Outside the Beltway

A moderate Republican almost diagnoses the problem.

A deep dive into why our politics are so broken.

Do last year’s words belong to last year’s language?

Possibly the last child of an American enslaved person has died.

It goes deeper than base names.

President Biden had a meeting with some historians. The horrors.

Who should have the final say on the law of the land?

The implications of modes of interpretation.

How long can the unsustainable be sustained?

The longstanding celebration that become a national holiday last year is being exploited for profit!

The laying out of the case begins.

Who gets to claim Latino heritage?

Very little progress has been made towards racial justice.

The apparently eminent demise of abortion rights has reignited an old debate.

A Black columnist argues that Will Smith set back a whole race.

If this is the best they have, they don’t have a lot

A man most have never heard of is being reassessed more than a half-century after his death.

A too-small step in the right direction.

It’s always a good idea to reread a text before referencing it, especially if you’re a history Ph.D. like Newt Gingrich

Two controversial monuments are gone.

A just verdict—but just a verdict.

A depressing magazine piece argues it is.

A favorite anecdote from Robert Caro’s first masterpiece is likely untrue.

A piece in The Atlantic inspires thoughts.

It does not create better deliberation.

Legislatures and school boards politicize what our kids are taught.

An arrest underscores what the problem isn’t.

New York Times columnists are not a representative sample.

Discussing the filibuster.

That escalated quickly.

It passed the Senate unanimously.

And linkages to broader US politics.

You know, some light weekend thoughts.

A truly bizarre controversy at Chapel Hill.

The latest bogey man is likely not well understood.

It doesn’t work like the movies, Senator.

AOC v. MTG: one of these things is not like the other.

Large chunks of a hackish report were lifted from previous works of Commission members.

A parting shot from the Trump administration.

Disconnected representation in action.

Lots of places in the US don’t make it easy.

Great journalism can result in lousy history.

If we embrace the Founders to justify the present, let’s think about what we are doing.

I couldn’t help myself.

Having failed to prevent or contain it, aggressive stupidity is now washing over us.

General Milley speaks an obvious truth. Will apologists listen?

What has the Supreme Court wrought?

The crowd for DC’s fireworks celebration was small but weird.

The Magnolia State is the last in the nation to have the stars and bars on its state banner.