President Biden masterfully used the pageantry of the day to shatter the self-asserted Trumpian monopoly on patriotism.

Biden’s America is a place and idea in which the trappings of empire or glory are ephemera in comparison with perennial human relationships—families; friendships; communities; schools; neighbors; partners.

To defang impeachment is an invitation for presidents to ignore the rule of law.

In my life I have not once, not a single time, encountered the name of Chelsea Handler in any context apart from Fox News articles. 

The Trump Administration is seeking to overhaul the food stamps program.

The only reason March 5th is “our last chance” at a DACA deal is if Trump makes it so.

If Trump is able to insist upon a package deal or no deal at all, he may muck up his chance of policy success, but it may be the Democrats who lose politically.

Combining universal and mandatory (and free) college-board exams with a program for targeting college recruitment of disadvantaged groups could–if coupled with a commensurate financial commitment by the state to such groups–go some distance in bringing more qualified economically disadvantaged groups into higher education. 

Today in an increasingly liberal, educated, globalized, and democratic world, we have more reason than ever to listen to the opinion of our peers and, where appropriate, to be open to their counsel.

In a healthy democracy we need not agree, nor must we finally even respect one another’s objects of devotion.  But we should exercise a salutary measure of mutual forbearance and be willing to acknowledge that no side has a monopoly on either truth or justice.

In the United States, in contrast, the judgment citizens hold of the media, along increasingly with everything else, turns on one’s identification with a political tribe. 

We mourn Charlottesville because Donald J. Trump, the President of the United States, made clear in no uncertain terms that in his mind there was little distinction between those in Charlottesville who pursued the un-American “values” of soil, blood, and racial dominance and those who pursued the ideals of the American Constitution.

Trump’s tweet may have been casual bluster posted while sitting at the breakfast table (presumably eating Wheaties®—The Breakfast of Champions). We can’t know. And finally it matters not because what really matters is that it was taken at face value by President Peña Nieto.

Eliminating the department would mean parceling out most of its activities to other federal agencies, a sleight of hand maneuver that might create the appearance of smaller government but would disrupt the ordinary operations of the federal government. 

Democracy produces good rulers, right?  Sometimes.  What good democracies actually produce best is good losers. Let us then be grateful for gracious losers, for our losers no less than our winners carry forward the American experiment in self-rule.  

So what’s wrong with the Whitelash Backlash thesis?  Not everything, actually.  But plenty.

The real model for Trump’s team is neither Abraham Lincoln nor Andrew Jackson but The Simpson’s Mr. Burns with a room full of Waylon Smithers-types.

In which I use a lot of words to say hello.

On Tuesday night the Establishment won and won yuge. (From new OTB contributor, Michael Bailey)