Recent Trust Commentaries

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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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It’s Time
It was the harshest election in memory. A country divided, split down the middle. Each side believing the other is the enemy. Emotions turn to marches and riots. Each side believing the other is to blame. The man the country had now elected must lower the temperature, turn away from ugly rhetoric and unify. “We are not enemies, but friends....
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November 9, 2020
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How Do We Restore Trust?
In 2006, I completed a survey entitled, Honesty and Trust in America. While the study took place 14 years ago, the solutions from more than 8,000 Americans are more relevant than ever. “When it comes to grading the level of trustworthiness of various groups that determine the course of the nation,” I began, “congress received the lowest levels of trustworthiness...
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October 28, 2020
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This Fever of Fear
During the Trump presidency, 35 to 40 percent of Americans have been consumed by a fever of fear: fear of immigrants; fear of black and brown Americans; fear of election security. (The only thing Trump has told supporters not to fear is the coronavirus.) However, Trump’s greatest abuse is sowing doubt and distrust; doubt climate science; distrust our intelligence communities...
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October 26, 2020
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Lindsey Graham’s “Defining Moment”
“… And you could use my words against me and you’d be absolutely right.” – Sen. Lindsey Graham, in remarks to Senate colleagues shortly after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. Here’s what the “principled” Senator repeated to The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, at the magazine’s sponsored conference just two years ago: “If an opening comes in the last year...
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September 23, 2020
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Through a Lens, Clearly
“If [the people are] given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.” – Abraham Lincoln Every day this health crisis grows more critical. Every day we hear conflicting information. Every day people are dying for lack of medical support, some of which is sitting in...
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March 25, 2020
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Epilogue
After two weeks of turmoil and rage, what more could possibly happen? We’ve given up the common ground for my ground. We’ve gone from dissent to disrespect; from disrespect to hatred. Before we face the next bitter Division Du Jour, perhaps it’s time for us to consider what we stand for? I believe Judge Brett Kavanaugh is, fundamentally, a good...
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October 8, 2018
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She Said, He Said, They Said
At the end of this commentary, I will ask a question of Republican Senate Judiciary Committee members. After watching several moments of the committee’s hearing with sexual assault victim Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, followed by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, several things stood out. The Obvious – After several weeks of only reading about Dr. Blasey Ford’s allegations, the committee...
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October 1, 2018
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Updates
In Friday’s commentary (Right Message, Wrong Moment), I sided with Serena Williams’s point about a double standard that women are held more accountable for their bad behavior than men. I was wrong. Near the end of this year’s women’s U.S. Open final, Williams was fined $17,000 for three code violations in the finals against Japan’s Naomi Osaka, her first Grand...
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September 17, 2018
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In Treatment
As Mr. Lichtman’s recovery specialist, he asked if I would I apprise his readers as to his health and welfare. As many of you who have followed Jim’s commentaries over the past eighteen months know, he has spent an ungodly amount of time examining and writing about President Trump. It became obvious, to both Jim and treatment specialists at The...
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July 30, 2018

Read Some of the Most Recent Articles
The Latest... And Often Greatest
If It Looks Like a Duck…
Donald Trump has never hidden his disdain for anyone or any institution he believes stands in his way. Near the top of that list is...
A Tale of Two Voices
Two voices, both alike in reach and power, Speak into a divided world. One feeds grievance. The other calls for grace. Influence still carries power....
How Do We Manage Division?
Recently, I found myself returning to a question I’ve asked in different forms for years: what does it actually take to hold a country together...
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...