Politics
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Thomas Black: We need to learn to love the local data center
The cost and time for building data centers just increased after a blue tsunami swept Democrats into positions that had been Republican strongholds for decades, such as the governor’s offices in Texas and Kansas. The pushback against data centers was definitely on the ballot, and the message was loud and clear: “We don’t want these noisy ...Read more
Editorial: Accountability should be an imperative for new Congress
Last week’s tidal wave election was both an embrace of Democrats and a firm, widespread rejection of Trumpism and MAGA.
Thankfully, Donald Trump himself is not contesting the results, as he had threatened to do, perhaps a product of just how acutely he’s been rebuffed by the American public.
When the 120th Congress convenes on Jan. 3 under...Read more
Allison Schrager: The AI boom has a fertility problem
The world’s advanced economies could be facing a slow-moving train wreck that they appear powerless to stop. We are no longer producing enough babies.
The fertility rates in many European and East Asian countries along with the U.S. are on an alarming trajectory. How alarming? Demographics may become nearly as big a deal for the U.S. as ...Read more
Commentary: Fear politics lost. Voters chose a different future
Fear is the easiest message in American politics. It is cheap to produce, quick to spread, and usually reliable on Election Day.
For years, this fearfulness has told Americans that the person next door is the enemy. On Tuesday, a great many of them stopped listening. In places almost nobody expected, voters turned away from candidates who vowed...Read more
LZ Granderson: Black women are once again showing the Democratic Party the way forward
The new Broadway musical "Wanted," opening this month in New York, is inspired by the true story of two fair-skinned Black women who passed for white during the Jim Crow era. And just as last year's Oscar darling "Sinners" featured the Smokestack twins — a pair of antiheroes who robbed the unjust to survive in 1930s America — "Wanted" ...Read more
Anita Chabria: Democrats gear up for investigations, while Republicans panic
In the wake of President Donald Trump’s historic, humiliating, crushing midterm trouncing, his most loyal followers are doing what could reasonably be expected from such a fine, upstanding bunch — variously jumping ship, backstabbing and doubling down on sycophancy and lies.
With dizzying speed, the Trump era has been upended by this ...Read more
Editorial: Israel's next government should make peace a priority
With coalition-haggling just getting underway, it may be days or weeks before the shape of Israel’s next government becomes clear. But one thing is already obvious: Peace with the Palestinians won’t be its priority. The U.S. and its partners shouldn’t let it become an afterthought.
Ahead of last month's record-setting election, support ...Read more
Andreas Kluth: US allies are afraid, very afraid, of those American F-35s
Countries from North America to Europe and East Asia know that trying to “de-couple” from this powerful but predatory nation would be ruinously expensive, if not futile; but also, for the sake of their security and sovereignty, that they at least need to “de-risk.” But is this even possible?
For years, that predatory nation was ...Read more
Editorial: How Wes Moore should use the mandate voters gave him
Marylanders have given Gov. Wes Moore another four years and a striking vote of confidence. With roughly 63% of the vote, Moore and Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller have won a decisive reelection victory. The margin is more than a political triumph. It is a renewed responsibility to deliver for the people who supported them and for those who did not.
A ...Read more
Commentary: Skepticism isn't cynicism. The diet wars show the difference
This year Americans got two opposite sets of instructions for the same dinner plate. Many of us responded the way we now respond to almost everything: we picked a team.
In January, the Department of Health and Human Services released new federal dietary guidelines built around red meat and full-fat dairy. Less than three months later, the ...Read more
Marc Champion: US allies need a plan for a lame-duck Trump
Conventional wisdom has it that after President Donald Trump suffered a stinging rebuke from American voters, losing both houses of Congress, he’s now all the more likely to lash out via foreign policy — the one area where his power remains undiluted.
That has Ukrainians fretting (and Russia’s state-controlled media speculating) that ...Read more
Commentary: We need more mentor teachers of color
In the decade following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, tens of thousands of Black teachers and school leaders lost their jobs, as white school boards integrated student bodies but closed Black schools and froze out Black educators. The repercussions of that purge are felt to this day, as the latest civil ...Read more
Editorial: Democrats, don't obsess over Epstein. Remember why voters handed you power
After Democrats’ midterm sweep that gave them control of the House and Senate, the investigation into the Epstein files is likely to receive new attention.
That’s welcome. The Epstein victims have gotten no real justice under a Trump administration that obfuscated rather than releasing all the documents. But Democrats cannot afford to ...Read more
Bill Dudley: The AI boom may be sowing seeds of another financial crisis
The unprecedented investment boom to build out the infrastructure for artificial intelligence is projected to reach more than $10 trillion, if all current plans are realized. The money is coming from many sources, including corporate cash flows, public equity and debt issuance, private debt issuance, off-balance sheet lease obligations and ...Read more
Gustavo Arellano: L.A. voters went bold by choosing Raman as mayor. Let's hope she stays bold
Bold.
That's what I initially thought when a political novice named Nithya Raman upset an incumbent in 2020 to become the first democratic socialist elected to the Los Angeles City Council.
That's what I felt when Raman weathered well-funded challengers and loudmouth opponents to win reelection outright in the 2024 primary, despite ...Read more
Commentary: A reckoning is coming for the corruption and brutality of Trumpism
Congrats, America. You didn’t blow it.
Lots of people have a story about election night 2016. Mine is that as a center-left opinion journalist at a big national newspaper, I was pre-writing a joint column with a libertarian conservative colleague who couldn’t stand Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. We both expected her to win.
Late that ...Read more
Commentary: 'Religion in politics' is loving one's neighbor, not waging culture war
For almost four decades, since the advent of the Moral Majority in 1979, “religion in politics” has been synonymous with white Christian nationalism and culture war. This week, however, as the most expensive election cycle (reportedly $13 billion) came to an end, it became clear that the American public has finally questioned the morality of...Read more
Commentary: AI is coming for the economists in the White House
The AI debate, which economists have been having for years in various contexts, has come for the profession itself. Jason Furman, chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Barack Obama and now a professor at Harvard, recently said that if he were running the CEA today, he would “somewhat regretfully and sadly” use current AI ...Read more
Mary Ellen Klas: Can we please end these gerrymandering wars now?
Tuesday’s political earthquake upended the balance of power not only in Washington, but also in state capitols. Democrats now control both the governor’s offices and the state legislatures of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, Michigan, Nevada and Minnesota. They flipped the governor’s office in Texas, Georgia, Ohio and Iowa. And they broke...Read more
Editorial: Florida voters send mixed messages, but the constant is change
Waking up the morning after a big election is frequently an unsettling experience. There’s the vague sensation that something has changed, but it takes a while to get your head around what that “something” actually was.
And no matter where you fall on the political spectrum, a lot changed Tuesday night. It will take time — and patience ...Read more
















































