The federal trial of Donald Trump on charges he sought to illegally overturn the results of the 2020 election will be the most important in American history. But it will not be enough to save our democracy. The conviction of Trump on those charges is essential, what justice demands, and critical to the future of the rule of law in America. But it will not be enough to save our democracy. The defeat of Trump in the 2024 election (should he be the Republican candidate) will help ensure that he does not pardon himself or launch further assaults on our system. But it will not be enough to save...…The federal trial of Donald Trump on charges he sought to illegally overturn the results of the 2020 election will be the most important in American history. But it will not be enough to save our democracy. The conviction of Trump on those charges is essential, what justice demands, and critical to the future of the rule of law in America. But it will not be enough to save our democracy. The defeat of Trump in the 2024 election (should he be the Republican candidate) will help ensure that he does not pardon himself or launch further assaults on our system. But it will not be enough to save...WW…

HISTORY MATTERSWhile history offered U.S. leaders 3,000 years of warnings, it does not offer them an excuse.andahar, one of the major Afghan cities that fell to the Taliban this week, is named after a man who once reportedly said that Afghanistan was “easy to march into, hard to march out of.” His name was Alexander the Great. Another city that fell, Herat, was briefly a capital within the empire of Timur, known to many in the west as Tamerlane, who also, for a time, was known as “the Great.” Herat was seen as a jewel of the empire, one of the great crossroads and cultural capitals of the...…HISTORY MATTERSWhile history offered U.S. leaders 3,000 years of warnings, it does not offer them an excuse.andahar, one of the major Afghan cities that fell to the Taliban this week, is named after a man who once reportedly said that Afghanistan was “easy to march into, hard to march out of.” His name was Alexander the Great. Another city that fell, Herat, was briefly a capital within the empire of Timur, known to many in the west as Tamerlane, who also, for a time, was known as “the Great.” Herat was seen as a jewel of the empire, one of the great crossroads and cultural capitals of the...WW…

ROGUESOur would-be strongman is gone but if Israel’s clings to power, what’s left of a decades-long bond between the two countries isn’t likely to survive much longer.he was a lie wrapped in a fantasy inside an illusion. For the Israeli right, U.S. evangelicals, and America’s most hardcore Israel-boosters, the past four years seemed to be a golden age. The U.S. embassy was moved to Jerusalem. Subway stops and mountain villages in Israel were named after Trump. The U.S. president and the Israeli prime minister were that rivaled even that of Trump and his little love dumpling in...…ROGUESOur would-be strongman is gone but if Israel’s clings to power, what’s left of a decades-long bond between the two countries isn’t likely to survive much longer.he was a lie wrapped in a fantasy inside an illusion. For the Israeli right, U.S. evangelicals, and America’s most hardcore Israel-boosters, the past four years seemed to be a golden age. The U.S. embassy was moved to Jerusalem. Subway stops and mountain villages in Israel were named after Trump. The U.S. president and the Israeli prime minister were that rivaled even that of Trump and his little love dumpling in...WW…

After just over a week we can safely say that Joe Biden is the greatest president in American history.I say that only because the last president, who shall remain nameless, repeatedly told us that he was the greatest president in American history. And . In fact, looking at the 30 executive orders produced by Biden, his vaccine plan, his restoration of normalcy to foreign policy, the efficiency and effectiveness of his administration to date, the diversity of his team, the transparency he has restored to the White House, the importance of some programs to which he has committed—from raising...…After just over a week we can safely say that Joe Biden is the greatest president in American history.I say that only because the last president, who shall remain nameless, repeatedly told us that he was the greatest president in American history. And . In fact, looking at the 30 executive orders produced by Biden, his vaccine plan, his restoration of normalcy to foreign policy, the efficiency and effectiveness of his administration to date, the diversity of his team, the transparency he has restored to the White House, the importance of some programs to which he has committed—from raising...WW…

Jan 14, 2021 Jan 14, 2021As the Trump Era draws to a chaotic, subversive and long-overdue close, it is difficult to look back at it and pick those moments that best define it. Frankly, it is difficult to look back at it at all. But to spare you the effort, I will try.Automatic approval of subscriber comments.From $1 for the first month…Jan 14, 2021 Jan 14, 2021As the Trump Era draws to a chaotic, subversive and long-overdue close, it is difficult to look back at it and pick those moments that best define it. Frankly, it is difficult to look back at it at all. But to spare you the effort, I will try.Automatic approval of subscriber comments.From $1 for the first monthWW…

Wednesday’s was incited by the p.It is chilling to write and re-read those words. But each one of them is the truth. On Wednesday at midday, and calling upon them to march to the Capitol while it was in session to certify his electoral defeat.He stirred up the crowd as he has done throughout his presidency. He spoke to the angry and the disaffected, the racists and the right-wing extremists, and he did the opposite of what leaders do. He sought to promote division and confrontation. From his to his encouraging police officers to use force, from identifying non-existent threats from the left...…Wednesday’s was incited by the p.It is chilling to write and re-read those words. But each one of them is the truth. On Wednesday at midday, and calling upon them to march to the Capitol while it was in session to certify his electoral defeat.He stirred up the crowd as he has done throughout his presidency. He spoke to the angry and the disaffected, the racists and the right-wing extremists, and he did the opposite of what leaders do. He sought to promote division and confrontation. From his to his encouraging police officers to use force, from identifying non-existent threats from the left...WW…

A former cabinet member once said to me that the secret to job success is picking the right predecessor. In this regard, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and their entire administration could not be better positioned for success.Being better than Team Trump is clearly setting the bar too low, . But the picks Biden is making seem not only assured of outperforming Trump’s team but likely of doing better than did Barack Obama’s team. Indeed, this may prove the strongest group a new U.S. president has assembled in decades.Much can change between appointments and end results, of course. But history’s...…A former cabinet member once said to me that the secret to job success is picking the right predecessor. In this regard, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and their entire administration could not be better positioned for success.Being better than Team Trump is clearly setting the bar too low, . But the picks Biden is making seem not only assured of outperforming Trump’s team but likely of doing better than did Barack Obama’s team. Indeed, this may prove the strongest group a new U.S. president has assembled in decades.Much can change between appointments and end results, of course. But history’s...WW…

Jul 19, 2020 Jul 19, 2020The Republican Party is the party of yesterday. Desperately seeking to cling to the presidency despite cratering polls, a collapsing economy and the worst public health crisis in a century, has embraced a defense of the losers in the American Civil War as a central theme of his campaign.This, combined with 1980s-vintage commitment to deregulation and tax cuts for the wealthy, the racism of 1960s era governors from the Deep South, and tactics branding opponents as Marxists and anarchists that date to the middle of the last century and before — that is the totality of...…Jul 19, 2020 Jul 19, 2020The Republican Party is the party of yesterday. Desperately seeking to cling to the presidency despite cratering polls, a collapsing economy and the worst public health crisis in a century, has embraced a defense of the losers in the American Civil War as a central theme of his campaign.This, combined with 1980s-vintage commitment to deregulation and tax cuts for the wealthy, the racism of 1960s era governors from the Deep South, and tactics branding opponents as Marxists and anarchists that date to the middle of the last century and before — that is the totality of...WW…

Advertisement“Being president,” former First Lady Michelle Obama has said, “doesn’t change who you are, it reveals who you are.” In this moment, we may also need to acknowledge that presidents also reveal much about who we are.American presidents do not exist outside the systems or times that produced them. Great presidents—like Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and, arguably, Lyndon B. Johnson—have emerged when the nation has risen to meet challenging circumstances. And, granted, most presidents are middling—which tells us something about the quotidian nature of much of...…Advertisement“Being president,” former First Lady Michelle Obama has said, “doesn’t change who you are, it reveals who you are.” In this moment, we may also need to acknowledge that presidents also reveal much about who we are.American presidents do not exist outside the systems or times that produced them. Great presidents—like Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and, arguably, Lyndon B. Johnson—have emerged when the nation has risen to meet challenging circumstances. And, granted, most presidents are middling—which tells us something about the quotidian nature of much of...WW…