ArcaMax

America's 249th birthday Friday will be no party. Call it bittersweet at best.

The guns of Gettysburg were stilled on July 4, 1863, after the Union Army whipped Robert E. Lee and Confederates brigades in a raging three-day theater of civil war.

Now somehow, without ever reading it, President Donald Trump tore up the Constitution's clear ...Read more

In a time of tense partisan clashes, Capitol Hill has a trusted leader in Jane L. Campbell, president and CEO of the U.S. Capitol Historical Society.

Campbell's focus is far from skirmishes but rather on the forces and figures that filled the halls of Congress, keeping memory alive in the spirit of Clio, the mythical muse of history whose ...Read more

Scene 1: There I sat in the Senate chamber, waiting for a Republican to decry the use of force against one of their own.

Sen. Alex Padilla, a California Democrat, was knocked to the ground and handcuffed by federal agents in a conference room where Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem promised to "liberate" Los Angeles from "socialists."

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Let me tell you the story of the star-crossed Republican Senate and House of Representatives.

Republicans can't cross the president and can't compromise with Democrats. They are utterly useless as lawmakers, precariously perched on slim majorities.

The Trump Republican plan for the people is etched in black and white in a 1,000-page death ...Read more

On foot and carrying flags, they crossed the Mason-Dixon line -- the old American border between slavery and freedom - walking to Washington, D.C., over the course of three weeks in May.

They canoed across the broad, grand Susquehanna River. They walked more than 300 miles from New York to deliver a peace protest to Congress and the people ...Read more

Let me count the ways.

Donald Trump excels at broadsides against bright places and people that burnish our world.

But now, it's getting personal.

Trump is stealing what I hold dear. I'm not even speaking of press freedom or his suing CBS News, where I loved my first job.

I mean the Library of Congress and the Kennedy Center for the ...Read more

I know what you're thinking. America made a wrong turn with Donald Trump, driving our destiny into darkness.

But there's reason to believe Trump is what we're all about, right from the start: real estate.

Trump, a mogul and dealmaker, aims to acquire Canada, Greenland and Gaza. Are these far-fetched whims? No.

George Washington, descendant ...Read more

Resistance: a watchword for our times.

The state of Wisconsin is showing us how, above all 49 others.

In Washington, a senator and congressman heeded the call.

To inspire us, first Wisconsin stood up to the Trump-Musk blitzkrieg in a state Supreme Court race. Elon Musk spent $20 million to back a right-wing Republican.

That obscene outside...Read more

Scene: walking in Washington at dusk, looking around an old market neighborhood made new again. I'm coming from a book talk, searching the lively sidewalks for the Metro station.

A guy sees my shop bag and asks what book I'm reading. I show him: "Uncharted: How Trump Beat Biden, Harris and the Odds in the Wildest Campaign in History." Chris ...Read more

I'm not Catholic, but the pope's death hit hard, compared to a living president.

Pope Francis, a champion for peace and the poor who crossed borders in his inclusion, showed how it's done, winning hearts all over the world.

Donald Trump showed up at the Vatican funeral wearing a bright blue suit amid a sea of black. The least of his sins.

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Greetings from the eye of the storm.

Is the time right for a second American Revolution? The first broke out 250 Aprils ago in Lexington and Concord.

Let's conjure up Paul Revere's midnight ride in this dark hour.

Our ruler makes the English king, George III, look like a sweet prince. President Donald Trump's brazen revenge spree is ...Read more

The two greatest presidents died in April, 80 years apart, one 80 years ago.

Abraham Lincoln, 56, was slain while enjoying a comedy at Ford's Theatre. After 12 years of a crisis presidency, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was 63 when he died of a stroke in Warm Springs, Georgia, where the waters helped his polio.

Political geniuses who loved to ...Read more

I went down to the demonstration at the Washington Monument, surrounded by a multitude with signs, chants and oh so many causes under the bleak spring sky. In this setting I had a sudden epiphany: Protests are not only to send a message to the ruler golfing in Florida.

No, the point of gathering is to know there are others with you, like you,...Read more