A Base Without a Basis
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When your party loses both chambers of Congress, you might spend a day wondering what voters were trying to tell you. Donald Trump spent three days and came up with Stephen Miller. Miller, who replaces Susie Wiles as White House…
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A landslide is a satisfying way to tell a president he’s gone too far. The trouble is what happens the morning after. Donald Trump still runs the executive branch, and the Democrats who swept both chambers of Congress will spend…
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Washington has schools that need more money, a police department stretched for resources and a president who treats the capital like his personal model train set. Donald Trump wants a 250-foot triumphal arch. National Guard troops have become such a…
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The Republican Party has spent years warning Americans about a Democrat it made up. This Democrat is a socialist with a secret soft spot for Sharia law, a fixation on everybody’s pronouns and, somehow, enough time left over to give…
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I’m developing a theory about America’s seemingly indestructible reserves of nonsense. Call it the Thirty Percent Principle: whatever happens, whatever the evidence, a substantial minority will insist reality has gotten the story wrong. The Earth is flat. The moon landing…
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TSA PreCheck used to offer something priceless: the opportunity to walk past other people while feeling slightly better than them. Keeping your shoes on was merely a bonus. But when the PreCheck line stretches beyond regular security, what exactly have…
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Democratic primaries increasingly resemble an audition in which candidates must inspire the base while reassuring everyone that nothing particularly inspiring will happen. Promise affordable housing? Careful. Universal healthcare? Sounds risky. Suggest spending more on Americans and less on another war?…
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Everyone is watching for a blue wave in November. If one arrives, I suspect it will reflect frustration with Trump and his policies more than newfound affection for Democrats. But another blue wave threatens Florida and the South, one that…
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“Liberty for all” is a stirring slogan. For many conservatives, however, it comes with an asterisk: unless you exercise it in ways they dislike. Want to marry someone of the same sex? Express your sexuality? Live openly as a transgender…
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In a classic Seinfeld episode, George Costanza concludes that every decision he has ever made has been wrong. Jerry offers a solution: “If every instinct you have is wrong, then the opposite would have to be right.” President Trump might…
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