The origins of the word filibuster seem to belie any claims that the tool of partisan warfare is a pillar of senatorial greatness, and therefore must be guarded against efforts to eliminate it. Published April 7, 2021
Did Woodrow Wilson commit the "most consequential diplomatic failure in the history of the United States?" Published April 5, 2021
Few Americans in 1971 might have foreseen the dramatic changes China would undergo after Mao's reign, to the point where it is in a position to possibly become the world's most militarily and economically powerful nation within a couple more decades. Published March 31, 2021
Facing the biggest migrant surge in 20 years, the Biden administration is not only struggling to cope with the influx. The president is also seeking to deflect responsibility for enticing Central American parents to send their kids on the dangerous trek. Published March 29, 2021
Is American capitalism broken? Published March 24, 2021
Where are the Black Republicans? Published March 22, 2021
President Joseph Biden's decision not to directly sanction Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi is raising old yet fundamental questions about the aims of U.S. foreign policy. Published March 17, 2021
One year after the rhythms of daily life were upended by the unchecked spread of an invisible, deadly pathogen, Americans have a degree of optimism that the worst of the coronavirus pandemic is behind them. Published March 15, 2021
The war on terrorism turned into a forever war. Published March 10, 2021
The fight for the future of the Republican Party is underway. Which faction will prevail? Published March 8, 2021
The Black Lives Matter protests that roiled America's cities in the summer of 2020 helped ignite a reckoning with the country's history of racial injustice. Confederate statues and monuments that had stood for generations as towering symbols of Lost Cause mythology and Jim Crow segregation were torn down by mobs and, in some places, peacefully removed by local authorities. Published March 3, 2021
President Joseph Biden's decision on Feb. 25 to order airstrikes against targets in Syria, as a warning to Iran against backing militias in Iraq, served Americans an important reminder: The situation in the Middle East, so often overshadowed by the endless partisan bickering at home, remains unstable and dangerous, and relations between the U.S. and Iran remain at a low point. Published March 1, 2021
In 1976 moviegoers were treated to two great, though radically different, films about the news business. Published February 24, 2021
"Everyone is sure they know what fascism is," wrote Columbia University historian Robert O. Paxton in his seminal work, 'The Anatomy of Fascism.' This may partly explain why in modern American politics both Democratic and Republican politicians, including most of the recent presidents, have been called fascists by their critics. Published February 22, 2021
Remember Edgar Maddison Welch? He is out of prison now. In late 2016 Welch drove more than 300 miles from his North Carolina home to Washington, D.C., armed with an AR-15. He was on a mission to save children from a sex abuse ring operated by powerful Democrats in the basement of a pizzeria, or so he believed. Published February 17, 2021
"If you're in favor of freedom of speech, that means you're in favor of freedom of speech precisely for views you despise. Otherwise you are not in favor of freedom of speech," said the linguist and social critic Noam Chomksy to a group of students who wanted to know why he defended the right of a Holocaust denier, Robert Faurisson, to express his views free of censorship. Published February 15, 2021
Faced with growing discontent over his nation's faltering economy and massive street demonstrations provoked by the arrest of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the regime of Russian president Vladimir Putin responded with an iron fist. State security forces arrested more than 10,000 people who participated in arguably the most significant protests against Putin's rule since he assumed power in late 1999. Published February 10, 2021
Few words in the American political lexicon are as freighted with fear as socialism. It can conjure thoughts of diabolical Communism, the horrors of Stalin and Mao, and the Iron Curtain. To many on the right, the word has become synonymous with un-American because of its perceived threat to overturn capitalism and erode freedom. But attitudes toward socialism, however defined, are changing, especially among younger Americans. Published February 8, 2021
As the Senate prepares for the fourth presidential impeachment trial -- in this case, of an ex-President -- there seems little doubt Donald Trump will be acquitted along partisan lines. But while acquittal may be a foregone conclusion, the issues are critical to the health of our democracy and meaning of the Constitution. Published February 3, 2021
A decade after the Occupy Wall Street protesters in New York and other cities took to the streets to condemn those responsible for the subprime mortgage crisis, a different kind of anti-Wall Street uprising is happening online -- on comment threads and in trading apps -- and these protesters are dumping equal parts money and defiance into their cause. Published February 1, 2021
