It was surprising how President Obama’s State of the Union speech went down. Immediately afterwards, television pundits offered clashing descriptions: prosaic, bread and butter, Clinton-like, an extension of the liberal agenda outlined in the Inaugural Address, uplifting, aggressive, and so on.  More than many Presidents, Obama has become a lighthouse and a lightning rod at…

When several Republican leaders accused President Obama of aiming to destroy the Republican Party, a bright light went on. The reactionary right may have tossed itself into the dustbin of history already.  Let’s indulge in the hope that this is true. Progressives were dragged kicking and screaming in the wake of the Reagan revolution. Realists…

If we trace back the accepted opinion that Congress is broken, a turning point came right after President Obama’s first inauguration when Sen. Mitch McConnell, speaking for all Republicans, it seems, said that his mission was to make Obama a one-term president.  The intractable divisions that made the fiscal cliff a nightmare – and a…

In the wake of the Newtown tragedy, a minority issue has come before the majority.  In a democracy the majority passes the laws. In a democracy dedicated to justice, the majority is careful when passing these laws to protect the rights of the minority.  Gun control, now as in the past, defies democratic rule. An…

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