” Monica Potts, a Freelance writer based in Arkansas, writes about Brooksley Born’s fight to regulate over-the-counter derivatives, only to be belittled and ignored by men in power in “She Called It.” Potts concludes, “the current reckoning with sexual harassment and discrimination shows that ignoring women’s perspectives and expertise is harmful to everyone, and isn’t just about who touches whom on what body part.
Lastly, Jill Abramson, Former Executive Editor of The New York Times rounds out the package with her essay, “My Year Zero.” Abramson writes, “I’ve found myself thinking a lot about what has changed over the years and what has not. With the determination for ‘zero tolerance’ on matters of sexual misconduct, and with so many women running for public o ce in 2018 and, one hopes, in 2020, I desperately want to believe we are on the cusp of a new era.”
Additional information about the issue is included below.
[FEATURES]
The remaining hope for all Americans of good sense, more than a year into Donald Trump’s already interminable spin in office, was that the president and his brand of politics would turn out to be a passing aberration. In “The Myth of Normal America,” Kevin Baker dismantles the belief held by most liberals that somehow, once Trump’s time in the White House is over, we’ll be able to put back together the sort of civil government that had prevailed for most of the last century and a half, and offers the “truth about a post-Trump era.”
In “‘This Route Doesn’t Exist on the Map’,” Lauren Markham takes readers inside a small, nameless restaurant on a narrow street in Tapachula, Mexico, where migrants from around the world - particularly from the Middle East, Africa and Asia - typically congregate as they prepare to continue their journeys out of Mexico and into the United States. Through her detailed account of various migrant stories, Markham demonstrates the extent to which the efforts to block refugees and asylum-seekers from entering Europe have made the global migrant crisis more harrowing and complex.
[U.S. & THE WORLD]
In U.S. & The World, a newly named upfront section of the magazine, Lee Drutman examines the widespread issue of public distrust in the media today, and explains why “objectivity” isn’t the right thing to look for, and never has been as partisan media is the norm in most democracies, just as conflict and contestation are norms, too. In “Learning to Trust Again,” Drutman writes, “In a political system divided on fundamental questions of science, religion, and national identity, the question of what responsible media looks like will only get more pressing— but it can’t be answered in terms of ‘objectivity’.” In “Who’s the Fearless Leader Now?”, Ryu Spaeth looks at the Pyeongchang Olympics and what it can tell us about political theatre in the era of Trump and Kim.
More than a year into Donald Trump’s presidency, political commentators continue, despite all evidence to the contrary, to depict his political base as the “white working class.” In “The New Working Class,” Sarah Jaffe explains why this image of the U.S. factory worker is so problematic, and how it does not match the reality of today’s working class. “Although the ‘narrative makers’ may have missed it, the working class has changed,” writes Jaffe. “Those who used to occupy the fringes of the working class—hotel housekeepers, retail clerks and home care aides—are now its majority.” In “Information Wants to Be Chinese”, Moira Weigel looks at a recently introduced bipartisan bill, known as the CFIUS bill, which aims to dramatically expand the government’s ability to block foreign investment in U.S. technology companies, and how it signals a departure from the time when America’s politicians and technology companies alike saw openness, deregulation and disruption as drivers of innovation.
Former U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. contributes a column this month. In “Who Counts?”, Holder looks at how the Trump administration’s scheme to rig the census threatens American democracy. “In his first year in office, Donald Trump and his administration have launched a daunting number of direct and open attacks on long-respected American rights and freedoms...But there have been other, indirect and behind-the-scenes attacks, too, which may be no less damaging to the United States in the long term. Perhaps the most critical of these is aimed at the census,” writes Holder.
[BOOKS & THE ARTS]
In “Night Vision”, Nicholson Baker explores the forgotten theory of dreams that inspired Vladimir Nabokov chronicled in Nabokov’s never before published dream diary, Insomniac Dreams: Experiments With Time By Vladimir Nabokov.
In “Silicon Valley’s Origin Story”, Jacob Silverman explores the generational shift that made tech a cultural and political force by taking a look at two new books The Know-It-Alls: The Rise of Silicon Valley as a Political Powerhouse and Social Wrecking Ball and Troublemakers: Silicon Valley’s Coming of Age.
Rachel Syme reviews The Assassination of Gianni Versace, the second installment of FX’s new miniseries American Crime Story created by Ryan Murphy. The installment exposes how deadly aspiration can be by following the man who shot and killed Versace, Andrew Cunanan. Syme writes, “the show doesn’t aim to establish which version is true so much as to expose the rot at the center of American culture- the horrors that could only happen here.”
In “Talk Therapy”, Christian Lorentzen explores how filmmaker Alex Ross Perry’s new film Golden Exits paints a moody portrait of stifled creativity and tense relationships.
Michael Kazin reviews Building The Great Society: Inside Lyndon Johnson’s White House, delving into the question of whether or not today’s liberals can match the achievements of LBJ’s presidency- “in politics, to refrain from advocating bold reforms is as perilous a strategy as promising what you will never be able to achieve”.
J.C. Pan takes a look at Alt-America: The Rise of The Radical Right in the age of Trump, which tracks the tradition of conspiracy theories and hate groups behind the alt-right. “The political danger is less the alt-right than it is its established counterpart”, writes Pan.
Poems by Ariana Reines, and Tarfia Faizullah are featured this month. For Res Publica, Editor-in-Chief Win McCormack explores the civic republican tradition and its lost treasure in “Liberalism After Liberalism.”
The March issue of The New Republic is available on newsstands and via digital subscription on February 15 .
For additional information, please contact Luke Carron at luke@high10media.com
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