Tamar Jacoby

Think of it as a pistol shot kicking off the labor and employment debates of the next decade. 

Are you middle class? Upper middle class, maybe? Do you think you and your family are the people being talked about when politicians debate solutions for the middle class and its problems?

Chalk it up to the polarized times we live in—another sign of just how bad things have gotten. The past few weeks have seen a dazzling burst of intellectual activity and new ideas on the right: Republican elected officials, think tanks, journals, and columnists exploding with fresh thinking about…

TURN ON A TELEVISION anywhere in America last month, and you were sure to come across a campaign ad talking tough about immigration. Democrats and Republicans, in border states and deep in the heartland: Everybody was doing it, and the spots were among the harshest of the campaign season. The…

CONGRESSWOMAN KAY GRANGER WAS PRACTICING a stump speech before an audience of big-time Republican donors. Her district, anchored by the bustling city of Fort Worth, is experiencing a host of problems linked to illegal immigration: day laborers loitering in strip malls, an influx of Spanish-speaking…

SENATORS JOHN MCCAIN AND JON Kyl, both Arizona Republicans, have an unstated agreement not to criticize each other in public. But now each has introduced legislation to reform the immigration system. The two bills are competing head to head. And when the two men appeared together last month at a…

Douglas, Arizona

NEW YORK DOMINICAN BUSINESSMAN Fernando Mateo spent Election Day driving around New York City, getting out the vote for George Pataki. The Dominican community is among the poorest in New York, and it has traditionally been one of the nation's most reliably left-leaning. Still, Mateo is convinced…

WHEN SECRETARY OF STATE Colin Powell and Mexican foreign minister Jorge Castaneda met in Washington on January 10, they resumed talks on a critical issue sidelined by September 11: immigration reform. It was bound to come back. For though the attacks raised security concerns that may make it harder…

IT'S HARD TO REMEMBER A TIME in recent decades when blacks as a group seemed angrier about politics. Despite the Republican party's unprecedented efforts to appeal to them in the recent campaign, a full 50 percent of black voters think George W. Bush "stole" the election (in contrast to 26 percent…