Columns, pieces and posts
Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio isn’t running for re-election in 2022. This is not good. He is a rightly respected figure. He tries to advance serious legislation. He doesn’t spend all his time talking on television. He cheerily returned my call Wednesday from “the beautiful Russell Office Building.” He thinks his office was once that […]
So it ended, so it begins. We ought to give ourselves a moment this weekend to take pleasure in the end of a strange, grinding era and rejoice in the continuance of something we had blithely taken for granted: the peaceful transfer of presidential power. That jewel in our crown had been there a long […]
Liz Cheney’s was a moment of real stature. Addressing the issue of impeachment, the third-ranking member of the Republican leadership said, of the events of Jan. 6: “The president of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack. Everything that followed was his doing. None of this […]
How do we deal with all that has happened? We remember who we are. We are a great nation and a strong one; we have, since our beginning, been a miracle in the political history of man. We have brought much good. We are also in trouble, no point not admitting it. We regain our […]
You have to go into this year with dreams, there’s no other way to do it. We’re still in an epic struggle, and it will be a while before things settle down into some approximation of normal. Dreams are how we got through 2020, or maybe not dreams precisely but a picture you kept in […]
This feature is powered by text-to-speech technology. Want to see it on more articles? Give your feedback below or email audiofeedback@wsj.com. Twenty twenty defies summation. All of us tried; no words ever seemed to capture the whole. But three things are true: You’ll tell your grandchildren about this year, you’ll never forget this year, and […]
Who’s that battered old man making his way down shuttered streets, facemask hanging from an ear, IV pole dragging at his side. A poignant figure. Didn’t he used to be someone? But wait, look. He’s not walking, he’s marching. Like he’s got his old strut back. As if he just remembered who he is. That […]
I want to stick with Margaret Chase Smith this week, in part because I can’t get my mind off her and in part because we have a new Congress coming in, the 117th, to be sworn in on Jan. 3, and its members could benefit from Smith’s rules of the road. She was the first […]
History can sometimes help us through current moments by showing what’s needed and providing inspiration. This year marks the 70th anniversary of a great act by a great lady. Margaret Chase Smith was a U.S. representative from 1940-49 and a senator from 1949-73. Her name is always followed by “the first”—the first woman to serve […]
It’s been a fairly gruesome year—pandemic, lockdowns, economic woe, death and illness. We’ve done a column in past years asking friends and acquaintances what they’re thankful for. This year we emailed a dozen people whom we respect and who know a lot, asking what they’d seen, experienced or realized this annus horribilis that left them […]