Recent Politics Commentaries

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What Lies Ahead
I was all set to post Monday’s commentary Sunday night when I realized that it was another piece reacting to the chaos, and rage surrounding Washington. It was about the country living with a cancer of hate and division that has not been seen in decades. It was about facing the greatest health crisis in 100 years and many individuals...
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January 19, 2021
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This is Not Us as a Democracy – Part 1
The Incitement — There’s an old Russian fable that goes like this… A scorpion asks a frog to carry it across a river on the frog’s back. Afraid of being stung, the frog hesitates. The scorpion argues that if it did that, they’d both drown. The frog considers this sensible and agrees to carry the scorpion. Midway across the river,...
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January 13, 2021
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Who Was Senator Philip Hart and Why is His Example Vitally Important Today?
“This building is dedicated by his colleagues to the memory of Philip A. Hart with affection, respect, and esteem. A man of incorruptible integrity and personal courage strengthened by inner grace and outer gentleness, he elevated politics to a level of purity that will forever be an example to every elected official. He advanced the cause of human justice, promoted...
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January 11, 2021
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Democracy Will Prevail
Salud Carbajal is the U.S. Representative from California’s 24th congressional district. In a phone call late last night from his office in Washington, he gave me this firsthand account. “Due to the Covid virus, most members were in their offices when protestors were marching toward the Capitol. Only those Senators or House members that had a direct role in the...
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January 7, 2021
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Reality Check
With a number of GOP House members planning to challenge the election of Joe Biden on Wednesday, Texas Representative and Republican, Chip Roy has a solution. In a respectful but frank statement, Roy states that newly elected GOP House members elected on the same ballot as President Trump should be subjected to the same scrutiny. “Today, I objected to the...
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January 5, 2021
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Who was Aristides “The Just,” and Why Was He Kicked Out of Athens?
“No good deed goes unpunished.” — Oscar Wilde, Irish poet and playwright Reading about the greatest Greeks in history, I came across Aristides “The Just,” and wondered how a military general and politician came to be recognized for his moral rectitude. Aristides, who lived between 530 – 468 BC, came to prominence as a strategos (general) who led Athens against...
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December 21, 2020
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Democracy Calls on Us
We are living in dangerous times. In his biography of George Washington, Douglas Southall Freeman wrote that President Washington led the country “by directness, by deference and by manifest dedication to duty.” Donald Trump is the polar opposite of Washington in character and duty. Indeed, Washington would be sickened to see that the nation’s capital that bears his name has...
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December 11, 2020
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What Biden, Congress and Journalists Should Do
“It’s good to be the King!”  – Mel Brooks, “History of the World Part I” It’s fifty days before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden. While the Covid-19 virus remains the top priority for both the incoming president and Congress, there are steps that both can take to begin to restore trust in government, protect the interests of Americans, and...
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November 30, 2020
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How Can We Stop the Bleeding?
With Republicans’ utter lack of integrity in cowering to President Trump’s daily recklessness, their blatant irresponsibility in not passing a much-needed stimulus bill to help the very blue-collar families that support the president, and the thousands of supporters marching in streets chanting the same “rigged election” messaging by Trump, each day the country grows more combative. As of November 17,...
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November 18, 2020
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“God Help Us”
“Who’s going to come in behind me? It’s going to be a real ‘yes man.’ And then God help us.” Those alarming words come from former secretary of Defense, Mark Esper, who was fired by Trump in a tweet. In an exclusive interview with the Military Times, the former West Point graduate and Lieutenant Colonel from the Gulf War described...
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November 13, 2020

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...