CONTEMPT—Raw, in-your-face, unapologetic, and morally bankrupt. Every so often, the country reaches a point where character is not an abstraction but a requirement. We’re in one of those moments now. The country’s cynicism level has reached DEFCON 1. You can feel it in the way the culture has shifted. You can see it in how some treat once-trusted institutions with...

While Americans struggle to make ends meet, while school boards face threats for doing their jobs, while democracy itself stands on a knife’s edge, Donald Trump retreats to his private clubs. It’s not that he plays golf—it’s what he walks away from. It’s the fire he leaves raging behind him, the chaos he continues to stoke, and the willful neglect...

“The mob is easily deceived, for it judges by appearances.” Aristotle’s words speak to a dangerous flaw in human nature: how easily fear can be stoked, trust compromised, and institutions dismantled from within. In 1947, amid growing fears of communist influence, President Harry Truman issued an executive order authorizing a “loyalty investigation of every person entering civilian employment” in the...

Among the Super Bowl ads that aired last Sunday, the one that moved me most was sponsored by the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism. While it specifically highlighted attacks against Jews, its message resonates far beyond any group targeted by hate. The ad features Snoop Dogg and Tom Brady trading insults, making its point in a mere 15 seconds. But it...

Let me get this straight: … the Senate will vote to approve a woman with ties to authoritarian leaders, a man who has pushed vaccine conspiracy theories for years, and a man on the bubble who openly plans to fire thousands of career FBI agents who investigated Trump’s role on January 6, and have the White House oversee the agency....

“You tried to destroy Trump; you tried to imprison Trump; you tried to break Trump. He’s not breakable. You couldn’t destroy him, and now he has turned on you.” That’s Trump’s favorite loyal lieutenant, Steve Bannon, from the former president’s first administration. This time around, he’s playing Lady Macbeth who’s role is fluffer to Donald Trump, making sure he feeds...

Donald J. Trump didn’t win the election last night; fear and loathing did. Justice, accountability, honesty, character and democratic values lost. If you repeat a lie often enough, the theory goes, people accept it as truth. That theory has become reality. Last night, a majority of American voters bought into the lie that the 2020 election was stolen, that the...

In the political landscape crafted by Donald Trump, “Truth is dead.” Trump’s domination of fear and panic squarely aimed at his supporters has not only diminished American democracy, but morality, itself. This is not the case with most Americans, only those who have been drawn into his Chautauqua tent of lies, and manipulation. Headline, The Colorado Sun: “I will rescue...

Imagine if Watergate had been more than just a scandal. Imagine if Nixon got away with it. I don’t mean no one finds out; I mean he beats the justice system, and the only people held accountable are his co-conspirators, Republicans who were sucked into the vortex of loyalty, sacrificing their principles to protect a man who manipulated the levers...

The Rockwellesque city of Springfield, Ohio, has recently been thrust into the national spotlight, not for its charm but because of false claims spread on social media that Haitian immigrants have been stealing and eating the pets of their neighbors. Despite a lack of evidence, former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Senator J.D. Vance, have used the claims...