logo
book Subscribe to our Magazine
    • Magazine
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Racial Justice
  • Economic Justice
  • Climate Justice
  • Health Justice
  • Leadership
    • Grassroots Fundraising Journal
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Podcasts
    • Tiny Spark
    • Women of Color in Power
  • Webinars
    • Free Webinars
    • Premium On-Demand Webinars
  • Membership

In Nev. Future Role of Government on Ballot

Rick Cohen
October 20, 2010
Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print

October 25, 2010; Source: The New Yorker | It is impossible to read an article by Nick Lemann and fail to learn something of use to the nonprofit sector, even if the article isn’t about nonprofits (Note: Lemann has written some great pieces more directly relevant to nonprofits and social movement organizations—for example, his phenomenal 1991 book, The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America. about the movement of African-Americans from the South to the North, his controversial 1994 New York Times article on “The Myth of Community Development,” and his recent article on education reform).

This New Yorker piece about Harry Reid’s effort to stave off defeat at the hands of Tea Party-backed Sharron Angle doesn’t mention nonprofits, except for the Tea Party-affiliated organizations that were instrumental in Angle’s capturing the Republican nomination. However, Lemann’s remarks in passing about the shifting national commitment to or blame of government for social problems are quite interesting. He offers the comments of three presidents:

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

  • Reagan at his first inaugural: “Government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.”
  • Clinton at his second inaugural: “Government is not the problem, and government is not the solution.”
  • Obama this past year: “In our democracy, government is us.”

Is the contest between Reid and Angle really a contest over visions of the role of government in solving (or creating) social problems? If so, it is occurring against an incredibly odd backdrop. Nevada’s economy has reached Great Depression-kind of numbers. In Lemann’s words, “It has the highest foreclosure rate, the highest bankruptcy rate, proportionally the highest state budget deficit, and the highest state unemployment rate in the country.”

That’s a confluence of challenges to bedevil Nevada nonprofits as well as the Senate majority leader. Lemann points out another anomaly: The state’s largest employer? The MGM casino, which also pays 11 percent of the entire state government’s budget. What a weird social and political context to be examining the future of government—and implicitly the future of government and nonprofits! Read Lemann, and you’ll have no choice but to learn something.—Rick Cohen

Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rick Cohen

Rick joined NPQ in 2006, after almost eight years as the executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP). Before that he played various roles as a community worker and advisor to others doing community work. He also worked in government. Cohen pursued investigative and analytical articles, advocated for increased philanthropic giving and access for disenfranchised constituencies, and promoted increased philanthropic and nonprofit accountability.

More about: Nonprofit News

Become a member

Support independent journalism and knowledge creation for civil society. Become a member of Nonprofit Quarterly.

Members receive unlimited access to our archived and upcoming digital content. NPQ is the leading journal in the nonprofit sector written by social change experts. Gain access to our exclusive library of online courses led by thought leaders and educators providing contextualized information to help nonprofit practitioners make sense of changing conditions and improve infra-structure in their organizations.

Join Today
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

NPQ_Spring_2022

You might also like
The Liberatory World We Want to Create: Loving Accountability and the Limitations of Cancel Culture
Aja Couchois Duncan and Kad Smith
Hearing Every Single Voice: Consensus, Voting, and Co-op Democracy
Anj Talley
The More You Know: Sharing Power by Sharing Information
Nicole Koch
Indigenous Creators Call for Infrastructure
Steve Dubb
Putting the “Social” Back in Social Enterprise: An Evidence-Based Approach
Reece Steinberg
What If We Owned It?
Darnell Adams

Upcoming Webinars

Group Created with Sketch.
June 9th, 2 pm ET

Remaking the Economy

Wage Justice, Now!

Register
You might also like
AOC’s “Tax the Rich” Dress Dazzles Met Gala, while...
Anastasia Reesa Tomkin
Foundation Giving Numbers for 2020 Show 15 Percent Increase
Steve Dubb
Strike MoMA Imagines Art Museums without Billionaires
Tessa Crisman
WOMEN OF COLOR IN POWER
Women of Color in Power

Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Subscribe
Rep. Ayanna Pressley and Authentic Leadership
Reclaiming Interrupted Lineages

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

Independent & in your mailbox.

Subscribe today and get a full year of NPQ for just $59.

subscribe
  • About
  • Contact
  • Submissions
  • Advertisers
  • Newsletters
  • Copyright

Subscribe to View Webinars

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.