Jonathan Chait

Early life

Chait is the son of Illene (née Seidman) and David Chait.

Career

Chait began working at The New Republic in 1995. In January 2010, The New Republic replaced The Plank, TNR's group blog, with the Jonathan Chait Blog. His writing has also appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Slate, and Reason. He took over The New Republic's TRB column from Peter Beinart in March 2007. Chait was named a finalist for the 2009 Ellie (National Magazine Award) in the Columns and Commentary category for three of his 2008 columns.

On March 16, 2009, Chait appeared on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report to counter conservative arguments that the New Deal was a failure. The impetus for that appearance was an article that he wrote for The New Republic, "Wasting Away in Hooverville".

Chait appears in The Rivalry, a 2007 HBO documentary about the history and culture of the Michigan–Ohio State football rivalry. Chait joined the staff of New York magazine on September 6, 2011, leaving his post as senior editor of The New Republic. He explained his move: "Obviously, I love TNR and had no plans to leave, but the opportunity at New York was irresistible. Everybody who works there raves about it, and my friends in journalism have noticed for a while it's become phenomenal'the best magazine in America', as one editor friend of mine told me."

Positions

Chait usually writes about domestic politics and policy. Many of his writings are critiques of what he perceives to be illogical conservative positions. A self-described liberal hawk, he has written pieces critical of left-wing figures such as Naomi Klein and wrote a New Republic cover article condemning Delaware's tax haven policies.

Chait was a supporter of the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. One year later, he drew considerable attention with his "Case for Bush Hatred," in which he defended his dislike, not only of Bush's policies, but also his personality and mannerisms.

Chait occasionally writes about sports, particularly stories involving his alma mater, the University of Michigan (A.B. 1994) where he was a columnist for The Michigan Daily. He strongly criticized the editorial staff of The Detroit Free Press after a controversial article by Michael Rosenberg that alleged systematic infractions of NCAA rules by the university's football team under former head coach Rich Rodriguez. Chait suggested Rosenberg's editor should "lose his job" and referred to the investigation's methodology as "journalistic malpractice."{{cite web | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090903020300/http://michigan.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=982287 | archive-date = September 3, 2009 | access-date = February 16, 2015 | url-status = dead

On February 22, 2010, following an investigation stemming from allegations raised in Rosenberg's article, the university announced that the NCAA has found probable cause that the school committed five major violations, corroborating some of the allegations in Rosenberg's article. On May 24, 2010, the University of Michigan responded to the NCAA Notice of Allegations, stating in part, "the University is satisfied that the initial media reports were greatly exaggerated if not flatly incorrect." Chait then claimed Rosenberg's allegations that Rodriguez "operated a football sweatshop has been totally debunked."

On September 26, 2011, Chait wrote a column about John Mearsheimer's blurbs about Gilad Atzmon's book, The Wandering Who. In this column Chait admits that he had not read The Wandering Who. In the column Chait does not quote Mearsheimer's comments about the book, instead he cites passages in Atzmon's book which he regarded as characteristically antisemitic.

On January 27, 2015, Chait wrote an article for New York magazine on political correctness, which he labeled "a system of left-wing ideological repression" and cited examples from academia and social media. Chait's piece drew parallels between forms of political correctness popular in the 2010s with those popular in the 1990s. However, he also argued that the advent of social media had contributed to a form of political correctness that was more ubiquitous and less constrained to academia.

In February 2016, Chait wrote a piece for New York magazine titled "Why Liberals Should Support a Trump Republican Nomination," in which he predicted that a Trump presidency would develop similarly to the governorship of Arnold Schwarzenegger in California (who, like Trump, was a celebrity who became a Republican politician without any public service experience). In 2019, The Outline selected this piece as one of the "worst takes of the 2010s", opining that "Chait's immensely confident take [...] is a humiliating crystallization of the wrongheaded thinking that propelled [Trump] to the White House." Chait now considers Trump a "threat to the American democracy."

Chait has written extensively in support of charter schools. On January 14, 2019, he accused Senator Elizabeth Warren of selling out to "powerful interests" for her opposition to an initiative which would have expanded the number of charter schools in Massachusetts. Writer Alexander Russo criticizes Chait for not consistently disclosing his wife's charter school advocacy.

Chait opposes Marxism, arguing that "Marxist governments trample on individual rights because Marxist theory does not care about individual rights. Marxism is a theory of class justice ... Unlike liberalism, which sees rights as a positive-sum good that can expand or contract for society as a whole, Marxists (and other left-wing critics of liberalism) think of political rights as a zero-sum conflict. Either they are exercised on behalf of oppression or against it."

Personal life

Chait is married to Robin Joy Chait, an analyst and pro-charter school advocate. He has two children.

Bibliography

Books

• • Reprinted as

Essays and reporting

Critical studies and reviews of Chait's work

;Audacity

References

References

1. Bross, Anna. (11 November 2024). "Jonathan Chait Joins the Atlantic as a Staff Writer".
2. Chotiner, Isaac. (2017-05-04). "Jonathan Chait on his new book Audacity, and the Democratic Party's future". Slate.com.
3. Chait, Jonathan. (2011-11-20). "Jonathan Chait on Liberal Disappointment - New York Magazine". Nymag.com.
4. (May 9, 2012). "Partisan Psychology: Why Do People Choose Political Loyalties Over Facts?". NPR.
5. Conte, Carolyn. (November 6, 2019). "On Oct. 14, Bernice B. Seidman at the age of 98.". [[Baltimore Jewish Times]].
6. "Winners and Finalists Database". MPA.
7. Chait, Jonathan. (March 18, 2009). "Wasting Away in Hooverville". The New Republic.
8. (September 6, 2011). "On Media: Jonathan Chait to New York; Timothy Noah to New Republic". [[Politico]].
9. "Criticisms of Charles Krauthammer". tnr.com.
10. Chait, Jonathan. (August 19, 2002). "Rogue State".
11. "User account {{!}} NewsBank".
12. "Case for Bush Hatred". washingtonpost.com.
13. "Rabble Rouser {{!}} U-M LSA U-M College of LSA".
14. "University of Michigan broke football rules". detnews.com.
15. (May 25, 2010). "U-M Responds to NCAA Notice of Allegations". [[CBS Interactive]].
16. Chait, Jonathan. (25 May 2010). "Free Press Allegations Debunked". michigan.rivals.com.
17. Jonathan Chait. (September 26, 2011). "John Mearsheimer Ready for Rosh Hashanah in Style". NYMag.
18. Chait, Jonathan. (January 27, 2015). "Not a Very P.C. Thing to Say: How the language police are perverting liberalism". [[New York (magazine).
19. Taub, Amanda. (28 January 2015). "The truth about 'political correctness' is that it doesn't actually exist".
20. Chait, Jonathan. (February 5, 2016). "Why Liberals Should Support a Trump Republican Nomination".
21. "The worst takes of the 2010s".
22. Chait, Jonathan. (2024-09-16). "Donald Trump Is a Threat to Democracy, and Saying So Is Not Incitement".
23. Chait, Jonathan. (2024-01-04). "The Only Way to Stop an Authoritarian President Is to Vote for His Opponent".
24. Chait, Jonathan. (September 6, 2017). "Charter Schools Are Losing the Narrative But Winning the Data". New York Magazine.
25. Chait, Jonathan. (December 8, 2017). "Charters Didn't Cause Segregation. They're a Solution for Its Victims.". New York Magazine.
26. Chait, Jonathan. (January 13, 2019). "What Happens When Elizabeth Warren Sells Out to Powerful Interests?". New York Magazine.
27. Russo, Alexander. (March 17, 2016). "Why NY Mag's Jonathan Chait Should Disclose Wife's Role In Education Columns". Washington Monthly.
28. Chait, Jonathan. (23 March 2016). "Reminder: Liberalism Is Working, and Marxism Has Always Failed".
29. (March 17, 2016). "Why NY Mag's Jonathan Chait Should Disclose Wife's Role In Education Columns". Washington Monthly - Education.
30. Weiss, Anthony. (December 9, 2014). "What will New Republic exodus mean for American Jewish thought?".
31. (November 16, 2016). "How Alarmed Should American Jews Be Right Now? Two Jews Kibitz". [[New York Magazine]].