There was a time—not very long ago—when public service required sacrifice. In 2006, when President George W. Bush nominated Hank Paulson, then C.E.O. of Goldman Sachs, to be Treasury Secretary, Paulson owned roughly $500 million in Goldman stock. That was not a technical problem. It was a direct conflict. As Treasury Secretary, Paulson could make decisions affecting Goldman Sachs—and therefore...

Three issues converged this past week that show just how deeply the Justice Department has become enmeshed in the interests of Donald Trump, his family, and his political allies. First, Trump agreed to drop his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax records. In return, the Justice Department created a $1.776 billion (the number was...

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 the media: news organizations, comedians, late-night hosts, critics, any voice unwilling to bend to his narrative or gets under his thin skin. Which is why the sudden cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,...

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 answers only to itself. There was a time when presidents understood that authority came with limits. Not just legal limits, but moral ones. They did not see disagreement—especially from moral voices—as something to be attacked...

In moments of national crisis, a nation discovers whether its founding principles are merely words on paper, or values worth defending. As the 150th anniversary of the United States Bill of Rights approached in December 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt wanted the anniversary to do more than commemorate history, he wanted it to remind Americans what they stood for. To...

We toss the word “sacred” around as if it were a mood, something reserved for private faith. But in public life, “sacred” has a harder meaning. It names the few things a free society cannot afford to treat as negotiable. Ken Burns’ The American Revolution includes an episode titled “The Most Sacred Thing.” Even without quoting a line of dialogue,...

In Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken,” a traveler stands at a fork in the woods. The traveler chooses the path “less traveled by” and later says it “made all the difference.” While I once saw it as a high school analogy about life’s choices, I now see as a reminder that every step—small or large—shapes not only who we...

A recent graduation speech by a young philosophy major, Clair Doyle, at Northwestern University in Illinois, began with a deceptively simple question that stopped me in my tracks, and caused me to think: Am I asking the right questions? It’s not the typical question you hear in a commencement address. But it’s the kind we need to be asking, now...

Three U.S. Senators. Three Republicans. All support the Constitution and their conscience: Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, and Rand Paul of Kentucky—have shown that moral conviction and independent judgment can still find a place in public service. Lisa Murkowski has emerged as one of the Senate’s most principled voices. Following the January 6 attack on the U.S....

Two images of the protests taking place in Los Angeles Donald Trump’s words are rarely accidental. His instinct for rhetorical impact—whether blunt force or performative affection—has always served a purpose: to reward loyalty, punish defiance, and bend public will to his own. That contrast was on full display again this week. Amid protests erupting across Los Angeles following sweeping ICE...