Adventures in Modernism
What was it like to be a queer child in South Carolina during the Great Depression? Guy Davenport, with his incomparable gift for re-creating lost pockets of time, offered one plausible glimpse in his...
View ArticleThe Problem With Trying to Be Like China
For decades, the Republican economic creed has revolved around low taxes and free markets. The sacred dual directives had to be vigorously defended and market regulations of any kind aggressively...
View ArticleThe Rise and Fall of the New York Wheel
In 2008, Meir Laufer, a small-time New York real estate developer, was taking a spin aboard the London Eye, the 443-foot ferris wheel on the banks of the Thames, when he decided on a scheme: He would...
View ArticleMaking #MeToo Work in Pakistan
In Pakistan, it is all too easy to become discouraged at a seeming lack of progress when it comes to women’s rights. As in America, the rot starts at the top. Shortly before assuming office in 2018,...
View ArticleThe Seductive Stupidity of Andrew Wheeler
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler is not your average climate denier. Unlike President Donald Trump, he’s admitted that global warming is real and caused by humans. And...
View ArticleWho Said It: Beto O’Rourke, Howard Schultz, or a Punk Rock Band?
Much has been made of Beto O’Rourke’s punk rock bona fides, or lack thereof. On the one hand, he used to play in a punk band and cites Ian MacKaye—the Pete Seeger of the American punk movement—as an...
View ArticleMitch McConnell, Young and . . . Moderate?
After a failed attempt to run for the House of Representatives (he was tossed from the ballot for failing residency requirements), Mitch McConnell’s first real campaign was for judge-executive of...
View ArticleBill de Blasio’s Embarrassing Quest for National Fame
It’s rare for The New York Post to understate a story in a headline, but late Sunday, the tabloid posted a piece titled “De Blasio speaks to crowd of only 20 people in New Hampshire.” The reality was...
View ArticleNihilist in Chief
In the midst of this January’s historic, senselessly protracted government shutdown, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell decided it was time to put forward his vision of how government should...
View ArticleThe New Republic April Issue: MitchWorld, the GOP’s Unlikely Savior
New York, NY—(March 21, 2019)—The New Republic today published its April 2019 issue with a cover story that details the banal, evil, all-destructive reign of Mitch McConnell. In “Nihilist in Chief”,...
View ArticleBolsonaro Is Betting His Presidency on Trump
During his visit to the United States Monday and Tuesday, Jair Bolsonaro, the right-wing extremist sworn in as Brazil’s president in January, appeared visibly giddy at the prospect of meeting Donald...
View ArticleJordan Peele’s “Us” Goes Down the Rabbit Hole of Identity
Jordan Peele loves a rabbit. There is a song that appears in the first scene of Get Out, Peele’s Oscar-winning debut as a movie writer and director, that goes “Run, rabbit, run, rabbit, run! Run! Run!”...
View ArticleConservatives’ Disingenuous Attacks on Democratic Reforms
If their presidential candidates are any indication, Democrats may finally be getting serious about structural reforms to American democracy. Some proposals, such as packing the court with additional...
View ArticleJoe Biden’s Half-Baked Political Gimmicks
Joe Biden knows what you’re thinking. He has seen the stories, too.He knows he’s too old: 76 years old today, and 78 on Inauguration Day, 2021. He knows that, as a senator representing Delaware for...
View ArticleThe Growing Crisis of Guns on Campus
Anthony Bouchard, who often sports a waxed handlebar mustache that recalls the outlaws of the Wild West, has a habit of showing up at public events where everyone is unarmed and explaining that they’re...
View ArticleHow to End Endless War
In 1992, Pentagon officials took stock of America’s fortunes. “Today, there is no global challenger to a peaceful democratic order,” observed the group, led by Under Secretary of Defense Paul...
View ArticleTrump’s Golan Heights Tweet Is a Gift to the Far Right
With a few strokes on his keyboard on Thursday, President Trump undermined one of the fundamental norms of international law. “After 52 years,” he tweeted, “it is time for the United States to fully...
View ArticleYes, Trump Obstructed Justice. And William Barr Is Helping Him Cover It Up.
In a letter to House and Senate leaders on Sunday, Attorney General William Barr revealed that he would not charge President Trump with obstruction of justice over his efforts to thwart the...
View ArticleHistory Will Damn Donald Trump
The Russia investigation is over. The story about Donald Trump’s relationship with Russia during the 2016 election is, in some ways, just beginning.Over the last two years, special counsel Robert...
View ArticleHow the Cold War Defined Scientific Freedom
The conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union, says NSC-68, the planning document adopted by the Truman administration in 1950 and one of the foundational texts of the early Cold War, was...
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