Outside the Beltway

Naturalized citizens advance and vivify the American experiment. 

“He that spits against the Wind, spits in his own Face.”

We’re not alone in dysfunctional politics.

On politics, guns, and people killing people

Birds of a feather and all that.

To be fully human requires living with and in sometimes unresolvable contradictions

A shocking, but not surprising, event. I fear it’s a harbinger rather than an outlier.

Trump’s response to the Kirk assassination is to try and further divide us.

A student, her cell phone, and yet more authoritarianism in contemporary America.

Trump’s lack of focus may spare us the worst outcomes in this one instance.

If President Trump sends unwanted military force into American cities, the one thing we should not act is surprised.

Town hall meetings are a relic of a different age.

Wildly unpopular policies in hyperpolarized times.

Are Democrats triggering voters by pushing the Overton Window on language, thereby subverting norms and creating barriers to participation?

The disconnect between perception and reality about elections.

None of this is good for the quality of our democracy (not that it was great to begin with).

Elections, the states, and the presidency edition.

Politicizing the military is legal, but dangerous.

Authoritarianism is popular.

We are observing an effort to embed democratically questionable sectarian norms into the day-to-day life of federal workplaces. 

Thinking about the evolution (or is it devolution) of the GOP since the 1990s.

A window into White Christian Nationalism (as endorsed by Pete Hegseth!).

Here we go again.

Steven is a guest on Michael Bailey’s podcast.

Tit-for-tat is maybe good power politics, but is any of this good for democracy?

Trump is not popular.

An unserious idea from an unserious man.

Where are we with my concerns about the Trump administration?

Have I ever noted the Congress is less responsive to the public than it should be?

Thoughts on the election and on the electoral rules used.

Force to create compliance should not be supported or excused. And yet…

The crime: trying to ask DHS Secretary Noem a question at a press conference in a federal building.

The information bubble is real.

While critics warn of fascism, the public is thus far backing Trump’s immigration crackdown.

There’s always a tweet

An Air Force colonel spread misinformation to hide the stealth program.

Resisting gaslighting must be social. It’s crucial for those who oppose Trump’s falsehoods to remind each other, again and again, that 2 + 2 = 4.

I question the timing.

Keeping a running list of examples of the dishonesty, unreality, poor governance, and authoritarianism of the Trump administration.

It was rather unusual.

A snapshot from Saudi Arabia.

What it tells us about race and the Trump administration.

They wanted chaos but not this chaos.

A basic definition.

The polls are showing a really weird dynamic.

There may be no exit.

The Trump administration treats personally disfavored American institutions the way past administrations treated foreign adversaries. His goal is political submission.