Alums in print

Former Independent Editor-in-Chief and influential blogger Matt Yglesias ‘03 has written a book entitled Heads in the Sand: How the Republicans Screw Up Foreign Policy and Foreign Policy Screws Up the Democrats.
Judging by the title, he seems to take a somewhat dim view of responding to terror attacks by invading countries that had nothing to do with them. More specifically, according to the jacket copy,

In Heads in the Sand, fast-rising political observer and commentator Matthew Yglesias reveals the wrong-headed foreign policy stance of conservatives, neocons, and the Republican Party for what it is—aggressive nationalism, or, to be impolite, a new version of old-fashioned imperialism. He then examines how Democrats and progressives have responded to the conservative agenda, from mistakenly labeling it isolationism to repeated calls for big, bold, new ideas and the failure to actually produce any.

Writing with wit, passion, and keen insight, Yglesias reminds us of the rich tradition of liberal internationalism that, developed by Democrats, was used with great success by both Democratic and Republican administrations for more than fifty years. It was, in fact, the foreign policy strategy that revived Europe after World War II, established the United Nations, and won the Cold War.

Based on the principle of promoting global order through international law and stable institutions, liberal internationalism is far from perfect and not nearly sexy enough to appeal to chest-thumping hawks. But, as Yglesias demonstrates, exercised with patience, flexibility, and restraint by nine American presidents, it has produced more peace, prosperity, and international harmony than any other approach.

Sounds like the kind of guy who would give away the Sudetenland.

Here’s Matt (on the right) with his former colleagues at an Independent event in NYC:



We’re more than happy to put in a good word for any literary (or other) work produced by an alum. Just let us know.

– S.A.

Alums in the news, presidential campaign edition

Independent alum Trevor Potter ‘78 is, according to the usually reliable New York Times, the lawyer for the McCain campaign. He was quoted in a May 9 Times article on the latest developments in the endless controversy over the composition of the Federal Election Commission:

President Bush also decided on Tuesday to pull a pending renomination of the current chairman of the commission, David M. Mason, a Republican. Mr. Mason raised questions this year about Mr. McCain’s right to withdraw from the public financing system for the primary.

Advocacy groups that work to counter the influence of money in politics immediately assailed the White House action, arguing it could be construed only as a blatantly political act, meant to benefit the McCain campaign.

“President Bush’s dumping of Mason can only be viewed as a bald-faced and brazen attempt to wrongly manipulate an important enforcement decision by the nation’s campaign finance enforcement agency,” said Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, an advocacy group, in a statement.

In response, the Times cited a post by “the campaign’s lawyer and a former FEC Chairman himself, Trevor Potter.”

Not surprisingly, he doesn’t care much for the inference that Sen. McCain had anything to do with Mason’s failure to be renominated. You can read his entire post here and decide for yourself whether the whole contretemps is just another remarkable election-year coincidence.

– S.A.

Report from Grad Board

Twice a year, the Independent’s editors meet with interested alumni (that’s the Grad Board) to review the state of the Indy. Based on discussions at last week’s Grad Board, the Indy’s in good shape. The editorial product retains its distinctive voice (viz. the cover of the sex survey issue) and trends on the business side are pointing in the right direction. In particular, the paper edition is reliably dropped to each undergraduate door every week, the Web site has been redesigned and is now hosted by a commercial service, Web-based advertising revenue is up and the editors are maintaining a tight rein on expenses. We’ll have a staffer in Cambridge this summer to sell advertising working closely with Grad Board Chair David Smith ‘75 (more about that in another post).

The student editors also agreed, no doubt enthusiastically, to pose for this photo in the Indy’s Hilles digs (which are more pleasant than this photo would suggest) so alums could associate faces with bylines:

Left to right, Marissa Babin ‘11, News Editor, Sam Jack ‘11, Forum Editor, Caroline Corbitt ‘09, Editor-in-Chief, David Smith ‘75, Grad Board Chair, Amy Yoshitsu ‘10, Production Manager, Edward Chen ‘09, Co-President, Sally Rinehart ‘09, Co-President, Andrew Rist ‘09, Sports Editor

– S.A.