Our national life is about to change in ways that we can hardly fathom. What’s needed now is the ability to imagine—and be motivated by—the worst-case scenario.

America’s experience in WWII can and should inform our response to the coronavirus.

Will the coronavirus usher in lasting changes to our social safety net and welfare policies? Absent an active political effort, history suggests otherwise.

Coronavirus is Orban’s Reichstag fire.

COVID-19 could accelerate America’s decline as a superpower. But we are not powerless to avert the worst-case scenario.

From 18^th-century Britain to Trump-era America, concerns about geopolitical weakness have gone hand in hand with sexual panic. Rarely do the worst-case scenarios come to pass.

Letting the pandemic disrupt democracies’ regular transfers of power would indeed be a cure far worse than the disease. We must find a way to press on with elections—safely.

Advanced surveillance tech will prove a false hope for politicians worldwide—as it already has for China’s authoritarian leaders.

How a nation that loved ruins was itself reduced to rubble—and in its own ashes discovered new, impossible ideals.

A German immigrant loves America, hates U.S. politics, and pines for his first homeland. On a porch in Riverdale (North Bronx), he takes comfort in the bonds of family and community, even as a virus closes in.