Veterans
Veterans and the Civic Compact
There is a kind of contract that gets signed in this country every year by hundreds of thousands of young people, and almost nobody who hasn’t signed it ever reads the fine print. The contract […]
Year: 2026
Politics
Local Power: Where the Country Actually Changes
Every four years this country has a nervous breakdown over the presidency. We argue, we fund-raise, we yell at our relatives, we vote, and then we spend the next four years either celebrating or grieving […]
Legalese
The Constitution Is Not Poetry: A Citizen’s Reading List
September 17th is Constitution Day in this country. Most people do not know that, which is itself a quiet indictment. We talk about the Constitution constantly. We invoke it in arguments. We accuse other people […]
Opinion
How to Spot a Real Leader: A Four-Pillar Test
Most of the leaders we hand power to in this country are picked the wrong way. We pick them by charisma. We pick them by name recognition. We pick them by who looks the part […]
Opinion
Reading the News Like a Citizen: A Media Literacy Field Guide
There is a difference between consuming news and reading the news. Most Americans do the first. Hardly anyone does the second. Consuming news means letting whatever happens to surface in front of you — on […]
Opinion
Why Outrage Killed the Argument
There used to be a thing in this country called an argument. Two people, often disagreeing strongly, would sit in a room or stand in a parking lot or write back and forth in letters, […]
Opinion
Personal Accountability Before Public Outrage
There is a strange habit that has taken over the way Americans talk about wrongdoing. The moment something terrible happens, the first instinct is not to ask what we should learn from it, but to […]
Politics
The Independent Voter: The Audience Both Parties Forgot
Walk into any room in this country and ask people what party they belong to, and you’ll get one of three answers. Republican. Democrat. Or some version of “I don’t really fit anywhere.” That third […]