Latin American democracy is being put to the test in Brazil and Venezuela. At stake is whether the left-wing government in either country can countenance the idea of legitimate opposition. The day after losing Brazil's presidential election, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro had his personal and ...
Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan, thinks he's another JFK, not in terms of charm or wit, but as a fellow victim of religious bigotry. When he ran for president in 1960, Jack Kennedy indeed encountered anti-Catholic prejudice, including the preposterous claim that ...
"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground." – Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) The U.S. Constitution was ratified to create and to restrain the government. Its purpose is not to make government more powerful but to keep the government off the ...
There are ways to get famous, to gain power or become rich. The real question isn't whether you want those things, but what you are willing to do to get them. What are you prepared to do? It's the only question that matters. Because you can keep the money or the power or the fame, you can ...
"If you want to know what a politician is up to, watch his feet, not his mouth," historian Marvin Meyers wrote in his magisterial "The Jacksonian Persuasion" in 1957. It's still good advice. In private conversations, Republicans are talking a big game about how they're not worried about November's midterms, according to several informed sources I've talked to. But it's not just in private. "Today, I don't think there will be a blue wave at all," White House Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair told the Free Press earlier this month. Blair is the man tasked with overseeing the midterms ...
What is troubling about the unrest spreading across Europe is not that people are taking to the streets. Protest is a legitimate part of democratic life. People have the right to object when fuel becomes unaffordable, schools deteriorate, public services fail, and housing slips beyond reach. Governments should hear those grievances and answer them. What should trouble every citizen is the moment protest becomes a license to loot, burn and terrorize. A peaceful march makes an argument. A mob that smashes a shop window silences one. Hundreds of thousands marched peacefully in France ...
