Safe Democracy Foundation - Safe Democracy

Kathleen Parker
9/22/2010

A new electoral ad, “Mourning in America,” plays smartly off Reagan’s classic “Morning in America” ad. Rather than continue to raise the volume on partisan shouting, the ad taps into the fundamental sadness of a nation stressed and broken by the difficulties of the past few years. Financial crises and the increasingly combative tone over health care, immigration, and other legislative issues have left Americans uncertain and spiritually exhausted. The ad seeks to place responsibility for the current malaise squarely at the feet of the president.

Parker started her column in 1987 when she was a staff writer for The Orlando Sentinel.

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Mortimer Zuckerman
9/21/2010

Zuckerman considers how American families are confronting the decline in the value of their homes and the broader effects of this on the economy. It is not too difficult to understand why demand for housing has declined and will not revive anytime soon given that home ownership is no longer seen as the great, long-term buildup in equity value. This is a disturbing development for those who believe that housing is going to lead America to an economic recovery as it did during the Great Depression and every recession since. Zuckerman argues that the more the government tries to prevent prices from finding an equilibrium, the longer it will take for the economy to begin growing again.

Zuckerman is chairman and editor in chief of US News & World Report.

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Richard Cohen
9/21/2010

Republican Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell of Delaware confessed to having experimented with witchcraft. Cohen says the entire party appears as though under a spell. Newt Gingrich’s pronouncement of the president’s “anti-colonial” perspective and the growing misperception of the president as a Muslim both defy logic, as do partisan attacks on President Obama after his actions drew banking and investment industries–traditionally conservative structures–back from the brink. But the national mood is such that this irrational behavior may still result in strong electoral gains in November.

Cohen is a weekly columnist for The Post, writing on domestic and foreign politics.

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Anne Applebaum
9/21/2010

The pope’s visit to the United Kingdom stirred up religious and atheistic fervor. While Applebaum points out that a noted Jewish or Muslim leader would not receive the same angry protests as a Christian one, she also notes that the furor was ultimately good for the cause of religious freedom. Due to the protests, the pope received a tremendous amount of media attention. And because of the left-leaning nature of the more vicious protests, the conservative right came to the pope’s defense and ended up learning more about some important aspects of Catholicism. All in all, Pope Benedict XVI’s visit was beneficial politically and socially.

Applebaum is a weekly columnist for The Post, writing on foreign affairs.

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Marco Annunziata
9/20/2010

Annunziata says policy makers’ mixed signals are fueling volatility in sovereign-debt markets. EU leaders have two choices. They can accept that whenever a member country is in trouble it will be rescued without a debt restructuring, in which case they should impose tight and enforceable fiscal rules to keep members in line and avoid moral hazard. Or they can adopt a sovereign-debt restructuring mechanism and let markets play their disciplining role by pricing sovereign-credit risk in an environment of greater transparency and predictability. Postponing this choice will keep the pressure high on countries like Greece, requiring ever stronger efforts to improve fiscal balances and bolster potential growth. It will also delay the repricing of sovereign risk that is an essential component of the sought-after stabilization in financial markets.

Annunziata is chief economist at UniCredit.

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Asli Aydintasbas
9/17/2010

Aydintasbas says Turkey needs a new definition of citizenship that does not exclude the Kurds, a new electoral law that breaks the hegemony of party leaders and lowers the 10% threshold for a party to be represented in parliament, and a new commitment to freedom of speech. These remain the glaring deficits in today’s Turkish democracy. Secular Turks can try to retain the status quo, but that will not win elections. Erdogan, Turkey’s strongman, with a mixed record of reform and repression, also needs to do some thinking. He is a divisive figure, loved and hated passionately at the same time. He won the vote on constitutional reform on Sunday, but in a country so polarized the majority will not translate into easy legitimacy.

Aydintasbas is a columnist at the Turkish daily Milliyet.

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