In Trumpland, Trials Have No Evidence

As Republicans scramble to justify their votes, the evidence against Trump and his aides continues to drip, drip, driplessly

Republican Senators scrambled to justify their votes. As I wrote last night, Alexander said that the Democrats had proven the charges against the president but those actions were not impeachable. Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) said that Alexander spoke for him, as well as for other senators. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) said ...
Read More
In Trumpland, Trials Have No Evidence

Andrew Yang’s Unexpected Appeal

As we approach the Iowa Caucuses, it’s useful to remember that Democratic politics is about reinventing government — and it always has been

Andrew Yang fits nowhere in this framework, but he does point to what all these Democratic candidates have in common: to one degree or another, they all believe that politics is a conversation about how, not whether, democratic government will be renewed. For the limits of this idea, see an essay by Ian Zuckerman ...
Read More
Andrew Yang’s Unexpected Appeal

Impeachment as National Renewal

Can non-democratic institutions be repurposed for democracy?

All of these authors recognize that these comparisons have limitations. The 1868 impeachment of Johnson failed to remove him from office -- just as, in all likelihood, Trump will remain president after his impeachment. But the deeper problem is that these celebrations of the political potential of impeachment elide its ...
Read More
Impeachment as National Renewal

John Bolton Speaks

Avoiding new evidence of Trump’s crimes, the President’s lawyers continue to hammer the Bidens

Republicans have insisted that there is no direct evidence that Trump himself ordered the hold, and that, therefore, there is no evidence that the president had abused his power, as the first article of impeachment charges. The leaks from Bolton’s book, cheekily named The Room Where It Happened (this is ...
Read More
John Bolton Speaks

Making the Truth Matter

Justice in the impeachment proceedings may require Democrats to play the long game

So ended Impeachment manager Adam Schiff’s closing argument yesterday in the Senate trial of Donald Trump. Within minutes, #RightMatters was trending on Twitter. Schiff (D-CA) leads a group of Democratic House managers who are shining in this moment as they weave televised testimony before the House, available documents, and public television interviews into ...
Read More
Making the Truth Matter

Yesterday’s Impeachment News? Fact versus Fox

In the absence of evidence or an argument, the GOP floods the zone

But for Trump and his enablers, this trial is not about the truth; it never has been. It is about dominance and power. Forcing someone to accept what they know to be untrue reinforces the dominance of the person telling the lies. Perpetrators will start with small, seemingly unimportant lies and ...
Read More
Yesterday’s Impeachment News? Fact versus Fox

The Democratic Power of Inertia in Social Life

And its limits in fractured society

* In 1973 and 1974, I traveled from city to city around Poland, observing extraordinary theater, Polish Student Theater, so-called, though many, if not most, of its makers were not students. Aesthetic innovations, combined with bold brilliant political provocations, defied the Communist authorities and created a cultural world apart from the ...
Read More
The Democratic Power of Inertia in Social Life

All the President’s Lawyers

Mitch McConnell’s desire to reign in the impeachment spectacle clashes with Donald Trump’s love for a political circus

Ever since it became clear that the House would vote to impeach Donald Trump, the White House and Senate Republican leaders have struggled over the Senate trial. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell did not want the Senate to devolve into the circus that the House did. There, GOP representatives worked ...
Read More
All the President’s Lawyers

It Matters That Warren is a Woman

But It’s Not All That Matters

Here is Cooper’s takeaway: "Wanting a woman to rise to the top of an almost all-male pack is not a position that needs defending. What should be defended is the uncritical desire to elect yet another man to a position that 45 men and zero women have held." I agree that ...
Read More
It Matters That Warren is a Woman

The Warren-Sanders Squabble is Foolish

The real issues in this campaign have nothing to do with who said what in 2018

Warren's electability argument might be right. Or it might not be right. Again, we will see how things unfold . . . . At the same time, I think the latest brouhahas about Sanders and his “dissing” of Warren are kind of absurd. First it was claimed that he was "going ...
Read More
The Warren-Sanders Squabble is Foolish

Impeachment and Rousseau’s General Will

Insight from the Past on the Politics of the Present

The article encapsulates many of the debates leading up to the president’s impeachment -- that it is grossly inappropriate for presidents (but presumably any government officials) to prioritize their own personal or private interests above the national interest. In impeaching Trump on this count the House emphasizes that while a ...
Read More
Impeachment and Rousseau’s General Will