Columns, pieces and posts
A thought today about complexity and politics. The American people right now are not in a mood to trust any political plan, proposal or policy that seems complicated—highly involved, technical, full of phased-in elements and glide paths and Part C’s. They are against complexity not because they don’t think life is complex. They know it’s […]
Something’s happening. I have a feeling we’re at some new beginning, that a big breakup’s coming, and that though it isn’t and will not be immediately apparent, we’ll someday look back on this era as the time when a shift began. All my adult life, people have been saying that the two-party system is ending, […]
“The first note was clear and absolutely certain. There was no question or stumbling in this bugle. It swept across the quadrangle positively, held a fraction of a second longer than most buglers hold it. Held long like the length of time, stretching away from weary day to weary day. . . . This is […]
What was missing in the president’s approach the other night was the expression, or suggestion, of context. The context was a crisis that had gone unanswered as it has built, the perceived detachment of the political elite from people on the ground, and a new distance between the president and his traditional supporters. The president […]
What’s behind the president’s, and the Congressional Republicans’, poll drop? All the bad news that’s been noted, from Iraq and Katrina to high spending and immigration. What’s behind the bad decisions made in those areas? Detachment from the ground. Power is distancing. When you’ve been in Congress for a while, or the White House for […]
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP)—Moussaoui said as he was led from the courtroom: “America, you lost.” He clapped his hands. Excuse me, I’m sorry, and I beg your pardon, but the jury’s decision on Moussaoui gives me a very bad feeling. What we witnessed here was not the higher compassion but a dizzy failure of nerve. From […]
The meme is out there: “A thousand days.” That’s how long the Bush administration has in office (or had, to be precise, as of yesterday). To criticize the White House—if the criticism is serious, well-grounded and well-meant—is helpful, and part of a long and good tradition. But allowing philosophical estrangement to leave you wishing the […]
There have been, and apparently will be, personnel changes in the administration. The charmless and much-abused Scott McClellan is out; the focus of Karl Rove’s portfolio has shifted back to hardball politics; Rob Portman to the Office of Management and Budget, etc. These shifts are not precisely cosmetic, but they do not signal Big Change. […]
I love immigrants. That’s not important or relevant, but it’s where I start. I love them so much I often have the impulse to kiss their hands. I am not kidding. I love them because they are brave. They left their country and struggled their way to this one to get a better life. (It’s […]
It has been a week of movement, of comings and goings that have reminded me of the wisdom of a friend, a businessman. He told me, a decade or so ago, that it is important to remember, especially when you have a problem or a particular challenge, that life is not a painting. Life is […]