Politics
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Lisa Jarvis: Ibogaine hype is outpacing the science
The hype surrounding the psychedelic drug ibogaine reached a fever pitch in April, when President Donald Trump talked up its potential at a White House event promoting increased access to psychedelics. Ibogaine, which comes from the root of a West African shrub, has long been used for ceremonial and spiritual purposes. Now, for the first time, ...Read more
Editorial: Taxing artificial intelligence would be a big mistake
Artificial intelligence might be the most transformative technology ever devised. Exactly how its effects will work through the economy is impossible to say, but serious disruption of one kind or another seems likely. Millions of jobs — in the end, maybe most jobs — could radically change, and many will disappear entirely.
How should ...Read more
David Mills: Report on America from a townie bar
“A whole bunch of everything for both, especially going wrong,” said a friend who didn’t want to be named, and declined to give examples. I had gone to our local place and asked people to name one thing they think is going right in America and one thing going wrong.
She views the world from a resigned distance, I think, and doesn’t see ...Read more
David M. Drucker: Money can't buy you voters' love
No amount of advertising money can sell a bad product — or at least, a product that consumers have determined they don’t want (see: New Coke). This time-tested business principle also applies to American politics.
That’s helpful to remember as midterm elections proceed.
The Democratic and Republican parties, their candidates and their ...Read more
Commentary: Trump's priorities are revenge and posing
A wise man — possibly Winston Churchill — once said, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” And if he’d lived long enough to see President Donald Trump in office, he might have added, “Especially if you can turn it into a real estate project.”
In the aftermath of the chaos at the White House Correspondents’ dinner, Trump was ...Read more
Abby McCloskey: Conservatism could save America. The small-c kind
Conservatism is in decline. True, it’s not dead — in 2025, a larger share of Americans described themselves as conservative (35%) than liberal (28%) — but this seven-point difference is the smallest Gallup has measured since 1992.
This is bad news for American politics. As a philosophy, conservatism possesses the key virtue that’s ...Read more
Allison Schrager: AI may be the US economy's only hope
If you take the long view, America’s economic outlook is pretty bleak. Like a lot of rich countries, it is overwhelmed by debt it has no plans to reduce. Even more troubling is its aging population, which will reduce growth and leave fewer people to pay all that debt.
There is only one hope: a sudden increase in productivity that will boost ...Read more
Clive Crook: America's broken politics are dragging it down a fiscal black hole
Few any longer dispute that America’s public debt is growing unsustainably and that, sooner or later, the task of reining it in will be unavoidable. Oddly, this presumption of inevitability has bred a kind of complacency. In the end, whether we like it or not, the problem will have to be solved. Therefore, it will be solved. So what’s the ...Read more
Editorial: A dose of tough medicine that the nation needs
In one respect, the soaring national debt is a lot like the weather. Everybody complains about it, but nobody does anything about it.
Nobody, that is, but Sen. Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican.
Eight years ago, Sen. Paul introduced his “Penny Plan Balanced Budget,” an effort to balance the federal books within five years. Under his ...Read more
Commentary: Supreme Court's decision against Voting Rights Act will be devastating
The Supreme Court has again dealt a devastating blow to voting equality in the United States.
On Wednesday, in Louisiana v. Callais, six justices effectively nullified a 1982 federal statute that prohibits states from running or establishing election systems, such as election districts, that have a discriminatory effect against voters of color....Read more
Editorial: Trying to frame Comey, again -- Seashells indictment is a laughable charge
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is pleasing President Donald Trump by supporting a ridiculous indictment of former FBI Director James Comey over a benign photo.
Maybe Blanche thinks this foolishness will prevent him from being 86ed like Pam Bondi was, but even she didn’t try to sell a case of some seashells by the seashore. Blanche is ...Read more
Editorial: American blockade ramps up the pressure on Iran
Iran is again playing the four-corners stall game with its latest peace proposal — a sign that American leverage is paying off. President Donald Trump and the United States should continue to put maximum pressure on the regime to exacerbate the Iranian economy’s free-fall.
News outlets reported this week that Trump had rejected an offer ...Read more
Editorial: Why the Supreme Court's Voting Rights Act ruling matters
The Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, has struck down Louisiana’s newly created majority-Black congressional district, narrowing the scope of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The ruling is consequential not only for Louisiana but for how the nation understands representation, race and the future of redistricting.
At its core, ...Read more
Editorial: Asking taxpayers to foot Trump ballroom bill is a huge misstep
Less than 48 hours after an attempt on President Donald Trump’s life, some Republicans in Congress asked that the president’s proposed ballroom, now with a price tag of $400 million, be paid for with tax dollars instead of private donations as a national security need.
Both funding sources are ridiculous, but putting the burden squarely on ...Read more
Jackie Calmes: Americans aren't buying Trump's schtick anymore
The British monarch came before Congress to jointly celebrate the 250th anniversary of the former American colonies throwing off his "five-times-great-grandfather" to become the independent United States. But the speech by King Charles III was enough to make Americans want to swap their current president, a wannabe king, for the real thing again...Read more
Commentary: Politics has come to work, once an apolitical space
A colleague recently emailed me a picture of a seemingly political gesture that was roiling her office and asked me what I thought. The picture was of a 10-by-3-inch sticker, openly affixed to an employee’s desk, stating “Make America Blue Collar Again” in big red, white and blue block letters.
Her company is tucked away in a small, ...Read more
Editorial: King Charles gets a W
Most Americans think of the Bill of Rights as a bespoke 1789 creation for a nation that was, in the signature “Hamilton” lyric of Lin-Manuel Miranda, “young, scrappy and hungry.”
Not so fast, said the great-great-great-great-great grandson of King George III before the U.S. Congress on Tuesday.
King Charles III knew his audience. “...Read more
Trudy Rubin: King Charles III subtly reminds Congress about the importance of checks on kingly power
Almost 250 years after the American Revolution, it took a visiting British monarch to remind Congress what the rebellion stood for.
On his first state visit as king, Charles III didn’t pull any punches, although his Tuesday speech to a joint session of Congress was delivered in soothing British tones with gentle humor and dry understatement. ...Read more
Stephen L. Carter: Free speech means Kimmel has the right to ridicule you
Here’s one of those remarkable coincidences: Immediately after the president and first lady called for late-night host Jimmy Kimmel to be kicked off ABC’s air after he made a cruel joke at their expense, the entirely independent investigators over at the Federal Communications Commission, in an entirely unrelated move, have decided that it ...Read more
Commentary: Indiana is taking action on foreign influence
Indiana has shown the nation how to protect citizens from foreign adversaries at the state level.
This leadership follows a congressional report showing foreign adversaries are actively influencing American academia — shining a spotlight on Indiana and Purdue University, in particular, as both a model for reform and a case study in risk.
The...Read more




















































