An outrage was perpetrated against voters in Arizona, and we can't ignore the warning that the disenfranchisement of thousands of its citizens offers our nation.
The conservatives who use “judicial activism” as a battering ram against liberals are the real judicial activists. That explains their opposition to Merrick Garland.
In a span of about twelve hours, Americans got definitive evidence that the Republican Party is in thrall to its most ideologically and tactically extreme forces.
Emerging in the welter of advice to the absent-minded is a technique modeled on crowd-sourcing. Call it crowd recall: We can remember if we stick together.
It has long been a truism among economists that free trade is the ideal. But maybe it's time to consider the harsher lessons of the past fifteen years.
Call me old-fashioned, but I have an elevated view of what politics can be and can achieve, in good political moments and bad. But in the GOP, it's not going well.
The Clinton political dynasty is still alive. The Bush dynasty has been routed. Their contrasting fates, to this point at least, tell us much about our two parties.
There is an imbalance in the argument at the heart of the 2016 presidential campaign that threatens to undercut the Democrats’ chances of holding the White House.
Not all criticism of the president is racially motivated. But a lot of it has been, which is important to note in a campaign marked by appeals to racial resentment.
The conservatism that's dominated the GOP is in crisis. Capitalism has lost its allure among young voters. It would be foolish to ignore New Hampshire's shock waves.
On paper, he’s the potential GOP nominee who scares Democrats the most. In practice, trying to be all things to all Republicans has often thrown Rubio off balance.
If Republicans are engaged in a three-sided civil war, Democrats are having a civilized argument over who has the best theory about how progressive change happens.
Because everything Hillary Clinton does is assumed to be about politics—and not in the best sense of that word—the substance of what she says is usually swept aside.
If the odds against John Kasich's Compassionate Conservatism 2.0 are long, he's a hopeful sort of guy. But he needs to run close in New Hampshire for a shot.
Pope Francis kicked off the Jubilee Year of Mercy with the opening of the Holy Door at St. Peter’s. I started my observance with a brilliant black comedy from HBO.
With venomous voices of the GOP dominating dialogue, President Obama used his final State of the Union message to battle against intolerance, anger, and pessimism.
Only fearlessness will flip the politics of guns. Republicans can't forever embrace an irrational absolutism that leaves the country powerless before carnage.
The Republican presidential race is one of the most fascinating political brawls in years. It’s about to hit full stride, and I can’t resist kibitzing.
The concept of the rule of law helps provide a broader framework that makes sense of the critics and the defenders of the prolife movement after Colorado Springs.
"Metaphysics." The word unexpectedly provided me with new reflections on the deepest meaning of the birth of Jesus and the Incarnation—the seen and the unseen.
The debates we have witnessed have provided an incontestable answer to the question of which party embraces the United States of Now in all of its raucous diversity.
I’d ask a favor from these candidates: Please stop saying how Christian you are unless you show a few signs of understanding the social obligations the word imposes.
Donald's Trump’s call for a religious test for entry to our country has arisen from the ongoing exploitation of anti-Muslim feeling for political purposes.
If Janet Yellen decides to solve the problem of low lending interest by raising rates, does this benefit banks, government, hedge-fund managers, or the rest of us?
Congress needs to show that though voters have given the presidency and control of Congress to different parties, we're capable of being a functional democracy.
It remains to be seen whether a monstrous terrorist attack will shake the trajectory of a presidential campaign that is operating within a logic of its own.
White working-class voters have been key to the GOP coalition. You'd think the party's presidential candidates would want to respond to the crisis they're facing.
It was amazing to hear Republican candidate Chris Christie speak words that should be a central principle of society: "There but for the grace of God go I."
Paul Ryan has always wanted to be several things at once, which makes for a hard balancing act. He knows his faith teaches compassion, but he's also an ideologue.
His withdrawal speech sounded like an announcement speech, and it captured the aching ambivalence of Joe Biden. So why didn’t he run the race he wanted to join?
Trump speaks clearly to a group that sociologist Donald Warren identified in 1976 as “Middle American Radicals,” who think the middle class is seriously neglected.
Standing in that endless, pointless line, I realized, wasn’t communicating our affection for the pope but our acceptance of the authority of the security state.
We won't act unless political parties that block action lose their majorities. Yes, I mean a Republican Party that's aligned itself with the interests of gun makers.
After news of secret visit with Kim Davis, could the affection that Pope Francis generated with his visit to the United States last week vanish in a cloud of smoke?
Given the deep hostility to Obama in the Republican Party, and given the tea party revolt, it’s doubtful that any Republican would have found it easy to deliver.
The American media have discovered that a Catholic church exists beyond the sex abuse and financial scandals. But as others have said: The church is not the pope.
As important as hearing Francis’s words will be paying close attention to whom he chooses to visit while he’s here. In his value system, the last really are first.
According to Catholic discipline, there is only one kind of person who can offer anointing of the sick: a priest. But there aren’t enough priests to go around.
We should take in refugees because it's the right thing to do, because it’s in keeping with who we say we are, and because we remain a nation that can afford it.
Economist Diane Coyle and Pope Francis don’t speak the same language but address the same problem. The “haves” need to recalibrate over-use of the world’s resources.
Francis's decision on annulments did not drop out of the sky. Bishops and priests from almost every part of the world have been calling for such a reform for years.
The run-up to Labor Day brought news on the actions of the National Labor Relations Board and other government agencies to strengthen the rights of workers.
The principal defense of Obama’s stewardship rests on the idea that his realism about what military power can and can’t achieve has recalibrated America's approach.
We are definitely in for another “Second Coming” revival, and Donald Trump is the least of it. The center is under siege all over the democratic world.
No one is more amazed about the buoyancy of his presidential candidacy than Bernie Sanders himself, which only adds to its charm. Now, in some polls, he's surging.
A Republican representative's resolution to “vacate the chair” will likely once again remind John Boehner of the nature of the party caucus over which he presides.
Nothing has changed me as much as being friends with gay people has. The theory, the doctrine, the dogma: it all disappears in the face of friendship and love.
