This is politics in plain English for normal people and the common good.

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The problem with ‘hate’

Whenever there’s a massacre, we heard various and sundry uses of “hate.” Veronica Escobar, who represents El Paso, said there’s a “hate epidemic.” “In this country, we have a gun violence epidemic but we also have a hate epidemic. Until we deal with that hate and until we confront the weak gun laws that we…

Open thread on last night’s debate

Now’s your chance to tell everyone what you think. Key topics: policies, ideology, the party, personality, and media framing. Looking forward to your thoughts! —JS

Hillary’s revenge?

As I write this, I’m watching the second round of the Democratic presidential debates, and my mind is drifting to a video I watched this morning in which Hillary Clinton said fascism is happening. HRC: The demagoguery, the appeal to the crowd, the very clever use of symbols, the intimidation, verbal and physical—this is a…

Too cheeky?

I sparked a teeny-tiny debate Monday. The subject of yesterday’s Editorial Board was nationalism. I made the case that the president, contrary to popular opinion, actually hates nationalism. Nationalism, I said, is about equality. Donald Trump hates equality. Ergo, he hates nationalism. I was being a bit cheeky. Too cheeky? The president is of course…