When Bill Cohen watches the still-emerging scandals of the Trump campaign and administration, I wonder if he thinks of something Mark Twain supposedly said: “History doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes.” Cohen became a senator and then secretary of defense. But at age 33, he found himself thrust into history as a first-term member […]
After being applauded last summer for voting against repealing the Affordable Care Act, Sen. Susan Collins supported the Republican tax cut bill despite Congress not adopting health policy provisions she said were necessary to win her vote. In November 2017, Collins said her support for the tax bill depended on passage of two provisions, on […]
When Democrat Conor Lamb, a thirty-something Marine and attorney, narrowly won a special election last week in Pennsylvania, people around the country took notice. Lamb’s life story was compelling and he ran a campaign discussing kitchen table issues. He pledged to work across the aisle while taking a stand against the priorities of the Republican […]
There’s a new tone to our politics coming from calling accurate, but unfavorable, reporting fake news and creating partisan fake news outlets. We’ve seen it in national politics as President Donald Trump rails against the media for reporting on everything from the Russia probe to his policies and even his own words. In Maine, […]
In tweets, television interviews, op-eds, and speeches so eloquent it seemed remarkable they came from some so young, teens in Parkland, Florida, made it clear that they were fed up with business as usual and ready to turn their anger to action.
With the Nunes memo, the gaps weren’t moments of missing audio or empty pages. Instead, there were missing facts and context.
Last weekend’s converging storylines seemed almost cinematic. Just after the federal government shut down, huge protests took place across the country. These dual developments suggest where American politics is going. Grassroots energy, much of it coming from women, far outmatches the chaos in Washington, D.C. and the confusion and lassitude of the Trump administration. One […]
There’s never been a presidency as chaotic as Donald Trump’s. Although relatively little has happened on the legislative front, there’s been a seemingly endless stream of tweets and tell-all leaks. With all the distracting minutia, it can be hard to keep sight of the big picture. One major stream that sometimes gets pushed into the […]
After Republicans pursued a series of seriously unpopular bills, Democrats are poised to make large gains. The tax law is among the most unpopular in the history of polling because it increases wealth inequality and conflicts with people’s desire for a fairer tax system. Instead of passing a better crafted, more popular, deficit-neutral tax bill, […]
What today’s Republicans have done is astonishing in the long history of taxes. They’ve sparked a tax revolt against a policy that, overall, cuts taxes. That’s because of the way politicians have acted and what the tax plan does. With no emergency, the Senate hurriedly and sloppily took up a complicated policy affecting our entire […]
