From the 2016 Republican primary fight to today, Republican leaders have avoided confronting a man whose view of government, character and temperament are decidedly not conservative. That man is Donald Trump. While running for the nomination, Trump went after the GOP establishment, insulting in especially personal and nasty terms Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and Ted […]
Every scandal is terrible in its own way. The Trump-Ukraine shakedown bears the greatest resemblance to the late 1980s set of events known as the Iran-Contra affair, but it’s far worse. Both episodes involved partially privatizing our nation’s foreign policy. Iran-Contra included a sleazy arms dealer and wealthy individuals who worked with the Reagan administration […]
Despite her past big wins, if Sen. Susan Collins runs for reelection, she won’t really be running on her own. Instead Mainers will judge Collins in part by her links to three powerful men. One she voted to lead her party in the Senate. Another she voted to put on the Supreme Court. And the […]
Labor unions didn’t just bring us Labor Day weekend but all weekends and, responding to tragedies, they organized for safer workplaces. In the early 20th century, workers died horribly in factories, mines and steel mills from badly designed machines and unsafe conditions. The sewing machines and cutting tables of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company were located […]
Alexis de Tocqueville called New England town meetings “a school for democracy.” College should be, too.
With a political career built on fear and bizarre tales, Donald Trump squeaked through an Electoral College victory. As a candidate and president, Trump embraced conspiracy theories and often linked to racist and xenophobic statements. Now this rhetoric echoes through American politics, spoken in some form by people as varied as hateful murderers to establishment […]
Donald Trump has taken a sledgehammer to science and the core values of our republic. In 2016, Trump ran a political campaign proclaiming the United States was a mess and he alone could fix it, but he has damaged the ingredients of American greatness that prevailed in the post-war era. After World War II, the […]
The rich and well connected have great power and, given human nature, may use their power to help themselves and hurt others. Journalism isn’t the only way to hold accountable rich people and powerful organizations, but it’s an essential one. Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein were only in their twenties when they […]
As a Jew who had family members killed in the Holocaust, I’m agnostic about what to call facilities in the United States holding asylum seekers. But there’s one thing about which I’m certain: It’s wrong to treat immigrants in a dehumanizing way. Yet recently, we’ve seen horrific conditions. Infants and children in our care are […]
We have come a long way in the last half a century, but discrimination persists. We can’t let progress backslide.
