The biggest grift in the history of the United States isn’t a Ponzi scheme. It isn’t a crooked casino. It isn’t some guy in a cheap suit selling you a miracle investment from the back of a van. No. The greatest grift is convincing ordinary people to spend fifty years of their lives working so they can finally afford to stop working when they’re seventy. Think about that...
Can a president rename history? This essay explores why executive authority can change government terminology but cannot erase the centuries of Indigenous, cultural, and historical memory preserved in the names of the Great Lakes.
Public debates often portray Sharia as uniquely incompatible with democracy while overlooking the similar role religious law has historically played within Christianity. This essay argues that the constitutional issue is not which religion's laws are proposed, but whether any religious doctrine should replace the Constitution as America's highest civil authority.
Why Donald Trump Cannot Stand in the Shadow of John F. Kennedy There is a peculiar vulgarity to the modern American right: a fixation on proximity. If greatness cannot be earned, it can at least be adjacent. If history cannot be mastered, it can be looted for names, monuments, and borrowed glory. Hence the grotesque spectacle of Donald J. Trump—draft-dodger, grievance merchant, and...
On a president who once wondered aloud why the world’s largest arsenal should sit unused, and a war that has now put the wondering within reach of the trigger. A Question, Asked Three Times There is a species of question that, once posed by a man holding nuclear launch authority, cannot be un-posed. It sits there afterward, a small dark stone in the historical record, no matter how briskly...
Donald Trump repeatedly promised to keep America out of new wars. Eight months into his second term, the administration is requesting tens of billions of dollars to continue military operations against Iran. This essay compares the promises with the public record.
This essay examines whether recurring associations reveal character more clearly than public speeches, exploring decades of political allies, advisers, lawyers, and confidants through the lens of leadership and accountability.
Political leaders are often judged by their words. This essay argues they should also be judged by the company they repeatedly choose to keep, examining patterns of association, character, and political accountability.
Record highs on Wall Street are often presented as proof of American prosperity. This essay examines who actually owns the stock market, why soaring markets benefit a small ownership class, and how asset inflation is frequently mistaken for broad economic success.
Anthony Fauci and Donald Trump both invoked the Fifth Amendment under vastly different political circumstances. This essay examines how constitutional rights, scientific uncertainty, and public accountability are often judged less by evidence than by partisan allegiance.