The Trial

The necessity for the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump was in no way obviated by the predictability of its outcome.  An unprecedented blatant assault on our democratic constitutional order by a sitting President of the United States had to ...

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Bipartisanship RIP

I can’t provide a link or exact quotes, but I can remember way back to around 2007 when a rising young internet journalist named Matt Yglesias was enthusiastically promoting the presidential candidacy of Barack Obama. In praising his candidate, Yglesias ...

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Biden’s Opportunity

Great op-ed in today’s NY Times by Jamelle Bouie! He writes what I’ve been saying for years—that while there are a lot of things wrong with American politics, our biggest problem is the Republican Party—a radical reactionary combat organization that ...

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The Enemy Within

For decades after World War II, the threat of communism was a major, obsessive meme in American politics.  Mainstream opinion generally saw the threat as mainly external, in the form of an aggressive Soviet Union and Red China, but there ...

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Notes on the Crisis

Impeach! Of course Trump should be impeached, again.  I don’t think it will work.  I don’t think that even now enough Republican senators would vote to remove him from office. So yes, it would be symbolic, but symbolism is important ...

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Day of Infamy

The good news from Georgia today was quickly eclipsed by the horror in Washington. This day will live in history as the infamous capstone to a lawless presidency. An armed mob incited by the President of the United States occupied ...

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Showdown on the 6th

With all due respect to my Republican colleagues in the Senate who are doing this: can you please get a grip? Election officials across the country, including Republican Governors, have certified these results.  This is embarrassing.” –Sen. Amy Klobuchar With ...

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Our democracy, or “our democracy”?

The cover of the December New Republic features a big picture of Joe Biden with the one-word caption Phew! We did indeed dodge a bullet on November 3.  Trump’s re-election would have been a disaster for American democracy.  It would ...

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Say something, Joe!

Joe Biden’s election as president will be affirmed by the Electoral College vote today.  Thanks to the fact that we still have an independent judiciary, Trump’s coup attempt has collapsed. Trump had apparently assumed, or hoped, that “his” judges were ...

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Short Takes

Biden’s choice for defense secretary It was an understandable but bad idea to tap a recently retired general to be the next Secretary of Defense. Understandable because Biden values personal relationships and he has a longstanding one with Genl. Lloyd ...

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