Shortly after Donald Trump was sworn in as the nation’s 45th president, I called my friend Billy Peard, who was working in western Massachusetts as an immigration attorney. Most of his clients were undocumented, and I wanted to get a sense of how people’s fears about the new administration were affecting Billy’s work. This president, […]

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To understand that white supremacy is as harmful to white Americans as it is to nonwhite Americans, you need look no further than the events in Charlottesville, Virginia, this past week. The white supremacists who descended upon the city, while seemingly finding strength in their numbers, appeared to be some of the most fearful, most […]

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Many have heard President Trump’s reaction to the domestic terrorism that occurred in Charlottesville, Virginia on August 12th. Many are also lambasting his reaction, claiming that it lacked sincerity and empathy. Many are enraged about his audacity to compare the white supremacists’ actions to the counter-protesters’. But, one of the most common censures was Trump’s […]

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During the 2008 presidential election, I was a high school student with very high hopes for my country, and was deeply inspired by the candidacy of Senator Obama. I was also naïve about Obama’s potential to be a reconciling figure, a healer of divides. Some ideas die hard; the American belief in the inherent unworthiness […]

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I spent most of last Thursday night at my friends’ apartment, recording an episode for their podcast. I left around 11 p.m., and immediately called my friend James, whom I rightly suspected had been refreshing his Twitter timeline for the past several hours, and could give me his best guess as to how the health […]

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Last week, the public learned that Senator John McCain has a brain tumor, and the response has been overwhelming and, at least to me, deeply moving. Former President Obama, McCain’s one-time rival, called him “an American hero” and “one of the bravest fighters I’ve ever known.” Having lost a parent myself, I was especially touched […]

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On July 13, 2013, a Florida jury acquitted George Zimmerman for the murder of Trayvon Martin. Alicia Garza, a co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement, took to her Facebook page to respond. “Black people,” she wrote, “I love you. I love us. Our lives matter, Black Lives Matter.” Patrisse Cullors, another BLM co-founder, made […]

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I once asked a college professor what he found most fascinating about American politics. I suspect I was trying to figure the answer out for myself, too. He said it had to do with the power of ideas in American life, ideas that are rooted in, and reinterpreted through the lens of, our revolutionary founding. […]

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The race for Georgia’s 6th congressional district was the most expensive House race in American history, and now it’s over, and the Republican Karen Handel has won. Beyond that, I want to avoid the temptation to draw greater meaning from this outcome. Early on election day, Nate Silver offered the following warning: “The ‘takes’ you’ll […]

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If you haven’t had a chance to listen to Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s speech on taking down the last Confederate monuments in New Orleans, I strongly encourage you to do so. It was a welcome reminder, in this age of 140-character takedowns, that political arguments can be inspiring, even beautiful. And it was a reminder of […]

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