Politics
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Editorial: RFK Jr. would be a disaster for America's health and should not be secretary of Health and Human Services
Get ready to welcome back polio and welcome back measles and other preventable viruses if Donald Trump has his way and makes Robert F. Kennedy Jr. the secretary of Health and Human Services, endangering us all.
Bobby Kennedy is a dangerous crank, a vaccine-denier who is a threat to public health and who should not become the top person in ...Read more
Editorial: Justice is not revenge. The nomination of Matt Gaetz as attorney general cannot stand
“The implacable logic of retribution will prove as appalling as the crime itself,” observes the loyal-to-a-fault Macduff in William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth,” “consisting of the soul’s slow agonizing descent.”
That’s why philosophers and preachers have argued against seeking retribution since time immemorial. Judeo-Christian ...Read more
Commentary: In Matt Gaetz, Donald Trump has chosen the anti-attorney general
How detrimental will President-elect Donald Trump’s second term be to the rule of law? We got the answer with Wednesday’s announcement of his intent to nominate Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz as attorney general: worse even than the worst-case scenario we had imagined.
This isn’t just hyperbole from a harsh Trump critic. It’s a sober ...Read more
Patricia Murphy: A Trump mandate -- cheaper eggs or a free Matt Gaetz?
The only difficulty with winning an election by a large margin, as President-elect Donald Trump did, is accurately reading the message that voters were trying to send you.
Focus on the fundamentals, and you could be the next generational leader. But overreach and aim wrong, and you and your party will be right back out of power.
The message of...Read more
Stephen L. Carter: Is the Republican Party still worthy of its name?
For those whose sense of doomy gloom has them searching for a ray of light, look no further than the amusing lawsuit filed by one George Kersey, arguing “that the political stance of the Republican National Committee is inconsistent with its name.”
Amusing — yet not uninteresting.
The complaint has been dismissed as frivolous, and given...Read more
Commentary: Might makes right. Welcome to the new world disorder
Donald Trump’s resounding election to a second term as U.S. president sealed the deal on a new world disorder.
The liberal, rules-based order that had shaped the rules of the game since World War II was already on its heels. It had proved wholly unable to prevent, punish or halt Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, a violent war in Sudan ...Read more
Beth Kowitt: CEOs think silence will save them from Trump. They're wrong
If the run-up to the election can be taken as a preview, don’t expect corporate America to act as any kind of check to the Donald Trump presidency redux.
The strategy most CEOs adhered to during the campaign cycle was to do and say as little about politics as possible. It’s the same approach they seem poised to carry over into Trump’s ...Read more
Editorial: Scrapping the federal government's rusty machinery
Elon Musk has wasted little time laying the groundwork for his job in the next Trump administration, overseeing the new Department of Government Efficiency. The billionaire entrepreneur says he can cut $2 trillion from the federal budget while holding federal bureaucracies more accountable for underperformance.
On Thursday, he and his co-pilot ...Read more
Editorial: Statehood for Puerto Rico deserves our respect
Once again, the people of Puerto Rico have voted in favor of becoming the nation’s 51st state. Last week’s vote was the fourth time in the past 12 years that the island’s voters have endorsed statehood, and the victory margin was a clear and convincing 56%.
On the same ballot, Puerto Ricans elected a new governor, Jenniffer González-Col�...Read more
Commentary: The black fog of bird flu -- Will animal agriculture bring the next pandemic?
After killing millions of birds worldwide, the H5N1 avian flu is creeping like a black fog of death through U.S. dairy farms. Dead cows and calves infected with the virus lie in piles along Californian roadsides, baking under the sun, surrounded by swarms of flies. The outlook is troubling for humans, too: Globally, over 400 people have already ...Read more
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