Our top five reads of the day:

• Michael Tomasky wonders why liberal donors haven’t been more aggressive in countering the tea party: “The stupid, feckless Democrats, from Obama on down, have to do something about this. And liberal donors, too. They are not responding to this moment at all. No one is creating groups and efforts to counter the tea party. That takes money and imagination and initiative.”
• Jon Avlon digs into American history and sees many echoes of Glenn Beck: “Here’s the good news: We have faced down forces of demagoguery before. The damage they do can be limited by our determination to call them out, standing up to extremes wherever we see them, stopping the politics of incitement before it leads to something ugly and indelible.”
• Wendy Kopp sees progress in education reform, but argues more hard work lies ahead: “Despite my optimism about the potential to change educational outcomes, I worry that we underestimate the work that lies ahead. Without the willpower, capacity and patience to carry out the hard work, good policies are mere pieces of paper.”
• Bill Gates (via Andrew Revkin) defends his call for massive investment in energy R&D: “Our renewable portfolio, as it exists now, is not good enough to get us where we need to be. Without R&D investments, we are not going to be able to address climate problems in time. “
• Hooman Majd tackles the claim that sanctions are sowing discord among Iranian leaders: At a base level, it ignores the long history of clashes and rivalry between strong personalities in government and among the ayatollahs. Moreover, history has shown that outside threats tend to create unity rather than divisions among Tehran’s leadership; that unity does not need to be coerced.

Our top five reads of the day:

• Kevin Carey makes the case for a new batch of public universities to explore new approaches: “Most industries are constantly enlivened by new entrants that design their processes and cultures in ways that reflect the latest available technology and wisdom and serve the needs of today’s customers. As the amount of time since most colleges and universities were created continues to lengthen, higher education will increasingly suffer from the lack of such competition and renewal in the traditional public and private non-profit sector.”
• Juliette Jowit reports on former climate skeptic Bjørn Lomborg’s new recommendation to spend $100 billion a year on climate: “Examining eight methods to reduce or stop global warming, Lomborg and his fellow economists recommend pouring money into researching and developing clean energy sources such as wind, wave, solar and nuclear power, and more work on climate engineering ideas such as “cloud whitening” to reflect the sun’s heat back into the outer atmosphere.”
• Mark Thoma calls for a fiscal policy that can avoid congressional gridlock –automatic stabilizers: “Automatic stabilizers are a tried and true means of stabilizing the economy. Increased reliance upon this type of stabilization could help solve the political problems that prevent Congress from responding effectively when the economy is most in need of help.”
• Steve Clemons explores the progress towards and makes the case for the U.S. providing more flood relief to Pakistan: “Now that we are spending monthly figures in Afghanistan that surpass $100 billion per year, it seems to me that a well-managed $1 billion investment in Pakistan would do much to improve the political environment in Afghanistan and Pakistan — large portions of the peoples of which respectively mistrust the U.S.”
• Jon Hilkevitch reports on a battle in the Illinois State Legislature over high-speed rail: “Bullet trains routinely operate at 150 to 220 mph. It’s the performance level Illinois should be shooting for, said state Sen. Martin Sandoval, D- Chicago, who is chairman of the Illinois Senate Transportation Committee.”