Democracy
Story Stream
American Nihilism and Hope February 07, 2025
It is widely accepted that America is fundamentally fractured, and there is no shortage of books diagnosing the causes of our wobbling solidarity. Despite this mood of loss, even despair, most of these books maintain the typically American can-do spi...
The Washington Octopus October 22, 2024
The District of Columbia, the capital city and seat of government for the United States, contains a population of roughly 700,000 in a condensed area of sixty square miles. That population has remained steady over the post-war decades as the reach of...
The Plot to Manage Democracy October 16, 2024
What T. S. Eliot said of humankind, that it “cannot bear very much reality,” must be doubly true for Americans. It’s a feature of being a providential nation, protected by two oceans and mostly spared the harsher existence that habituates other socie...
Citizen Nation: An Intimate Look at Students and Teachers October 08, 2024
Feeling down about the state of American politics? Citizen Nation, a four-part documentary series premiering on PBS this week, provides a dose of civic inspiration that will leave you feeling optimistic about the future of our democracy.Produced by t...
Democracy in America: An Introduction September 20, 2024
Democracy in America: what is it? Whatever it is, we know that it is under siege. Barely a moment goes by these days without tocsins sounding about various threats to “our democracy” (I’ll come back to that plural possessive below). It used to be tha...
Searching for Our Plot of Innocence September 18, 2024
I probably took a bullet to the head because of the things that they say about me,” Donald Trump said during his debate with Kamala Harris. “They talk about democracy. I'm a threat to democracy. They're the threat to democracy—with the fake Russia Ru...
Current Threats to Liberal Democracy September 17, 2024
The French Catholic poet, dramatist, and diplomat Paul Claudel once wrote that sometimes we need to look at our watches and ask, “What time is it?” He did not mean this literally. He meant something like “reading the signs of the time.” Certain times...
Never Trumpers Are on a War Footing September 13, 2024
If you want to know where we are as a country, get your hands on a copy of Robert Kagan’s new book, Rebellion. Don’t worry, you won’t even need to crack the spine and open it. Kagan, who married the Queen of Eternal War Victoria Nuland and helped fou...
The Great American Malaise September 11, 2024
An observation. There are few interesting and new political ideas, and few innovative works of imaginative literature. Politics and literature are both on a decline; political and literary genius are increasingly rare. American politics and literatur...
Not a Tough Crowd September 02, 2024
After two hours on the tarmac at LaGuardia Airport, the flight was cancelled and we were deplaned. I had been seated next to a former congresswoman who lost to another incumbent in 2022 as a result of redistricting, after decades in the House of Rep...
