The NRA is a curious link between school shooting inaction and Russian collusion. Democrats need to go on the offensive and attack Trump where he’s weak. Published in Washington Monthly ( Link to article) A performative event whose lone purpose is publicity—what historian Daniel Boorstin labelled a pseudo-event—was methodically rolled out at the White House on February 21….
Reagan’s ‘Party of Ideas’ Is Down to Just One: Tax Cuts
Published in the NYtimes (link to article) It is a sign of our slide toward banana republic status when the president of the United States, leader of the world’s foremost democracy, publicly brands Democrats who failed to applaud his State of the Union address as un-American and treasonous. The largely partisan audience was fine with…
Did Devin Nunes Obstruct Justice?
In a brazen attempt to undermine the Russia investigation, Nunes is sullying the FBI before moving on to defame other government agencies. Published in Washington Monthly ( Link to article) As the Republican attempt to derail the Trump-Russia investigation blindly lurches from corrupt conspiracy to slapstick farce, the public is in danger of losing the…
Get Rid of Non-Disclosure Agreements
NDAs have become the legal workaround for rich people like Donald Trump to prevent exposure of their potential misdeeds. Published in Washington Monthly ( Link to article) Almost lost amid each successive round of shocking, but unsurprising news about our president has been the fact that his lawyers are yet again enforcing non-disclosure agreements against revelations…
Donald Trump Isn’t the First Leader With a Personality Cult
White House staffers create an over-the-top image of Trump that is plainly at odds with reality. It’s eerily similar to the cult of Joseph Stalin. Published in Washington Monthly ( Link to article) By now, anyone not vacationing on the Greenland ice sheet is familiar with the major themes of Fire and Fury, Michael Wolff’s…
Will Conservatism End in Nihilism?
Disaster lies not in Trump, but in the conservative dream fulfilled. Published in Washington Monthly Jan. 3, 2018 link to article Any examination of American conservatism in the age of Trump runs smack up against the question, whose conservatism? Who gets to define it? A typical analysis is to name the supposed essential characteristics of…
Republican Experts
America has become a laboratory to test whether its institutions can weather the present flood of Republican “expertise,” writes a former career congressional staff member. For the GOP, Incompetence Is a Feature, Not a Flaw Published in BillMoyers November 18, 2017 ( link to article) It has been said that Newt Gingrich is “a dumb…