During the 2001 assault on the World Trade Center, I was trapped in a train under Manhattan for hours. As news of the collapsing towers, the attack on the Pentagon and the crash in Pennsylvania filtered down to the passengers, the conductor kept telling us this tunnel was the safest place we could be. Meanwhile, the tunnels were being searched for explosives.
Ronald Reagan had a vision for the future of the country and an incredible ability to communicate it.
Nothing is free in politics, but there is some question when you pay the price.
That's been a saying of mine for many years, though I may have unconsciously plagiarized it from someone else. I think it applies to Obamacare.
My American Enterprise Institute colleague Norman Ornstein has been shellacking Republicans for trying to undercut the implementation of the Obama health care legislation. He calls it "simply unacceptable, even contemptible."
Why are so many people so desperate to hold onto the idea that America is as racist as it has ever been?
It's no secret that both political parties are struggling to connect with voters. Strategists dream up marketing plans to increase their party's appeal to this constituency or that group. Sometimes they work, and sometimes they don't. But they never establish a deep and lasting connection with voters.
That's because most of what the parties talk about is yesterday's news and is largely irrelevant to the realities of the 21st century.
Can Huma save Anthony Weiner? Why Huma "stands by her man." What is Huma thinking? These and other pseudo questions top our political news these days.
It is becoming increasingly plain that the most formidable obstacle to national progress and global security is the Republican Party -- and specifically the extremist factions that currently dominate the GOP.
Unfortunately, the fall of Rome is a pattern repeated by empires throughout history ... including ours?
A group of libertarians gathered in Las Vegas recently for an event called "FreedomFest." We debated whether America will soon fall, as Rome did.
Historian Carl Richard said that today's America resembles Rome.
Since last November's election there has been a lot of punditry about the fissures and schisms in the Republican Party. The divisions are real, and some of the commentary has been revealing.
Ever since Yosemite National Park won fame for its natural Western splendor, it's gone on many a register of things to see before one dies. It remains a bucket-list favorite, only nowadays there are millions, if not billions, more buckets. The park's crowds have become such that officials there are struggling to find ways to ease the crush of humanity.
We have a president who loves to give campaign speeches to adoring crowds, but who doesn't seem to have much interest in governing.
The Declaration of Independence says nothing about a right to cheap labor, but not everyone has noticed. Companies routinely pay market rates for electricity, real estate and legal services. But many find great injustice in market economics, as applied to wages they must pay to attract unskilled labor.
When asked what makes the world work, any self-respecting right-wing Republican knows the politically correct answer: competition! (With at least one exclamation point.) It is the paramount principle and universal solvent perennially touted by the right to cure whatever ails us -- in the abstract.
MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry -- the same TV commentator who said Americans need to stop raising kids as if they belong to individual families -- had an extraordinary explanation for why the city of Detroit sought to declare bankruptcy last week: not enough government.
Much has been written about adulterous politicians and the public's apparent willingness to look past their infidelity. This lumps very different kinds of cheating into one neat sin, equally applicable to all sneaks. But just as "theft" covers everything from armed bank robbery to lifting a bag of chips, cheating on one's spouse may entail a wide range of misdeeds and gray areas.
The first American Revolution was fought over the simple principle of self-governance. For over 150 years, approximately five generations, the British Crown had practiced “benign neglect” towards the colonies, and the people of America had governed themselves. However, by the mid-1760s, England was asserting control over the colonies and their residents.
The first volume of Charles Moore's authorized biography of Margaret Thatcher, covering her life up to Britain's victory in the Falklands, is out, just weeks after her death. It takes its place among the finest political biographies of all time.
You can get agreement from almost all points on the political spectrum that the worst aspect of our political system is the presidential nomination process. It is perhaps no coincidence that it is the one part of the system not treated in the Constitution.
That's because the Founding Fathers abhorred political parties and hoped that presidents would be selected by something like an elite consensus. But we have political parties, the oldest and third oldest in the world, and they are not going away.
The most memorable scene in Alfred Hitchcock's "North by Northwest" is Eva Marie Saint hanging from the side of Mount Rushmore in a perfectly tailored red suit, sheer stockings and pumps. The character hadn't planned for that situation, but her dress was nonetheless deemed proper, circa 1959, for touring South Dakota's Black Hills. In the previous Chicago and New York City shots, she, Cary Grant and most everyone else wore business or evening attire. No shorts, no flip-flops, not even jeans without rips.
Sixty-four percent of Americans say that it's possible to have an honest discussion about race in America. I would like to believe that, but I am skeptical.
