Month: May 2024

The spectacle of Donald Trump speaking at the Libertarian convention was a laugher. It smelled of desperation both for the former president and the Libertarian Party. Trump was trolling for votes and the LP was trolling to be considered a serious political player. Trump, of course, is no more a libertarian than he is a…

Nikki Haley’s announcement that she would vote for Trump in November unsettled me. It shouldn’t, she’s a politician. But I hang on to the belief that decent people will always do the right thing in the end. On the surface, Haley’s action seems to be that of a party faithful returning to the fold and…

Like many of you I have followed the ongoing hush money trial of Trump in New York. It is virtually impossible to avoid it, given the media attention and the circus that is the current political scene. As the trial winds down, it is my take that it won’t change any minds or have much…

The spectacle of Senators Tim Scott and J. D. Vance attending Trump’s hush money trial was bad enough, but the presence of Mike Johnson, current Speaker of the House, struck me as sick politics. Second in power to the president, the speaker’s attendance sends the signal that the tawdry and potentially criminal acts of the…

  Yesterday the Wall Street Journal published a review of the latest book on Theodore Roosevelt, one which focused on the role of women in forming the 26th president of the United States. Coincidentally, this came right after Mother’s Day and this column’s celebration of women as leaders in roles traditionally held by men. The…

Heather Cox Richardson’s comments this morning in her “Letters from an American” compel me to say a few words about women. It’s risky, I know, but some truths stand out. Richardson makes the point that “Mother’s Day” was originally popularized by Julia Ward Howe in the 1870s as a way to empower women. Howe, apparently,…

I can’t help thinking about how crazy our politics have become. Much of our time is spent debating crises that political parties make up to seize the spotlight and make the other party look bad. Too often these issues become the headlines, dominate commentary by TV “talking heads,” and provoke real and imagined hysteria among…

Sometimes it is difficult to do the right thing. I imagine this was the case for Geoff Duncan, the former Republican Lt-Governor of Georgia, when Trump and his allies tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election. The same might be said about Brad Raffensperger, Republican Secretary of State in Georgia, when he refused to change…

Where are the opposing views to those expressed most frequently in this blog? We really need to talk to each other, even if we do not share the same political views. I’d wager that we agree on much more than we think. If you disagree, please challenge what I say here. If you want, write…

Ever since the 2016 election I’ve been stupefied by the people who voted for and continue to support Donald Trump. This in spite of overwhelming evidence as to his malevolence and criminal behavior that threatens our very Republic. Most alarming for me is that many of these people are long time friends and acquaintances who…