Weighing the Risk of a Second Trump Presidency

Re: How Risky Is a Trump Second Term?The real risk lies in not repudiating Jan. 6. If concerted efforts to change official election results through nonjudicial means aren’t decisively rebuked-at the least, with never being elected again-other politicians will try it, and some will succeed. Once we ( Read more... )

Donald Trump and American Justice

Re “Guilty: Jury Convicts Trump on All 34 Counts” (front page, May 31 ( Read more... )

The Health of Our Democracy-and Its VanguardWhile claims of threats to democracy have been overdone-regarding voter-ID laws, for example-this core fact remains: Donald Trump’s efforts to change the 2020 election result through means other than lawsuits threatened our ability to have orderly elections. If that isn’t rebuked with an election loss in ( Read more... )

Donald Trump and the 14th Amendment

Regarding Ruth Marcus’s Dec. 21 op-ed, “The Supreme Court should keep Trump on Colorado’s ballot”The 14th Amendment disqualifies, besides insurrectionists, those who have “given aid or comfort to the enemies” of the United States. The country has many enemies, whom many things might comfort. For example, efforts ( Read more... )

Aid Ukraine, Regardless

Re “Kyiv Walks Fine Line as Fighters Embrace Use of Nazi Symbols” (news article, June 6 ( Read more... )

A Curb on Arms for Ukraine

Re “U.S. Is Reluctant as Ukraine Asks to Upgrade Arms” (front page, Sept. 18 ( Read more... )

Canceled by M.I.T: The Professor’s Talk

Once M.I.T. starts choosing speakers based on their public stances, it becomes responsible for every stance of every speaker it does invite. Isn’t that a bigger risk for M.I.T. than a stance-neutral policy?

On protecting the filibuster

When Democrats were the Senate minority, did they complain that the filibuster unduly empowered the minority? If not, they’ve forfeited that argument.

Seeing Red in America’s Totalitarian Habits

A warning against groupthink is useful. But a warning like Mr. Satter’s, solely against groupthink on the left, is only a warning against the left styled as a defense of liberal norms. Today’s right doesn’t like dissent, either. For many Republican politicians, accepting the election result would have “ ( Read more... )

It’s a matter of squandering democracy, not votesThe purpose of voting is not to tell the state your innermost wishes, which the state has no business asking. The purpose is to make collective decisions. If a candidate definitely can’t win, our collective decision as to that candidate has been made: that’s what “no chance of winning” means. If ( Read more... )