Magazines : The Nation

Rating: - Accurate Reflection of the Leftist Grassroots
The Nation has become a pretty accurate reflection of the U.S. mainstream leftist grassroots. Like any ideological magazine, it appears delusional, but this tendency has been lessened in part because the Left is so pathetically powerless. The writing and editing are usually pretty good and they do take a legitimately global perspective of the world. It may not be as intellectual as some would prefer, however, in the Left there is an almost unlimited supply of theoretical journals and publications, so this is not particularly problematic.

Unfortunately, the Nation does seem too reactive much of the time and seems to be missing out on some of the positive trends of the out-of-the-mainstream left, especially among younger leftists and those of a libertarian/anarchist tendency.

Overall though, the Nation is a worthwhile read for anyone interested in getting an understanding of the views of your "average" outside of the Beltway leftist.

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Rating: - Great Quality Journalism But Offensively Hyper-Liberal
I couldn't agree with Mr. Freedman's review more. I just recently let my subscription to The Nation lapse after the magazine's calls for Amnesty and a path to citizenship for millions of lawbreakers from South of the Border and elsewhere became nauseating to the point of obnoxiousness. Just as Mr. Freedman said, the magazine is so far to the lunatic-fringe-left, that its more important articles regarding Corporate Fascism and Republican corruption get lost. Additionally, they aren't honest and transparent about the sad fact that the Democrats too have been bribed and lobbied to the point of a total disconnect with the American public and have become tools of Corporate Fascism just like their Republican counterparts. Where is the Nation's (i.e. Democratic) sustained outrage at the fact that we are forced to "vote" on corrupt Diebold machines controlled and programmed by fanatical Republican ideologues, for instance? The recent overwhelming Democratic vote to confirm Hayden as CIA director after he has showed utter contempt and disregard for a dusty old document once vitally important to all Americans called "The United States Constitution" has caused me to re-register to vote as an Independent recently after being a life-long Democrat. In this spirit I'd like some objectively-generated journalism, not tendentious party-line droning. Is there any such publication still out there?

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Rating: - PATRIOTIC, INCISIVE TRUTHFUL
The author of the Declaration of Independence and promoter of a bill of rights for the U.S. Constitution, Thomas Jefferson once wrote: "I read no newspaper now but Ritchie's, and in that chiefly the advertisements, for they contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper." [Letter to Nathaniel Macon, January 12, 1819]

The Nation is not a newspaper. Rather it is a weekly compilation of informed opinion and investigative reportage that reports what the main stream press and infotainment TV doesn't dare to. Those Americans whose minds have been addled by a steady stream of ideological propaganda and lies call The Nation "left wing," "liberal," "radical," etc., etc.

Plato had written 2,300 years ago his Allegory of the Cave: "Behold! human beings living in an underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the den; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads." Plato's "punchline" was "... And if he is compelled to look straight at the light, will he not have a pain in his eyes which will make him turn away to take refuge in the objects of vision which he can see, and which he will conceive to be in reality clearer than the things which are now being shown to him?"

And so, dear reader The Nation is filled with sunlight that too many Americans cannot stand to look into directly. It is much less painful for them simply to say: "... the Nation's political bias is so far to the Left that it repeatedly errors in its evaluations of the American and world - situation."

For those who wish to know the simple truth of what is going on in America and the world read The Nation. It prints the patriotic, incisive truth.

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Rating: - Intelligence is not enough - judgment and perspective are required
The 'Nation' is the best intellectual political journal of the Left. Its articles are very often informative and comprehensive in scope. It is possible to learn much from them.
But the Nation's political bias is so far to the Left that it repeatedly errors in its evaluations of the American and world - situation.