Politics
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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
Michael Hiltzik: With Trump and GOP on the run, Democrats have a chance to make a new New Deal
As is only proper, the weight of post-election punditry has fallen on the question of the demographics and political impetus of Tuesday's blue wave. But it's not too early to ponder how Democrats should use their new congressional majorities.
Job 1 will have to be calling a halt to the Republican project to dismantle Franklin Roosevelt's New ...Read more
Lorraine Ali: Say his name: Abdul El-Sayed becomes the nation's first Muslim senator
When it came to which candidate weathered the most overtly racist attacks, in a midterm election full of the most overtly racist campaign attacks in modern memory, there was no contest.
Michigan’s Democratic Senate nominee, Abdul El-Sayed, was called a “jihadist” by the president. Labeled a representative of “terrible evil” by the ...Read more
Joe Battenfeld: Democratic Party revenge tour is on
Petty, vindictive Democrats celebrated their midterm blue wave by pledging to torture Donald Trump and potentially ride him out of the White House — no matter what the cost to the country.
The Democratic Party revenge tour is on, promising to paralyze the government for the next two years.
If the Democrats are going to follow spiteful Sen.-...Read more
Noah Feldman: Democrats can now fix the Supreme Court without reforming it
The Democrats’ big win in the Senate has major implications for the Supreme Court — and for how they should think about reforming it.
It’s not just that a Democratic Senate will be able to guarantee President Donald Trump won’t get another Supreme Court pick. It’s that control of the Senate should cause Democrats to reconsider the ...Read more
Editorial: Republicans trounced up and down the ballot
Nevada followed the trend Tuesday, as Democrats routed Republicans up and down the state ballot. The domination was deep and widespread.
The results, nationally and statewide, signify widespread displeasure with President Donald Trump and serve as a sharp rebuke of White House policies — Iran, tariffs and overzealous immigration enforcement, ...Read more
Steve Lopez: Trump, who so bitterly divided us, was awful enough to unite us. At least temporarily
The Dodgers lost four straight playoff games to the Milwaukee Brewers in a humiliating end to their season.
But this was worse.
Steve Hilton lost to Xavier Becerra in the race for governor before "Jeopardy" aired.
But this was worse.
President Donald Trump lost early, late and often Tuesday night in the midterm elections.
In contests across...Read more
Commentary: Donald Trump's midterm delusion: Why a red wave turned blue
Donald Trump has always been a master of a singular, alternate-reality art form: claiming total credit for every victory and accepting zero responsibility for any defeat. Following the historic Democratic sweep of both the House and the Senate in the 2026 midterms, the president once again deployed his favorite shield. "I don’t like to ...Read more
Scott Maxwell: Florida proved again it isn't like the rest of America, yet change brewed
A blue tsunami washed over America Tuesday. Yet Florida Republicans found just enough sandbags to safeguard their power in a state that now looks more like a political island than a peninsula.
The sandbags came in the form of a massive campaign-cash advantage and heavily padded voter-registration leads. Thanks to both, Republicans were able to ...Read more
Editorial: Midterms offer a needed lesson for Republicans
The 2026 midterm elections were a political shellacking for Republicans, costing them control of Congress. Yet they may prove to be the best thing that has happened to the modern Republican Party.
For years, Republicans treated President Donald Trump as indispensable: Crossing him, they feared, meant political death, and winning without him ...Read more
Kaitlyn Buss: Will the US Senate satisfy Abdul El-Sayed?
Michigan elected Abdul El-Sayed to a six-year term in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday. Don’t be surprised if he doesn’t finish it.
El-Sayed made waves by winning Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat in the Nov. 3 election, part of a monumental shift in Washington, D.C., and an utter rebuke of President Donald Trump.
But the Senate is not the ...Read more
Jackie Calmes: Your parents' Republican Party isn't coming back
Donald Trump long ago promised Republicans that, with him as their leader, there'd be so many wins, they'd tire of winning. He didn't say the wins ultimately would be Democrats'.
In the wake of a wipeout for the ages, is the Republican Party so tired of Democrats' winning that it will finally quit Trump? Don't count on it. Yet. But that ...Read more
Commentary: Shift the wildfire spending to damage prevention, not just reaction
While a fire may be burning two states away, the smoke still arrives, settling over neighborhoods and dimming skylines. School administrators move recess indoors, and outdoor work slows or stops. And then there are the emergency rooms that receive an influx of patients who suddenly find themselves struggling to breathe.
Families who never see a...Read more
Editorial: Results could help set course for Social Security reform
Tuesday’s election results will determine more than control of the House and Senate for the two years. They will also play an important role in setting a course for addressing the nation’s looming entitlement crisis, particularly when it comes to Social Security.
Ignoring the program’s structural problems — the default setting in D.C. �...Read more
Commentary: Why aren't employers hiring right now?
The economy is growing strongly, so why is nobody hiring?
The latest data show growth hit 3.4% in the third quarter of this year, faster than expected. Yet during that same quarter, the economy only added about 50,000 jobs per month — basically flat in an economy of 330 million people.
Betting markets are forecasting a small uptick: 70,000 ...Read more
Allison Schrager: Permanent WFH is AI's best promise yet
Technology took us out of our homes. It gave us a boss, office politics and an alarm clock — and it was awful. We got used to it; we made it work. Now technology might take those jobs away. But perhaps it will also restore the autonomy and flexibility that once defined work.
From when we were hunter gatherers, farmers, small scale artisans ...Read more
Commentary: Reject the Sand God. Call AI by its true name
President Donald Trump recently signed an executive order telling federal agencies to replace the term "artificial intelligence" with "Super Intelligence." He said the word "artificial" makes the technology sound fake.
Many Americans already treat AI as a “super intelligence” that knows better and that they should confide in. Many already ...Read more
















































