Politics
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Commentary: Democrats, please stop trying to be cool
Spring is in the air, and Democrats are rummaging through the political closet and trying on different looks. When just a little more than a quarter of registered voters have positive views about you, a makeover sounds appealing. But manufactured cool is cringe — and gimmicks won’t save a party that’s forgotten how to be real.
Rebranding ...Read more

Michael Hiltzik: Inside the GOP's secret plan to destroy Medicaid
You may have heard some of our federal lawmakers attest to their respect for Medicaid and its generally low-income enrollment base.
Listen to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on Fox News a couple of weeks ago talking about the need to preserve the state-federal program so it serves "young single mothers down on their fortunes for a moment, ...Read more

Robin Abcarian: The government's pronatalism warps family values
Having grown up in a world where overpopulation was touted as an existential threat, I have trouble wrapping my brain around the idea that humanity is now doomed to extinction because people — well, the right kind of people — are failing to procreate.
But that is precisely the message emanating from a White House in thrall to the Heritage ...Read more

Lynn Schmidt: Call Trump's tariffs whatever you want, but don't call them 'conservative'
There are a lot of things that one could say about President Donald Trump’s tariff policies, but one way you should not describe them is conservative. They represent views opposite from true conservative economists such as the gold standard: Milton Friedman (economics pun intended).
As of April 15, the following tariffs from the second Trump ...Read more

Andreas Kluth: Stop scaring future world leaders off US campuses
Here’s yet another way in which President Donald Trump is making America neither Great Again nor strong, but weaker, and for a long time to come: He’s sabotaging the U.S.-centered transnational intellectual and personal networks that have amplified American power, by breaking the pipeline of future leaders of foreign countries who were ...Read more

Editorial: Political uniformity is bad for democracy
The Democratic National Committee’s ultimatum to activist and vice chair David Hogg — demanding neutrality from party officers during primary elections — highlights the risks of enforcing political conformity.
Hogg, 25, recently unveiled a strategy to spend big on primaries against “ineffective, asleep at the wheel” Democrats, taking...Read more

Commentary: Don't let Elon Musk privatize the Postal Service
The Trump administration has been reviving plans to privatize the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). But many lawmakers don’t like the idea, including some from Trump’s own party.
“We are not going to privatize the Postal Service,” declared U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber, R-Minn., at a March 25 rural letter carriers rally on Capitol Hill. “We rely ...Read more

Commentary: Why nobody cares about horse racing the other 364 days of the year
The one day a year when America thinks about horse racing — Kentucky Derby day — is nearly here. But when the cocktail parties with the horseshoe-tipped swizzle sticks have fizzled out and the Run for the Roses is over, so is any talk about Thoroughbreds.
It would be easy to cite all the evils of horse racing, especially when the face of ...Read more

Commentary: Should America return the Statue of Liberty?
A French politician recently called sarcastically on the United States to return the Statue of Liberty to France, arguing that President Donald Trump’s administration no longer represents the American values of liberty and democracy the statue was given to this country to symbolize.
There’s no way we’re giving back Lady Liberty, but the ...Read more

Editorial: Trump has done plenty for Illinois farm country. But are there storms ahead?
Illinois farmers are busy these days planting corn and soybeans and keeping a watchful eye on storms blowing in — from Washington, D.C.
President Donald Trump’s trade wars have sidelined China and discouraged other important customers of American agriculture, setting the Grain Belt on edge.
At the same time, cutbacks at the U.S. Department...Read more

Editorial: Virginia Giuffre's crusade against Jeffrey Epstein changed how we listen to survivors
Virginia Giuffre, one of Jeffrey Epstein’s most outspoken victims, died by suicide last Friday.
In 2015, Giuffre was the first Epstein victim to go public about the sexual abuse and forced participation in a sex-trafficking ring allegedly led by Epstein and his girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell.
Three years later, Giuffre was featured in “...Read more

Commentary: The frenetic foreign policy of President Donald Trump's first 100 days
The first 100 days of a new U.S. administration are typically thought of as a honeymoon period for the president. It’s a time when the new team makes big promises, tries to accomplish as much as possible before the Washington gridlock kicks back in and sets the overall narrative.
President Donald Trump’s second administration is no ...Read more

Commentary: Is your favorite influencer's opinion bought and sold?
Your addictive doomscrolling on X, TikTok or Instagram may also be the latest nexus for millions of dollars in secret political corruption.
Over the last month, the problem has come into sharp relief. Newly surfaced documents show that more than 500 social media creators were part of a covert electioneering effort by Democratic donors to shape ...Read more

Editorial: The left's hypocrisy on the plight of Gazan civilians
Progressive concern over the plight of civilians in Gaza is directly proportional to how useful it is in attacking Israel.
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Hamas is facing a cash crunch. This has major implications for the terror group’s continued war on Israel. Reduced payments to fighters have made it harder for Hamas to ...Read more

Parmy Olson: AI chatbots want you hooked -- maybe too hooked
AI companions programmed to forge emotional bonds are no longer confined to movie scripts. They are here, operating in a regulatory Wild West.
One app, Botify AI, recently drew scrutiny for featuring avatars of young actors sharing "hot photos" in sexually charged chats. The dating app Grindr, meanwhile, is developing AI boyfriends that can ...Read more

Editorial: Ron Johnson's warped 9/11 history -- Crazy conspiracy theories should not be part of Senate hearing
The senior senator from Wisconsin, Republican Ron Johnson, is posing fresh questions about the deadliest attack on the United States in history, feeding into paranoid and dangerous conspiracy theories. Johnson asks as though they’re open questions: “What actually happened on 9/11? What do we know? What is being covered up?”
In an ...Read more

Trudy Rubin: Trump's Gaza diplomacy has failed. Will he break with Netanyahu and reverse course?
The White House appears to have scant patience with peace talks that don’t produce quick results and an instant photo op.
As President Donald Trump threatens to “walk away” from his efforts to force Ukraine to surrender to Russia, he seems to have already abandoned his grandiose plans for the Mideast. I refer, of course, to his pledge to ...Read more

Commentary: '60 Minutes' exit is just another day at the office
When executive producer Bill Owens resigned from "60 Minutes," he was not forced out by President Donald Trump — at least not directly.
Rather, Owens bristled at increasing editorial oversight by CBS executives and those of its parent company, Paramount Global. His exit is a reminder of longstanding tensions between editorial and corporate ...Read more

Commentary: Want to do something about polarized society? Stop shouting slogans
We have all seen and experienced the intense polarization in today’s society. It is everywhere around us. People seem less and less able to communicate with those on the other end of the political spectrum. Our disagreements go deep, and it is easy to lose patience with others. We can get angry quickly and find ourselves getting defensive in ...Read more

Commentary: TSA isn't perfect, but it's way better than the alternatives
Republican Sens. Mike Lee and Tommy Tuberville recently introduced the Abolish TSA Act of 2025, effectively calling for the privatization of airport security.
Against the backdrop of DOGE and the elimination of longstanding institutions like the Department of Education and the U.S. Postal Service, it appears that if ever there was a time to get...Read more