Politics
/ArcaMax

Commentary: Let's learn from 'The Last of Us.' We're not ready for the next outbreak
If you watch HBO’s “The Last of Us,” you see how a pandemic didn’t destroy the world — failure to communicate did. Trust collapsed. Institutions froze. And the people paid the price.
That’s fiction. But it’s also a warning.
In 2025, it’s not a zombie-creating fungus we face — it’s a slow-motion unraveling of America’s ...Read more

Commentary: The power blackout in Spain and Portugal wasn't a fluke. It was the future
At 12:33 p.m. local time on a crystal blue Monday, the system that provides the power essential to the daily lives of 50 million-plus people collapsed. The lights went out from Lisbon to Barcelona; trains stopped, air traffic controllers went offline and hospital workers scrambled to keep patients alive. Two highly modern, eminently civilized ...Read more

Commentary: Thanks to Pete Hegseth, I'm censored more here than in China
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has evicted an anthology I co-edited with philosopher Laura Westra from the U.S. Naval Academy library. I don’t know about Laura, but I’m pleased that they thought some midshipman may want to read “Faces of Environmental Racism,” published initially in 1995. In the 30 years since, we may have poisoned ...Read more
POINT: States should follow New Hampshire in establishing Bitcoin reserves
New Hampshire became the first state this month to authorize a strategic Bitcoin reserve. As the lead sponsor of this groundbreaking legislation, I’m proud that our state continues its tradition of being “First in the Nation” — not just in presidential primaries but also in fiscal innovation.
The legislation allows the state treasurer ...Read more

Editorial: How to cut US drug prices without hurting innovation
The price of Wegovy, Novo Nordisk’s blockbuster weight-loss drug, is $1,349 a month in the U.S.; in Germany, it’s $328. The U.S. price for Keytruda, a cancer treatment, is $191,000 a year; in Japan, it’s $44,000. The U.S. pays three times more for branded prescription drugs, on average, than other rich countries. It certainly looks as ...Read more

Ned Barnett: Professor's 2017 book predicted Trump's extreme policies. Now she has hope
Nancy MacLean, a Duke professor of history and public policy, studies the past, but these days she should also get credit for predicting the future.
MacLean’s 2017 book, “Democracy in Chains,” explored how Libertarian billionaire Charles Koch and others sought to free capitalism from regulation by creating systems that would enable a ...Read more

Commentary: Trade war risk military crises
This week, the U.S. and China reached an initial trade agreement that will, in theory, halt the countries’ slide toward a full-blown trade war.
Yet the dynamics that fueled President Donald Trump’s attempt to single-handedly decouple the world’s two largest economies persist. Absent more vigorous efforts to limit misunderstandings and ...Read more

David M. Drucker: Unpopular democrats can still win the Midterms. Here's why
The Democrats are leaderless; the Democrats have an identity crisis; the Democrats have lousy approval ratings. None of that precludes them from having a successful midterm election in 2026.
Let’s, for a moment, focus on some hard data.
Per a YouGov poll for The Economist conducted May 2-5, American voters view Democrats in Congress quite ...Read more

Commentary: Are liberals destroying America's ideals?
The opening paragraph of the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 wrote, "America is now divided between two opposing forces: woke revolutionaries and those who believe in the ideals of the American Revolution."
What a perfect example of fake news. By taking on the mantle of American values and attacking their opponents as destroying those values...Read more
Commentary: Public broadcasting boosts American democracy
If a society wants to toughen the fabric of its democracy, it’s essential that it nurture a citizenry that can think critically and consume information with a sustained attention span. Conversely, the last thing someone intent on derailing a democracy wants is a thoughtful electorate.
Our Founding Fathers saw the free press as key to the ...Read more

Commentary: My family's archive shows why Palestinians are owed reparations
My father, Jawdat Bseiso, was 23 when everything changed.
As the favorite son of Mahrous Mustafa Bseiso — one of the largest landowners in southern Palestine — he was being groomed to inherit our family’s legacy. My grandfather was a prominent businessman in Beersheba, a thriving Palestinian city where Muslims, Christians and Jews once ...Read more

Editorial: Hollow victory on tariffs: China deal only softens self-inflicted blow
Only in the upside-down world of Donald Trump’s second term can 30% import duties on our largest trading partner be considered a positive sign, with the stock market soaring. So yes, the Trump administration and China announced a deal to lower tariffs. But it’s only slated to last 90 days, and it is merely lowering the tariff rate from an ...Read more

Commentary: On autism and vaccines, there are lies, damned lies and statistics
During an interview in late April with Dr. Phil, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reiterated his appeal to parents on vaccine safety: “We live in a democracy, and part of the responsibility of being a parent is to do your own research.”
The U.S. health secretary has also announced his own investigation, pledging to find an answer to the autism “...Read more

Joe Battenfeld: Democrats' new platform: We're not the party of law and order
It’s official: Democrats have decided to become the party of protecting illegal criminal migrants and gang members – and that is their key to regaining power.
The left elements of the party now control Democrats and they are the ones who could be responsible for destroying the party.
The Democrats are not the party of law and order. They ...Read more

Commentary: The high cost of California's green energy policies
Since the early 2000s, governors and legislators from both parties have signed onto a climate agenda in California that is making energy steadily unaffordable.
Gasoline in California, according to AAA, which tracks national gas prices daily, costs an average of about $4.78, compared with $3.16 nationally. The cost of electricity in the state is...Read more

Anita Chabria: Clearing encampments looks good politically. But criminalizing homelessness is bad policy
Homeless encampments are dirty. And ugly. And seem, to those who venture near them and even to some who live there, unsafe.
They are also — sadly, wrongly — places of last resort for those whose second, third and even fourth chances haven't panned out, sometimes through their own mistakes, sometimes because they're so far down just staying ...Read more

Mark Z. Barabak: Is there a middle ground on immigration? This Republican thinks so
Bob Worsley has solid conservative credentials. He's anti abortion. A fiscal hawk and lifelong member of the Mormon Church. As an Arizona state senator, he won high marks from the National Rifle Association.
These days, however, Worsley is an oddity, an exception, a Republican pushing back against the animating impulses of today's MAGA-fied ...Read more

Commentary: The Trump administration cools off India-Pakistan conflict -- for now
At a time when the administration of President Donald Trump is trying to cement a short-term ceasefire in Ukraine, end the war in Gaza and strike a comprehensive trade deal with China, the last thing it needed was a conflict between two nuclear-armed rivals.
Last week, India and Pakistan, historic adversaries that have fought multiple wars and ...Read more

Editorial: Depression, isolation and substance use all are up. Are Illinois teens OK?
Illinois teens are turning to alcohol and drug use at alarming rates.
New research published May 8 from the University of Illinois finds that alcohol use among Illinois teens is now double the national average, a shocking finding. Other drugs, including cannabis and prescription painkillers, are gaining ground as well.
Are the kids OK? ...Read more

Mihir Sharma: How the US gave India and Pakistan an excuse to stand down
When President Donald Trump announced Saturday that India and Pakistan had agreed to a ceasefire, it surprised most on the subcontinent. The military exchanges that followed a terrorist attack on tourists in Kashmir had only intensified in the days prior. And few outsiders seemed interested in the conflict between the two nuclear-armed nations �...Read more