Outside the Beltway

That’s some catch, that Catch-22.

We’re an incredibly divided country but splitting it into two is impossible.

The Democrats are apparently selling their omnibus spending package the wrong way.

Some interesting stories or columns that I’ll never get around to writing full posts on.

Even incredibly abnormal Presidents are Presidents.

David Brooks is the leader in the clubhouse.

What would a reborn GOP look like and who would vote for it?

Free speech is not for everyone.

The similarities are rather obvious. But the differences matter.

The time for sitting on the sidelines is over. Donald Trump cannot be allowed to get away with his usurpation of power, his disdain for the law, or his continued policies that have damaged the country.

A considerable number of Republican have effectively left our party over Donald Trump. Should we go all the way?

David Brooks joins the long line of commenters predicting the GOP’s demise.

The findings are a dispiriting Rorschach test.

The mea culpas and I-told-you-so’s are rather premature.

Thanks apparently to the fact that it remained unwilling to get in line behind the Trumpidians, the conservative owner of The Weekly Standard has shut the magazine down.

There’s a reason President Trump’s Supreme Court picks are “normal” in a way his national security and economic teams are not.

Old-fashioned notions of journalistic neutrality are chafing young reporters in the Age of Trump.

A Constitutional coup d’etat is not the way to solve the Donald Trump problem.

It is Trump’s party now. Impeachment is not coming.

David Brooks thinks American politics “Could get ugly” before the ship gets righted.

David Brooks has articulated a frustration many of us share.

Donald Trump just keeps leading in the polls, and Republicans keep arguing that it can’t last.

We’re down to debating whether bigots should have to sell cakes to gay people.

There’s more to life than politics. Unfortunately, there are many Americans who don’t seem to recognize that fact.

Trying to make some sense out of a week of outrage.

The false choice that is rampant in drug warrior thinking is the main problem when it comes to good policy.

The latest news on the marijuana legalization front has led David Brooks and others to go into a completely pathetic panic.

David Brooks thinks that the problem with American Government is that the Presidency isn’t strong enough.

David Brooks warns that failing to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill “could be a tragedy for the country and political suicide for Republicans.”

The events of the last week in Egypt raise a whole host of questions.

David Brooks has an idea that only David Brooks could love.

For the New Year, how about challenging your ideas just a little bit?

Obsessive media coverage makes us believe mass shootings are far more common than they actually are.

David Brooks tries to “describe what being a moderate means” in a way that most Americans would find puzzling.

Whether Mitt Romney wins or loses, the GOP needs to evolve or be doomed to minority party status.

In Rick Santorum’s brand of conservatism, no smart people need apply.

The GOP claims to be a party that favors limited government, but its foreign policy positions reveal this to be little more than a lie.

Alex Pareene’s quip that “Aaron Sorkin is why people hate liberals” has gone viral.

David Brooks is wistful for the noblesse oblige of the elites of yore.

The GOP Establishment is in crisis, but it has nobody to blame but itself.

David Brooks points out that, despite the mythology of America as a land of rugged individuals and Europe as a socialist experiment gone wrong, the amount of social welfare spending is roughly the same.

The Republican candidates for President are blurring what should be a pretty clear line.

Life, it turns out, isn’t fair.

By looking only in one direction, Occupy Wall Street is missing the big picture.

Mitt Romney is once again the clear frontrunner for the Republican nomination.

America is discovering that throwing money at an industry in the hope it will create jobs doesn’t work.

David Brooks is mad as hell and he’s not gonna take it anymore.