Forty years ago, I watched awestruck as Ronald Reagan moved into the White House amid pageantry that was 180 degrees different from Joe Biden's subdued arrival.

California's former governor, an upbeat dreamer, always envisioned America as a "shining city on a hill." Biden was inaugurated in a city that depressingly resembled an armed camp — ...Read more

I wore my mother’s pearls on Wednesday.

They were not perfectly round or flawless, lustrous or large. They were simply the best I could afford when I gave them to her one Mother’s Day many years ago.

Since her death, they lay in my jewelry box, waiting for the perfect moment to make their debut. There could have been no better occasion ...Read more

No thanks to us, but it's safe to exhale, Floridians.

On Election Day, Florida may have turned crimson for President Donald Trump, but the state won't have to wait long following Wednesday's historic inauguration to benefit from President Joe Biden's policies.

Democrat Biden has promised to urgently take action to stem the unfettered spread of...Read more

In one of his last acts as president Donald J. Trump again exercised his constitutional authority to "grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States" in an irresponsible and offensive way — fortunately for the last time.

Trump has been a uniquely unprincipled president. But the way he has used the pardon power to benefit ...Read more

President Donald Trump left the White House with a clear, early verdict on his presidency: a devastating low 29% approval rating. Plummeting popularity and the Jan. 6 insurrection freed the greater public, pundits and the press to excoriate the president as he left office. Though journalists often pen the first draft of history, their collective...Read more

As America closes the chapter on the Trump era, millions across the nation are breathing a collective sigh of relief. The incessant barrage of headlines fixating on the one-term, twice-impeached president’s inflammatory words, tweets and policies have exacted a heavy toll.

American Muslims, in particular, won’t soon forget that four years ...Read more

Melania Trump never found her voice as first lady. For four years, she could not distinguish herself as anything other than Donald Trump’s wife.

Like her husband, she didn’t care for White House traditions. She performed her duties, including decorating for Christmas, begrudgingly. She promoted her own initiative, “Be Best,” ...Read more

Donald Trump will be remembered as the worst president in American history. His legacy includes: overseeing the most corrupt administration in American history; enabling the grandest handover of policymaking to corporations of all time; exhibiting the most overt and vicious racism and anti-immigrant xenophobia of any administration in modern ...Read more

Joseph R. Biden Jr. arrived in the White House Wednesday thanks to two unappreciated assets: He is 78 years old, and he has been a politician for more than 50 years. Those qualifications may be his hidden superpowers.

Decades as a Washington insider aren’t something politicians normally boast about these days, but Biden has turned that logic ...Read more

I'm taking a knee for America.

After Jan. 6, when a mob incited by President Donald Trump — that included radical right-wing groups such as the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and adherents of QAnon — climbed walls, fought police and broke windows and doors to invade and attack the U.S. Capitol, leading to the deaths of five people, I'm taking a ...Read more

Cherished beliefs can desert us in an instant.

On Jan. 5, we lived in a country of strong if slightly fraying democratic institutions with a flawless history of peacefully transferring power from one president to the next.

One day later, it all came crashing down.

We were, suddenly, a nation not just capable of violent insurrection but in the...Read more

President Joe Biden has proposed a nationwide $15 minimum wage as part of his so-called “American Rescue Plan.” Talk about bad timing: Raising labor prices on businesses that are struggling to stay afloat is like throwing them a load of bricks instead of a life preserver.

State and local governments raising their minimum wages is one thing,...Read more

Donald Trump's presidency has baffled the majority of Americans for four years. What should we make of decisive Christian support for an American politician whose life and priorities are fundamentally anti-Christian? Why would elected members of any party support legal maneuvers that would undermine American democracy? How could insurrection ...Read more

Some confusion about COVID-19 vaccinations — how to get one, where to sign up, etc. — was inevitable, given the speed of the rollout and uncertainty about how many doses might be available from week to week. It's the largest inoculation campaign in U.S. history, and data about availability change by the day if not the hour.

But the chaos ...Read more

The theme of Joe Biden’s inaugural address was that we must bring America together as a prerequisite to defeat the COVID-19 pandemic, revive the economy, confront climate change, move toward racial justice and accomplish so many other big things.

“This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge,” said Biden. “And unity is the path ...Read more

It was a thing of beauty: a light blue, shining sky, a magnificent hymn, a powerful benediction, poetry, patriotic music and a speech in which President Joseph Biden called first and foremost for national unity, mentioning along the way such things as love, liberty, honor and truth. Can he help provide this unity? We don’t know yet, but his ...Read more

Has an Inauguration Day ever looked more like America?

The racial and ethnic and gender diversity: From Kamala Harris, a Black woman of South Asian descent, being sworn in by Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, to Jennifer Lopez addressing the crowd in Spanish after singing “This Land is My Land.”

The ...Read more

You know, when it comes right down to it, it's been a fast four years.

It feels like just a few months ago that we were lied to about the size of the crowd on the National Mall to celebrate Donald Trump's inauguration.

And it feels like just months ago that people from Muslim-majority countries with valid visas were barred entry to the U.S., ...Read more

“The American carnage stops right here, right now.”

— Donald Trump, Jan. 20, 2017

Promise made, promise to be kept ... by the next guy.

Joe Biden became the 46th president of the United States at 11:48 a.m. on Wednesday, 12 minutes before the time spelled out in a U.S. Constitution that was mutilated by his predecessor but still stands....Read more

Joe Biden began his presidency Wednesday with an inaugural address that hit all the right notes. Pledging to heal a nation more deeply divided than at any point since the Vietnam War — if not the Civil War — he reaffirmed his campaign promises to be a leader for all Americans.

Americans can, for one day, breathe a sigh of relief that the ...Read more