While the president’s words can still soar, the actions he proposes show a remarkably consistent inability to leave the ground.

Watch highlight clips from Bill's interview with author and legal scholar Ian Haney López on the origins of dog whistle politics and how it may be used in future elections.

Sen. Bernie Sanders says that FDR's 1944 State of the Union speech is a model for what he would like to do for America's middle class. In this post, historian Harvey J. Kaye remembers what FDR had to say.

Lawyer and activist Michelle Alexander explains what's really behind America's system of mass incarceration.

Princeton political scientist Martin Gilens explains how the media and longstanding racial stereotypes impact anti-poverty policy.

Harvard scholar Theda Skocpol says that rumors of its demise have been greatly exaggerated.

An imperial era is on the wane, war is in absentia and there are no rising great power contenders on the horizon. That’s a remarkable scorecard in an otherwise appalling world.

Ian Haney López highlights six political ads from the last three decades that used racially coded language to help a candidate get elected.

In this video clip, Ian Haney López recalls how "the great communicator" used racial tensions to sway middle-class white Americans to vote for policies not in their self-interest.

In this week's show, Mike Lofgren joins Bill to talk about the Deep State, a hybrid of corporate America and the national security state, which is "out of control" and "unconstrained."