Epic struggles.

• Author: Conniff, Ruth
• Position: EDITOR'S NOTE

In this issue of the magazine, we cover four governors whose politics are eerily alike.

From Wisconsin to Florida to Pennsylvania to Maine, rightwing politicians have been waging war on public employees, public schools, unions, the middle class, and the poor.

It's no coincidence that many of their worst ideas originate with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which held its national convention in Dallas in July.

Our team was there, keeping tabs on the corporations that actually vote on proposed laws before sending them back to the states. Check out the terrific reporting on our website.

Citizens across the country are fighting back against the relentless attacks and the dismantling of democracy by the forces of greed.

Here at this 105-year-old magazine, we have seen many epic battles. One of them culminated fifty years ago on September 3, with the signing of the Wilderness Act.

I had a chance to travel to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area with my family this summer to be immersed in that beautiful wilderness. We visited the tiny rustic cabin that was home to one of the act's authors, Sigurd Olson. Olson was burned in effigy in Ely, Minnesota, in 1978.

The forces of greed were furious with him. The timber companies, mining interests, and resort owners worked hard to defeat the protection of wilderness, and the idea that beauty, as much as commerce, is a resource worth preserving.

"This is the most beautiful lake country on the continent," Olson told a jeering crowd in Ely as Congress considered the area's wilderness designation. "We can afford to cherish and protect it. Some places should be...