When, after the 2020 election, Mitch McConnell proclaimed that Donald Trump had every right to question the outcome of the presidential election in court, I tried to react like the lawyer I am. McConnell was of course correct; any fool can file almost any claim whatsoever, no matter how flimsily grounded, in some court or … Continue reading A Requiem for Duty, Redux

A modest proposal: in honor of this one, January 6th of every subsequent presidential inauguration year should be declared a National Day of Irony. We all think we know irony when we see it, but it’s not so easy to define. Dictionary definitions tend to focus on irony in speech, where it’s often indistinguishable from … Continue reading A National Day of Irony

Since the election, I’ve been waiting for insight, hoping for an explanation. None has arrived. And at this point, almost a month after election day, none is likely to. The unanswered question, the question whose answer has eluded not only me, but every pundit I’ve read, is how so many Americans – very nearly half … Continue reading Notes from the Aftermath

We’ve heard a lot recently about “Project 2025,” a policy paper released by the conservative Heritage Foundation that was initially positioned as a transition guidebook for a second Trump administration, but which Trump promptly claimed to know nothing about (because who but him can have any ideas he would subscribe to?). Its guiding premise – … Continue reading Toward a Better “Project 2025”

Joe Biden’s belated decision not to seek reelection has turned the Democratic prospect of almost certain defeat in November into one where victory seems at least possible. Not probable — given the abruptness of the anointment of Kamala Harris as the party’s standard bearer, the policy baggage she carries, and American voters’ proven reluctance to … Continue reading It Won’t Be a Landslide Anymore…and That’s a Problem

Of the many reactions to the recent attempt on Trump’s life at his rally in Butler, PA, surely the most misguided is the need on the part of investigators and the media to assign a motive to the would-be assassin, to discover what “ideology” might have driven him to fire upon the rally, nick Trump … Continue reading The Hunt for “Motive” in the Attempt on Trump

With the upheaval surrounding the attempted assassination of Donald Trump — for that’s what it was— much remains unclear this following night. How could security at a political rally for a presidential candidate of Trump’s provocativeness (if that’s the right word) have broken down to the extent that such an obvious line-of-sight, long-range attempt on … Continue reading The Attempted Assassination of Donald Trump

Well at least now we know. No waiting in agonizing suspense till November. Donald Trump will win the presidential election. We know this because most of America watched Joe Biden debate Trump last night, and we all know what we saw: two old men, one of whom has aged much more profoundly and rapidly than … Continue reading The Biden Debacle

Who runs for the position of Vice President is a matter of importance in any election year, but in this one the question looms particularly large. Both presidential candidates are of an age that neither can be counted on to live out his next term. Biden’s presumptive running mate, Kamala Harris, is one of the … Continue reading “What J.D. Vance Believes” is Rather Unbelievable

We all love to complain about politics and politicians, especially in an election year as fraught as this one. But occasionally we need to raise our sights above the immediate fray and consider the structural defects in our electoral system that we can actually do something about. It’s already clear that the 2024 presidential election … Continue reading The Unnecessary Tyranny of the Electoral College