In January of this year, I met Vice President Mike Pence and behaved like the woman my mother would have wanted me to be. She was a lifelong, working-class Democrat, a Christian who was pro-choice and pro-LGBTQ when it wasn’t easy to be so in the Midwest. She’s been gone 20 years, but as ...

This is an open letter to all of you privately disgusted Republicans. It’s prompted by the fact that in the last few days, two of your colleagues have come forward to share with us your angst. One was actually an ex-colleague, former GOP Rep. Charlie Dent. He told CNN that you continue to ...

Donald Trump Jr., in his better-selling book, “Triggered: How the Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us,” writes of his reactions to visiting Arlington National Cemetery and driving “past the rows of white grave markers.” He explains: “In that moment, I ... thought of all the ...

People often offer cynical interpretations of American support for Israel. It’s the malign influence of the Jewish lobby, or Israel is a colonial outpost of the American hegemon or Israel has brainwashed American policymakers. What these right-wing conspiracists, anti-Semites and committed ...

Oh, there’s no place like home for the holidays. We know because Perry Como reminds us incessantly every year about this time. And because the airports become madhouses and the highways parking lots, so many of us trying to find their way back to that place where you are safe and known, ...

In listening to the Democratic presidential debates, we might conclude that “Medicare for All” is a legislative possibility. It is not, and any presidential candidate with a scintilla of self-respect must admit that fact. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that just 30% of ...

Let’s talk about what Fiona Hill said. The former White House Russia adviser testified last week in the House impeachment investigation, one of a number of nonpartisan civil servants who came forward to shed light on Donald Trump’s attempt to strong-arm Ukrainian President Volodymyr ...

When I was pregnant with my daughter, my parents gave me a Cabbage Patch doll with blonde hair and eyes that blinked. On the spot, I named her Gloria Steinem. “Think this through,” my father cautioned. My mother just smiled. By the time my daughter, Cait, could walk, Gloria ...

In her diary entry for July 15, 1944, Anne Frank wrote words that would harrow and challenge generations not yet born: “I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart.” Less than a month later, “people” would discover Anne and seven other Jews hiding in a ...

The following rewrite of one of Hans Christian Andersen’s best loved tales is presented with apologies to the author, who did nothing to deserve it: So off went the Emperor under his splendid canopy. Everyone in the streets and the windows said, ‘Oh, how fine are the Emperor’s new ...

There are large historical differences between America’s two major political parties in how they choose their presidential nominees. Consider this: Since 1952, there have been 11 presidential elections where there wasn’t a Republican president running for reelection. In 10 of those 11, ...

If I were addressing a young audience today, I would face an uphill battle to explain why conservatism so inspired me during my own impressionable years. Today, what has been dubbed “Conservatism, Inc” has become so cynical, so nasty, so truth-challenged and so dumbed-down that it repels ...

A few words about walls. Unsurprisingly, the one Donald Trump is trying to build on the southern border — the one he swore Mexico would pay for — has proven, like most things he touches, an embarrassing failure. First came news early this month that smugglers have been able to cut through ...

Five hours, nine minutes and 17 seconds into Wednesday’s nationally televised impeachment hearing before the House Intelligence Committee, U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, a Democrat from New York, began asking Ambassador William B. Taylor Jr. a series of questions about his military service. ...

You may trust that Evan Halper is in his own personal hell right now. It’s a place to which all good journalists go when they make mistakes. Which is to say, it’s a place to which all good journalists eventually go. If the error is relatively small, one may spend a day there. If one makes ...

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has impressive credentials: He graduated third in his class from Los Amigos High School in California’s Orange County before winning an appointment from his congressman — “B-1 Bob” Dornan, a conservative remembered for his unstinting support for the ...

We don’t care. You can check Pew or Gallup or any other polling company. We are running deficits that ought to make us nauseated with worry — the federal deficit passed $1 trillion in September — but we’re not interested. Well, a majority of us anyway. About 48% of those polled by Pew ...

It’s time for the annual congressional fight over the Renewable Fuel Standard, or RFS. In one corner sit corn farmers and their representatives, who fight tenaciously not just to preserve the RFS but to expand it. In the other sits, well, just about everyone else. Whether you are a refiner, a ...

I’m here to offer you an action list. With last week’s balloting behind us, we now have just less than a year before one of the most momentous elections in American history. As voters in 1860 had to decide between Union and secession, we face a stark choice of our own: America or Trump. ...

“Every generation blames the one before.” — Mike + The Mechanics So I guess “OK Boomer” is a thing now. And I gather I’m supposed to be offended by it. Certainly, some people seem to be. The saying — a dismissive eye roll from Generation Z to their elders — is suddenly all ...