Democracy is a powerful and dangerous force, as America and the European democracies are discovering. Elites on both sides of the Atlantic haven’t done a very good job…
Read more Opinion | Why America Is a ‘Creedal Nation’Death by Lightning overdoes the depiction of James Garfield as a sort of Cincinnatus called from the fields to save his country. Perhaps it was to reinforce our…
Read more How Historically Accurate Is Death by Lightning?A painting of Gen. Robert E. Lee dressed in his Confederate uniform is back on display in West Point’s library, several years after the storied academy removed honors…
Read more West Point restores Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s portraitPhoto: Eric Lee/Bloomberg/Getty Images There’s something increasingly strange about Donald Trump’s ongoing — indeed, intensifying — campaign to demand the sunniest possible view of American history from any…
Read more Trump Sees Whitewashed U.S. Past and Dystopian Present“Whose philosophic principles inspired the Declaration of Independence?” “Which form of government is based on popular sovereignty?” “Which legislation reflects federal efforts to regulate transportation?” July 4 is…
Read more Think you know American government? Try Florida’s civic literacy testFor those of us who very much want to see Donald Trump defeated in November by the widest possible margin, the news on Friday afternoon that former Vice…
Read more The Dead-Enders of the Reagan-Era GOPOn September 22, when federal prosecutors accused Senator Robert Menendez of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes, Representative Andy Kim, a fellow New Jersey Democrat, asked…
Read more Political Accountability Isn’t Dead YetIn the early days of American history, the concept of time was not as unified as it is today. With over a hundred separate time zones, the United…
Read more WTF Fun Fact 13665 – US Time ZonesDuring his term in the White House, Donald Trump governed as a wartime president—with blue America, rather than any foreign country, as the adversary. He sought to use…
Read more A War on Blue AmericaAlmost as soon as Donald Trump took office in 2017, agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement were dispatched across the country to round up as many undocumented foreigners…
Read more The Specter of Family SeparationJohn F. Kennedy took George Plimpton by surprise after a dinner party one evening when he pulled his friend aside for a word in the Oval Office. The…
Read more How John F. Kennedy Fell for the Lost CauseSenator Dianne Feinstein, who died last night at 90, braved one of the most remarkable political expeditions in American history—and also one of the grimmer spectacles at the…
Read more A Final Chapter Unbefitting an Extraordinary LegacyWhen Donald Trump appeared last week in a Washington, D.C., courtroom for his arraignment on federal election charges, the presiding judge gave the former president a few simple…
Read more The Impossible Task of Muzzling Donald TrumpHe shuffled quietly into the courtroom and took his seat at the defense table. He looked strangely small sitting there flanked by lawyers—his shoulders slumped, his hands in…
Read more The Humiliation of Donald TrumpDoes anyone want to be president? Typically, by the time a president delivers the State of the Union address at the start of his third year in office,…
Read more A Rare Reprieve From the Permanent Presidential CampaignThe coalition of voters who turned out to oppose Donald Trump in 2018 and 2020 largely reassembled yesterday, frustrating Republican expectations of a sweeping red wave. Under the…
Read more How Democrats Avoided a Red WaveNo matter which party wins control of the House and Senate next month, the results are virtually certain to reinforce the paradox powering the nation’s steadily mounting political…
Read more Why Politics Has Become So StressfulAs an appellate judge, Merrick Garland was known for constructing narrow decisions that achieved consensus without creating extraneous controversy. As a government attorney, he was known for his…
Read more The Inevitable Indictment of Donald TrumpJeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic’s editor in chief, joined staff writer Caitlin Dickerson to discuss her cover story, a years-long investigation into the secret history of the Trump administration’s…
Read more Caitlin Dickerson on the Moral Catastrophe of Family SeparationsStarting in 2008, a widely circulated conspiracy theory was that Barack Obama was not actually born in America. Strivers on the political right scrounged around to try to…
Read more ‘Stop the Steal’ Is a Metaphor
