Paint me romantic, but the Nation of the late-70s/early-to-mid-80s seemed to have a more radical tone, was much livelier, had more internal debates, featuring voices from Cockburn to Paul Berman, Holly Sklar to Michael Massing, with old heavies like E.P. Thompson showing up now and then. It also pubbed queers tied to Act Up! and other early AIDS-era groups, took Jesse Jackson's prez runs seriously, openly backed the Sandinistas (with a few exceptions) and so on. Not perfect, not pristine, and obviously not durable. The present mag is a bore, mule prints on nearly every page.
Dennis