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Robert Kuttner

Robert Kuttner is co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect, and professor at Brandeis University's Heller School. His latest book is Can Democracy Survive Global Capitalism? In addition to writing for the Prospect, he writes for The Huffington Post, The Boston Globe, and the New York Review of Books. 

Follow Bob at his site, robertkuttner.com, and on Twitter. 

Recent Articles

As Trump Comes Apart, Can Democrats Come Together?

Robert KuttnerDec 17, 2018
AP Photo/Andrew Harnik House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Senator Chuck Schumer speak to members of the media outside the West Wing of the White House. This article appears in the Winter 2018 issue of The American Prospect. Subscribe here . T he Democrats have much to celebrate. They did better than expected in the House, made notable gains in the states, and Donald Trump is on the ropes. House Democrats are primed to launch several investigations, showing the nation what serious governing and legislative comity look like. It’s possible to be both partisan and respectful of democratic norms. George H.W. Bush, object of extended eulogies for his decency, used his veto pen 44 times, a modern record for a one-term president, yet he displayed a courtesy that further shames Trump. Trump’s moves have increasingly backfired both politically and legally. His efforts to turn a refugee caravan into a national security threat disgusted more voters than they rallied...

Donald Trump and Robert Mueller: The End Game

Robert KuttnerDec 11, 2018
AP Photo/Andrew Harnik President Donald Trump departs after speaking in Kansas City, Missouri. This article originally appeared at HuffPost. Subscribe here . A t several previous points in Donald Trump ’s presidency, it looked as if he could not possibly survive to the end of his four-year term. Yet Trump always managed to change the subject, his public shrugged, Republicans continued to support him, and Trump rolled merrily on. This time could be different. The stage is now set for what appears to be an inexorable path to impeachment or resignation. Let’s review what special counsel Robert Mueller has on Trump. Based on the most recent combined filings of the special counsel and prosecutors at the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, the evidence is piling up to document the following: 1. In September 2015, Trump personally approved the plan of personal lawyer and longtime fixer Michael Cohen to make high-level contacts with the Russian government to build a Trump Tower in Moscow...

With Glut Of 2020 Candidates, Progressive Democrats Need To Get Their Act Together

Robert KuttnerNov 27, 2018
AP Photo/Andrew Harnik Senators Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Kirsten Gillibrand speak during a news conference on Capitol Hill. This article originally appeared at HuffPost. Subscribe here . T he good news is that at least six progressives are likely to run for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. That’s also the bad news. If things break wrong, they could cancel each other out, opening the door to yet another centrist corporate Democratic nominee. The failure of Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama to stand four-square with working Americans allowed Donald Trump to pose as a fake populist. There were a lot of things to like about Obama, but he made the catastrophic misjudgment of appointing an economic team composed mainly of protégés of Robert Rubin, secretary of treasury under Clinton and the prime architect of the deregulation that caused the 2008 financial collapse. The close connection between Democrats and Wall Street, reinforced by Hillary Clinton, made...

Movement Against Nancy Pelosi Is a Classic Democratic Circular Firing Squad

Robert KuttnerNov 20, 2018
AP Photo/Susan Walsh House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill. This article originally appeared at HuffPost. Subscribe here . W ill Nancy Pelosi have the votes to become the next House speaker? It certainly seems so, despite a lot of smoke and bluff from her detractors. For starters, it is dawning on the newly elected House Democrats, most of whom are progressives, that the hardcore anti-Pelosi opposition is comprised of men who want to push the party to the center. The hashtag #FiveWhiteGuys nicely sums up what’s at work. The white guys in question are Reps. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, Tim Ryan of Ohio, Ed Perlmutter of Colorado, Kurt Schrader of Oregon and Bill Foster of Illinois. They want a party that has more appeal to the middle. But the 2018 election was all about grassroots energy, women’s leadership, and Democrats running as pocketbook progressives flipping House seats. So, why would the Democratic caucus want to displace a leader...

Will Mueller Survive?

Robert KuttnerNov 13, 2018
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File Special Counsel Robert Mueller departs after a meeting on Capitol Hill. I an Bassin was associate White House counsel under President Barack Obama. He’s the founding executive director of the organization Protect Democracy , and past president of the American Constitution Society's Student Chapter at Yale Law School. He spoke with Prospect Co-Editor Robert Kuttner. This conversation has been edited for clarity. Robert Kuttner: What can Robert Mueller do to protect the integrity of his investigation? What might have been done so far and what can he do in the future if the acting attorney general, Matt Whitaker, tries to rein him in? Ian Bassin: There’s one thing that we know that Mueller has already done and there’s another we can speculate about. We know he has divided up a variety of the possible cases against people in the Trump orbit to different parts of the Justice Department. So some cases are in the Southern District of New York, there are...

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