Politics
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Editorial: The bombastic Matt Gaetz cannot become the US attorney general
Matt Gaetz, the House-wrecking Florida congressman, cannot be U.S. attorney general. No way at all. We know that this isn’t a joke because Donald Trump published the proposed nomination on his Truth Social at 3:24 Wednesday afternoon, surprising flabbergasted Democrats and Republicans.
It must not happen. Gaetz, who had been under a DOJ ...Read more
Editorial: Rubio as secretary of state -- Will he be able to rein in Trump's isolationist impulses?
President-elect Donald Trump’s selection of Florida’s U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio to be secretary of state on Wednesday will elevate the Miami native and son of Cuban exiles to the post of America’s chief diplomat.
It’s a fitting and clever choice — one that Rubio, 53, meticulously carved out by aligning himself with Trump after they ...Read more
Editorial: Helene's victims still need our attention and help as the cold creeps in
In western North Carolina, the cold is creeping in. Autumn usually gives way to winter early in the mountains, but this year it comes at a precarious time, when many residents are still suffering in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
There is plenty going on in our nation in the aftermath of the recent election, just as families here in Hampton...Read more
Commentary: It's time for a tripartisan revolution
Former President Donald Trump has won a convincing Electoral College victory, although the swing states were decided by narrow margins. But when you take the 30,000-foot perspective of the election, it is very illuminating.
Forty percent of registered voters, according to Gallup, do not identify as either the Democrats or Republicans. Moreover,...Read more
Editorial: Party of fear -- A GOP that once welcomed immigrants gears up for Trump crackdown
After the rhetoric comes the reality. For anyone who thought Donald Trump’s immigration talk was just stirring up fear to get elected, his first appointments should make clear he is going to work to make it happen.
Trump is bringing Stephen Miller in as deputy chief of staff for policy and Tom Homan will have the nebulous overarching role of ...Read more
Jackie Calmes: Trump's staggering win isn't a landslide. Democrats, learn the lessons and move on
After months of obsessing over the presidential contest, it was jarring to tune in to the annual Veterans Day commemoration at Arlington National Cemetery and see President Joe Biden center stage. The all-but-forgotten president is too literally a lame duck; his stride has given way to a shuffle. He looks lost. He tried to project force in his ...Read more
Noah Feldman: Trump 2.0 will have an unusual amount of power
Right now, Democrats are asking despairingly what, if anything, can constrain Donald Trump from doing whatever he wants in his second term. And Republicans may be assuming optimistically that, with the Senate and the House in his pocket, there will be little to stand in the president-elect’s way. I have some good news and some bad news for ...Read more
Editorial: Missouri's House speaker fight highlights two competing strains of Republicanism
With a newly emboldened Republican Party poised to take over the federal government and much of the nation, the question of what kind of party it will be going forward looms large.
Will it continue down a radical-populist MAGA path that ignores laws it deems inconvenient and attempts to overturn any voting outcome it doesn’t like? Or will it...Read more
Robin Abcarian: How could voters choose both Trump and AOC? Pay attention, Democrats
Could self-flagellating Democrats and their gleeful critics please calm down for one stinkin' minute?
Before remaking an entire party based on one election loss — albeit a devastating one — let's look at some numbers.
As the final votes are tallied, it appears that President-elect Donald Trump has received 75.1 million votes while Vice ...Read more
Editorial: Progressives now learn to love the Senate filibuster
News outlets called the last outstanding U.S. Senate race this week for Democrat Ruben Gallego of Arizona. That gives Republicans a 53-47 edge in the chamber after picking up four seats.
And suddenly there’s silence from Democrats on eliminating the filibuster and packing the Supreme Court. Apparently it wasn’t about principle and ...Read more
Commentary: Trump's border czar and a history we should not forget
Donald Trump promised that, once reelected, he would conduct the largest deportation campaign in United States history. That pledge is already taking shape with his appointments. Stephen Miller will be deputy chief of staff and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem will head the Department of Homeland Security. Both are infamous anti-immigrant agitators...Read more
Justin Fox: How Trump can leverage an economy Americans dislike
President-elect Donald Trump has spent the past few months portraying the U.S. economy as an epic disaster in need of radical action. That turns out to have been good politics. Unfortunately, it also means he’s made a bunch of bold promises to fix the economy when not meddling with a good thing is probably the best course.
Far from being a ...Read more
Editorial: Waltz's foreign policy dance card -- Avoid dangerous isolationism
The week after he won the White House, Donald Trump announced his national security advisor. It was 2016 and the pick was Mike Flynn, a man with an oddly pro-Russian worldview who only would last three weeks in the role, having lied to the vice president about talking to the Russians. Flynn was also under investigation for being an unregistered ...Read more
Commentary: Harris lost because our country fosters institutional misogyny
We’ve been here before. Dwelling in this purgatory inhabited by heartbreak. Only days past hope, we stare ahead at years of despair.
The Champagne my husband and I planned to drink with our daughter is back in the refrigerator. The handkerchief we shared at a Nov. 6 church service is laundered. Our Kamala Harris T-shirts have joined the ...Read more
Commentary: Voters want a president who takes care of their most basic needs
This election was not about our national identity or a reflection of who we are as a collection of people. Rather, it centered on whether our most essential requirements as citizens were being served by our government.
A resounding number of voters told Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party that the answer to that question was �...Read more
Lorraine Ali: From Kimmel's Musk roast to Trump's Cabinet appointments, humor is all we have right now
Has your news media moratorium lifted yet? I suppose that's a mute question since you're reading this. Let me take this moment to thank you for venturing back into the fever swamp of news following the second worst election ever.
I know it's not easy. I'm just as sick of the How He Won/Why She Lost analysis as you are. In fact, I'm writing this...Read more
Lisa Jarvis: Leaving abortion rights to the states isn't working
When Missouri voters codified abortion rights in the state’s constitution last week, it was a bright spot in an otherwise dark week for reproductive freedom. The result promises to reconfigure the abortion access map in the U.S. at a critical time.
And while advocates for women’s health should celebrate the win, the uncertainty about what ...Read more
Commentary: I am a Mexican American who voted for Trump. No, I don't hate myself
I’m a proud, first-generation, college-educated and gay Mexican American with undocumented family in the United States, including a mother who was previously deported to Mexico, and I experienced homelessness as a child. I am everything Democrats claim to support, right?
Wrong.
Democrats have accepted a progressive platform, ignoring decades...Read more
Laura Washington: Here's a post-election to-do list for Democrats
There is nothing worse for a columnist than realizing that your view of the world does not jibe with your audience’s worldview. The same holds true for a political party, and in the case of the 2024 presidential election, the Democrats. Misapprehension is a serious offense. In the wake of Nov. 5, the Democratic Party stands convicted of the ...Read more
Kaitlyn Buss: What did Trump offer the working class?
Donald Trump’s landslide victory in the presidential election was a stunning rebuke by the American people of the policies and leadership of the Biden-Harris administration.
When paired with Republicans taking control of Congress, it represents a clear rejection of the progressive economic and cultural agenda Democrats are pushing.
Trump’s...Read more