Essays
Wikimedia Commons
Snubbing Ukraine
A Trump-Zelensky Meeting? On Second Thought…

Trump is holding support for Ukraine hostage to his own political interests. Zelensky should resist the pressure—and Congress should step up.

American Ideals and Interests
Is Pompeo’s Rights Commission More or Less Than Meets the Eye?

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s Commission on Unalienable Rights isn’t about rolling back abortion and same-sex marriage, as some critics contend. It’s about resisting the modern trend of conflating civil rights with human rights in the service of parochial political claims.

(Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)
brave new world
Is Globalized Electioneering the New Normal?

Those most fearful of a “world government” are increasingly happy to globalize politics in a different way.

CC0 Public Domain (MaxPixel.net)
Fiction and Faith
A Catholic Novel for a Post-Truth World

What should a religious novel look like in the age of Silicon Valley and Donald Trump? Randy Boyagoda’s riotous satire Original Prin offers an answer.

James Gillray, “Posting to the Election,” 1806 (Art Institute of Chicago)
Procedural Precursors
The Dead End of “More Democracy”

If our democratic system is more “open” than ever before, why are today’s politics so alienating to so many?

(Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Procedural Precursors
Will the Real Populists Please Stand Up—or Perhaps Sit Down and Chill

Populism on the Right has been facilitated by the Left’s obsession with participatory democracy.

John Trumbull, “Declaration of Independence” (1819)
American Ideals and Interests
Human Rights Problems a Commission Won’t Solve

The Trump Administration has cozied up to autocrats and been silent about, if not complicit in, violations of human rights abroad. And now it wants to redefine “unalienable rights”?

© Getty Images
American Ideals and Interests
Moral Responsibility and the National Interest

That we aren’t very good at preventing humanitarian crises is no reason to ignore the moral aspect of foreign policy.

(Art Institute of Chicago)
Countering Corruption
America’s Anti-Kleptocracy Breakthrough

There is unprecedented wind in U.S. anti-kleptocracy sails, thanks to legislation making its way through Congress. America’s reign as a haven for offshore wealth may finally be coming to an end.

Intellectuals and Communism
The Price of Self-Delusion

Paul Robeson, the towering figure of American arts, athletics, and civil rights activism, was also an unapologetic Stalinist. Failing to acknowledge this checkered legacy ultimately does a disservice to the goals he fought for.

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