Always before, there have been words. Always before, someone crafted them with writerly skill and gave them to the president to give to us. Always, before. When seven people died aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, President Ronald Reagan spoke of how, just that morning, they “waved ...

Among dozens of addled tweets from the commander in chief over the past few days, one in particular deserves pausing over because it demonstrates not just the weak-mindedness of our president but also the way his leadership is sabotaging conservatism. Trump retweeted a post featuring ...

It is a common, if not especially honorable, practice in American politics for a candidate and her campaign to prefer to run not against their actual opponent on the ballot but rather against the most unpopular caricature of the opponent’s party. That explains why Democrats, for close to ...

In 2012, Annie Glenn and I were doing what we so often did, which was to sit side-by-side in a quiet place offstage, waiting for our extroverted husbands to finish speaking to a crowd. We had been close friends for six years by then. My husband, Sherrod Brown, was running for reelection to ...

“Oh beautiful, for heroes proved In liberating strife Who more than self their country loved And mercy more than life.” — “America The Beautiful,” by Katharine Lee Bates And Memorial Day comes around once more. Gateway to the summer, to beaches, beer and barbecue, yes. But ...

Are these people lying to us or are they lying to themselves? For years, that’s been the great imponderable of American politics, the question the rest of us asked as we watched nominal “conservatives” sink ever deeper into a morass of conspiracy, lies and alternative facts. Were they ...

The coronavirus did apparently originate in China. Now President Donald Trump wants to punish that country for its role in letting the virus spread to the United States. This is just another poor excuse to push the same protectionist policies he has always favored. It’s also a way for him to ...

One of the chief selling points about Donald Trump in 2016, one that persuaded many initially dubious Republicans, was the argument that “he fights.” Some of us tried to counter that his battles nearly always concerned his own fragile ego, not the cause of conservatism, nor even the ...

Dear Mitch McConnell: Why don’t you just go ahead and call Barack Obama the N-word? You know you want to. It’d probably do wonders for your blood pressure. And it would free you from the tiresome charade of using coded language to say the same thing. It would also free the rest of us ...

Eighteen-year-old Dameon Shepard was playing video games when the mob came to his door. Some were carrying guns. It must’ve felt like one of those old westerns where the sheriff faces down angry townsfolk demanding the blood of the desperado inside his jail. Or, given that Shepard is black ...

An American politician can help herself politically by being able to believably use self-deprecating humor, which sends a clear message: “I am not pompously self-important or thin-skinned; I do not take myself completely seriously.” No one was better at self-deprecation than former ...

That video broke my heart. If you’ve seen it, you need no further explanation. You know exactly what video I’m talking about and why it shattered me. If you haven’t, be advised that the clip in question depicts the last seconds in the life of Ahmaud Arbery. He was just 25, a young man ...

We’re all in this thing together. Or so we are told by celebrities, politicians and every third TV commercial. It’s the lullaby with which America soothes itself every time these shores are attacked. That’s why Monday, Dec. 8, 1941, saw long lines at military recruiting offices and ...

As you probably already knew, the next six months of 2020 presidential campaigning are going to be ugly. I do not say this happily, but I do so based upon a lifetime of watching candidates run for election and reelection. Almost invariably, politicians return to what worked successfully in ...

One of the less helpful aspects of our current quandary is the shrill argument between two closed-minded camps. One condemns those who wish to open up the economy as science-defying ghouls who care nothing for human life. The other depicts the stay-at-homes as economic saboteurs willing to ...

“Tomorrow, robins will sing.” — Stevie Wonder “Tomorrow there’ll be sunshine, and all this darkness past.” — Bruce Springsteen “Hurry, tomorrow. Tomorrow, I need you now.” — The Temptations In other words, tomorrow is the place where things will get better. Tomorrow ...

There was, I can testify, a lot more drinking in Washington, D.C., before May 15, 1978. That was the date, through the grace of God, that I had my last drink of beer or booze or wine. Previously, I had given up drinking at different times, for Lent or to lose weight (a waist is a terrible ...

Dear Donald Trump: Man, I have to admit it. You really got me good. When you looked straight at Dr. Deborah Birx last week and started musing how people might be able to cure COVID-19 by exposure to ultraviolet light or injecting household disinfectants, I thought you were serious. I said ...

At the beginning of each semester at Kent State, where I teach in the journalism school, I make a point of opening my arms wide and saying to students, “Welcome to your adulthood.” The frequency of alarmed faces affirms both my suspicions and my intentions. I teach mostly juniors and ...

Someday, I’m going to die. This, I grudgingly accept. I have no idea how it’s going to happen. Maybe I will die of having a tree fall on me, of eating tainted shellfish, or of being struck by lightning. But this much I guarantee. I will not die of having wagered my life that TV carnival ...