This letter has never been about partisan politics or about electoral politics generally, except to the extent of commentary on the ideas and policy priorities that drive electoral politics.  No doubt regular readers over the years should have no difficulty in identifying my political philosophy, but I abjure partisanship.  Consistent with this commitment, I have […]

I haven’t been a fan of Arizona Senator Jeff Flake because, in spite of agreement with him on a number of issues, his open disagreements with the President puts him very close to the category of a “never Trumper”, a posture that is not productive for the objectives they share.  However, he gets credit with […]

We’ve not seen anything quite like it, at least in my lifetime.  The Trump transition has been like a drink of water from a fire hydrant and we’re just two weeks into it.  I said all along during the election year that I could see no really good outcome regardless of who was elected, but […]

We’ve now had about ten days to process the earthshaking presidential election, time enough for some afterthoughts and observations on Trump’s amazing victory and the reaction so far: Trump won primarily because of the failure of the Obama policy priorities and governing performance and the glaring weaknesses of Hillary Clinton as a candidate.  As Karl […]

To paraphrase former President Gerald Ford at the end of the Watergate crisis, “our long national nightmare of a presidential campaign is over”.  And the tradeoff that the American people have made is to accept the gamble on a politically inexperienced, often vulgar and undisciplined, and multi-flawed narcissist in exchange for finally ridding the nation […]

Clearly, the notion of Donald Trump as the Republican nominee for President, with all that he brings and doesn’t bring to the table, has sent the Republican party into a frenzy of soul-searching.  We are truly in uncharted territory here and there is simply not yet an identified pathway.  The only thing reasonably certain from […]

In a recent essay by Joseph Epstein in the Wall Street Journal, he wonders if the then five remaining presidential candidates from both parties are the best quality candidates for that office that we should expect.  A reader wrote in response, pointing out that Alexis de Tocqueville answered this question in 1835 in his classic, […]

I have given up almost all attempts to fully understand the Donald Trump phenomenon, much less how to deal with it to an acceptable outcome, so I have decided not to spend a lot more time in analysis, but rather to let events play out.  However, I have become pretty sure that, regardless of the […]

One of my favorite liberals is William Galston, who offers his insights on politics and social issues in The Wall Street Journal.  Over the past couple of months he has written about the demographics and underlying economic and social issues driving the Trump phenomenon. In one article, he notes that much of Trump’s support grows […]

This has never been a letter about electoral politics–who’s in, who’s out, who’s up, who’s down, etc.–and I’m not about to change that.  But I can’t pass on the Donald Trump phenomenon because of what it represents about our politics early in the 21st century. I think his popularity with Republicans will ultimately fade, but […]