23 Posts Found

One way to look at the rise of Donald Trump is as part of a decades-long backlash among the American leadership class to the idea of accountability. Since Richard Nixon was forced to resign, powerful people in both political parties have worked assiduously to ensure that their leaders would escape the consequences of their actions… This is not just about Trump; his impunity is the … [ Read more ]

Author: Adam Serwer | Source: The Atlantic (February 26, 2026) | Subjects: America, International, Politics & Public Policy

Reagan Republicans fully understood the political risks of dismantling more than 50 years of public policy, yet—more effectively than any of their predecessors—they succeeded in manufacturing the popular consent needed to do precisely that. The key to this achievement was a simple but devastating insight: The most effective way to discredit liberal social policy was to starve it of resources and then point to its … [ Read more ]

Author: Heather Ann Thompson | Source: The Atlantic (January2026) | Subjects: America, History, International, Politics & Public Policy

Philosophically speaking, the right has long been defined by its emphasis on the value of stability — as odd as it may seem in the era of Trump’s radically destabilizing administration.

Conservative theorists, most notably Edmund Burke, have long maintained that political flourishing depends on the existence of stable social rules developed gradually and from the bottom up over the course of generations. Those who seek … [ Read more ]

Author: Zack Beauchamp | Source: Vox (June 11, 2025) | Subjects: America, Articles & Links, Excerpts, International, Politics & Public Policy

Max Weber wondered how the leaders of states derive legitimacy, the claim to rule rightfully. He thought it boiled down to two choices. One is rational legal bureaucracy (or “bureaucratic proceduralism”), a system in which legitimacy is bestowed by institutions following certain rules and norms…

The other source of legitimacy is more ancient, more common, and more intuitive—“the default form of rule in the premodern world,” … [ Read more ]

Author: Jonathan Rauch | Source: The Atlantic (February 24, 2025) | Subjects: America, Excerpts, International, Politics & Public Policy, Trump

The divide between urban and rural voters is growing everywhere: from New York City to farm towns.

Authors: Ian Chipman, Jonathan Rodden | Source: Stanford University (May 2, 2017) | Subjects: America, Excerpts, International, Politics & Public Policy

Anthropologist Wade Davis on how COVID-19 signals the end of the American era.

Author: Wade Davis | Source: Rolling Stone (August 6, 2020) | Subjects: America, Excerpts, History

All evidence to the contrary, we continue to believe, deep in our hearts, that the Founders’ “We the People” meant all the people, not just the propertied white men.

Authors: Brooke Allen, Jill Lepore | Source: The Wilson Quarterly (Autumn2012) | Subjects: America, Articles & Links, Excerpts, History, Politics & Public Policy

The election of Barack Obama is just the most startling manifestation of a larger trend: the gradual erosion of “whiteness” as the touchstone of what it means to be American. If the end of white America is a cultural and demographic inevitability, what will the new mainstream look like—and how will white Americans fit into it? What will it mean to be white when whiteness … [ Read more ]

Author: Hua Hsu | Source: The Atlantic (January2009) | Subjects: America, Excerpts, Race Relations

How has America changed since 2000?

Author: Timothy Lavin | Source: The Atlantic (January2009) | Subject: America

A sympathetic critic issues a wake-up call for an America mired in groupthink and blind to its own shortcomings.

Author: Kishore Mahbubani | Source: The Wilson Quarterly (Spring2009) | Subjects: America, Articles & Links, Economics | Economy, Excerpts, International

America’s enduring love affair with big spending is fetching up against some unromantic realities. But a lifelong saver assures us that there are worse fates than socking it away for a rainy day.

Author: Daniel Akst | Source: The Wilson Quarterly (Summer2009) | Subjects: America, Articles & Links, Consumerism, Economics | Economy, Excerpts, Life & Society

If you are a fan of Ken Burns documentaries, this is as fine as any of them. It is interesting and educational on so many levels: the environment, biology, economic development, politics, etc. It will also really open your eyes to just how influential one person or a small group of people can be in enacting huge changes and improvements in society. You will learn … [ Read more ]

Author: Ken Burns | Source: PBS (September2009) | Subjects: America, Environment | Sustainability, History, Travel

The Pakistani novelist Kamila Shamsie once observed that there are “two Americas” — one at home and one abroad. The first is the America of Hollywood, work-in-progress democracy, civil rights movements and Ellis Island. The second is the America of coups and occupations, military dictators and CIA plots, economic meddling and contempt for foreign cultures. The rest of the world knows both Americas. But as … [ Read more ]

Author: Suzy Hansen | Source: The Washington Post (September 8, 2017) | Subjects: America, Articles & Links, Excerpts, Foreign Policy, International, Politics & Public Policy, Trump

Author Mugambi Jouet dissects the causes of deep chasms within American society from an outsider’s viewpoint.

Author: Mugambi Jouet | Source: Knolwedge@Wharton (July 26, 2017) | Subjects: America, Articles & Links, Culture, Excerpts, Life & Society, Politics & Public Policy

Frederick Douglass called it “a sacred effort,” and Lincoln himself thought that his Second Inaugural, which offered a theodicy of the Civil War, was better than the Gettysburg Address

Author: Garry Wills | Source: The Atlantic (September1999) | Subjects: America, Articles & Links, Excerpts, History

A healthy society balances the power of respected governments in the public sector with both responsible businesses in the private sector and robust communities in what I call the plural sector — the clubs, religions, community hospitals, foundations, NGOs, and cooperatives with which so many of us engage. The plural sector, although the least recognized of the three, is large and diverse. Many of us … [ Read more ]

Author: Henry Mintzberg | Source: Harvard Business Review (HBR) (March2017) | Subjects: America, Articles & Links, Excerpts, Life & Society, Politics & Public Policy

Author Tom Nichols argues that people are angry at journalists for giving them what they want: pared-down stories tailored to them.

Authors: Brian Bethune, Tom Nichols | Source: Maclean’s (March 20, 2017) | Subjects: America, Articles & Links, Excerpts, Life & Society, News | Media | Publishing, Politics & Public Policy

Last week, six top State Department officials were suddenly discharged by the White House—an Undersecretary, an acting Undersecretary, and four Assistant Secretaries—without notice and without even a nominee selected to replace them. Tom Countryman, who served the nation for 35 years and at the time as Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation, was in Amman booked to fly to an international meeting … [ Read more ]

Authors: Ryan Goodman, Tom Countryman | Source: Just Security (February 3, 2017) | Subjects: America, Articles & Links, Excerpts, Foreign Policy, International, Politics & Public Policy

The Strange New Pathologies of the World’s First Rich Failed State

Author: Umair Haque | Source: Eudaimonia (January 25, 2018) | Subjects: America, Articles & Links, Excerpts, International, Life & Society, Sociology | Anthropology

Corporate Democrats have never advanced their interests—and at least Republicans offer a persuasive story about why they are getting screwed.

Author: Kirk Noden | Source: The Nation (November 17, 2016) | Subjects: America, Articles & Links, Economics | Economy, Excerpts, Politics & Public Policy