Recent Politics Commentaries

Trump and the First Amendment – Conclusion
Trump has been banned from all social media. That’s good news, right? Embed from Getty Images Gone is the misinformation, false conspiracy theories, lies, bigotry and personal attacks. Perhaps, more importantly, gone is the media’s Fugitive-like obsession, (well, not completely), in covering every tweet, twitch and tongue lashing coming from his chubby fingers. But… …what about Trump’s First Amendment rights...
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March 22, 2021
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Trump and the First Amendment – Part 1
Donald Trump has been banned by social media. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Amazon web services, Snapchat, Reddit, Twitch, Liquid Web and Shopify have all banned the ex-president from tweeting posting, chatting and twitching his rants and lies. Many of his staunchest supporters are banned, as well, including Steve Bannon and Rudy Giuliani. Twitter also banned the MyPillow guy Mark Lindell...
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March 19, 2021
The Darkness
“It is written I should be loyal to the nightmare of my choice.” – Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness The poison that is Donald Trump has so deeply infected followers that they forcefully speak out against any unfaithful Republican who dares speak against him much less hold him accountable for the attack on the Capitol. Embed from Getty Images Here’s...
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February 19, 2021
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On This Presidents’ Day: A Truism and a Warning
With Saturday’s verdict by the Senate to acquit former President Donald Trump of inciting the attack on the Capitol, it’s more evident than ever that the Republican Party is on a ventilator and they are — for the foreseeable future — likely to willfully remain in a Trump coma. Any additional words I might use to describe a party that...
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February 15, 2021
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I Speak for the Preservation of the Union
“A nation which has forgotten the quality of courage which in the past has been brought to public life is not as likely to insist upon or reward that quality in its chosen leaders today…” – Senator John F. Kennedy, Profiles in Courage In the first chapter of Kennedy’s book he writes, “… a member of the [President’s] Cabinet had...
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February 12, 2021
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It’s Time
“…to live with integrity, it is sometimes necessary to take that difficult step – to get involved – to fight openly for what one believes to be true and right and good, even when there is risk to oneself.” – Stephen Carter, Integrity Republican Representatives Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, and Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse unquestionably meet that standard. This is...
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February 10, 2021
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Standing at the Alamo of Decency and Democracy
According to folklore, a man approached the Jewish sage Hillel the Elder with a proposal: If he could explain the principles of his faith in a single sentence the man would convert to Judaism. Hillel responded, “What is hateful to thee, do not unto thy fellow man; this is the whole Law the rest is mere commentary.” During the attack...
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February 4, 2021
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Rep. StrangeGreene
“It’s incredibly obvious, isn’t it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual, certainly without any choice. That’s the way your hard-core Commie works.” – Gen. Jack D. Ripper, explaining why he ordered B-52 bombers to attack Russia in Dr. Strangelove. (Updates at bottom) When I first watched Dr. Strangelove – a...
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February 1, 2021
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History Will Record
Among the books in my library is a series from TIME/LIFE entitled, The Decades. In words and images from 1910 to the 1990s, editors have distilled each decade’s most notable events. For example, the ’60s: Vietnam, racism, assassinations, Woodstock, the space program – each volume memorializes the triumphs and tragedies of the American landscape. If the series continues, editors are...
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January 29, 2021
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Mack’s Back
In 16th Century Italy, Niccolò Machiavelli was a nice enough guy until he discovered something. (Don’t let that smile fool you.) Political philosophers believed the most successful government required leaders to be moral, upstanding citizens. However, based on his experience in government, Machiavelli saw things differently. After he was booted out of authority, he wrote a little book entitled The...
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January 27, 2021

Read Some of the Most Recent Articles
The Latest... And Often Greatest
The Supreme Court is Broken. How Do We Fix It?
As distilled from an email update from Michael Waldman, President and CEO of the Brennan Center for Justice. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court struck down...
Leadership as a Moral Act
Britain’s King Charles III spoke to a chamber that, for a moment, set aside party labels—Democrat and Republican—and listened not as factions, but as participants...
Unity is Not a Declaration. It’s a Discipline.
How does a country move from argument to action? The shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner is not an isolated event. It is part...
When the Line No Longer Holds
There are moments when events reveal more than they intend. What unfolded Saturday at the Washington Hilton was not simply an isolated act. It was...
How High Can Leadership Rise?
What is power accountable to when it no longer accepts limits? We have seen what happens when power turns inward—when it begins to believe it...
The Burden of Command
What does leadership require when decisions send others into harm’s way, and uncertainty is shared not just by those in command, but by the nation...