"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage."
~ Anaïs Nin

The Blue Door (1927)
🎨 Raymond Wintz

Opinion | It’s the 1970s Again. Democrats Should Study Up on Reagan.

Voter discontent is normal in a democracy. But what we saw in the 1970s & are seeing now is distinctive: a comprehensive loss of faith in the future, collapsing respect for our governing institutions & alarm over a decline in the US’s standing in the world.
My column
www.nytimes.com/2026/04/17/o...

Opinion | It’s the 1970s Again. Democrats Should Study Up on Reagan.

It’s the 1970s again, meaning that progressives who hope to end our distemper need to grasp the depth of the country’s anxieties, the radical challenge to its role in the world and the electorate’s longing for both transformation and reassurance.
My column

www.nytimes.com/2026/04/17/o...

Opinion | It’s the 1970s Again. Democrats Should Study Up on Reagan.

It’s the 1970s Again. Democrats Should Study Up on Reagan.
At home and abroad, Americans feel the same sense of crisis people felt back then. Reagan understood how to convert national alarm into political change. Progressives can learn from him.
My column

www.nytimes.com/2026/04/17/o...

Opinion | Trump’s War of Choice Will Become a War of Regret

Trump shattered our moral standing with his threats to wipe out Iran’s civilization & weakened our already shaky alliances. This war was ill thought through at the beginning, in the middle, & at the end.

Appreciated chatting with Carlos Lozada & Robert Siegel:

www.nytimes.com/2026/04/11/o...

Opinion | Trump’s War of Choice Will Become a War of Regret

Trump shattered our moral standing with his threats to wipe out Iran’s civilization & weakened our already shaky alliances. This war was ill thought through at the beginning, in the middle, & at the end.

Appreciated chatting with Carlos Lozada & Robert Siegel:

www.nytimes.com/2026/04/11/o...

How 2026’s divisive immigration politics could lead to a solution down the road | Brookings Brookings senior fellow E.J. Dionne discusses how political backlash on immigration may open the door to bipartisan reform.

How 2026’s divisive immigration politics could lead to a solution down the road. Trump has transformed the public mood on immigration in ways that have damaged him politically—and open space for comprehensive reform.

My @brookings.edu essay.

www.brookings.edu/articles/how...

Video: President Trump Makes Contradictory Statements About Strategy for War in Iran Since launching the war in Iran on Feb. 28, President Trump has altered his position on regime change and shifted the timeline of operations.

“President Trump Makes Contradictory Statements About Strategy for War in Iran.”

You could just save that headline and run it every day.

www.nytimes.com/video/us/pol...

Hegseth Says U.S. Troops Are Fighting for Jesus. The Pope Disagrees.

“We tend to consider ourselves powerful when we dominate, victorious when we destroy our equals, great when we are feared. God has given us an example — not of how to dominate, but of how to liberate; not of how to destroy life, but of how to give it.”

— Pope Leo

www.nytimes.com/2026/04/03/w...

Opinion | ‘We Are Going to Deeply Regret This War’

We will deeply regret this war. It was a bad idea & Trump made it much worse. The world will ask: What kind of leadership does our country have on one of the most serious questions a country faces?
From my @nytimes.com Opinions chat with Mona Charen & Robert Siegel.
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/28/o...

Opinion | ‘We Are Going to Deeply Regret This War’

We will deeply regret this war. It was a bad idea & Trump made it much worse. The world will ask: What kind of leadership does our country have on one of the most serious questions a country faces?
From my @nytimes.com Opinions chat with Mona Charen & Robert Siegel.
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/28/o...

Opinion | The New Moneyed Interests: Crypto and A.I.

Election ballots helpfully inform voters who is a Republican & who is a Democrat. Our campaign finance system is now so corrupt that we may soon have to add “Sponsored by A.I.” or “Sponsored by crypto.”
Policy making on A.I. & crypto shouldn’t be for sale.

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/23/o...

Opinion | The New Moneyed Interests: Crypto and A.I.

Election ballots helpfully inform voters who is a Republican & who is a Democrat. Our campaign finance system is now so corrupt that we may soon have to add “Sponsored by A.I.” or “Sponsored by crypto.”
Policy making on A.I. & crypto shouldn’t be for sale.

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/23/o...

Jim Crow Redux: The “SAVE America” Act Is a Poll Tax, Plain and Simple Requiring people to shell out for passports and birth certificates to “solve” a problem that doesn’t exist is a modern-day version of what they used to do down South. It must be stopped.

Thanks @normornstein.bsky.social for showing how the “SAVE America Act” is built on “lies perpetrated to force a nationalization of elections & massive voter suppression” pushed to counter “plummeting support for Trump and his party in the country and among voters.”

newrepublic.com/article/2077...

Americans keep asking why we’re in this war. Trump thinks he can make any case he wants & change day by day. But arguing for war isn’t like selling Trump University or Trump Steaks. Making a case for war a serious business, and as I argue in the NYT chat linked below, he hasn’t done it seriously.

Opinion | ‘This Spells Real Trouble for Republicans’

Trump’s recklessness on display: No thought to how the war might end, what our objectives are, how to protect Americans in the Middle East, what might happen in the Strait of Hormuz.
Appreciated @nytopinion.nytimes.com
chat w/Kristen Soltis Anderson & Robert Siegel
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/14/o...

Opinion | ‘This Spells Real Trouble for Republicans’

Trump’s recklessness on display: No thought to how the war might end, what our objectives are, how to protect Americans in the Middle East, what might happen in the Strait of Hormuz.
Appreciated @nytopinion.nytimes.com
chat w/Kristen Soltis Anderson & Robert Siegel
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/14/o...

Democracy Reforms Are Essential to Curb Corruption and Big-Money Influence - Democracy 21 A recent New York Times analysis found that “Billionaires made 19 percent of all reported federal campaign contributions in 2024,” and that “Wealthy donors are [...]

Want to fight oligarchy? Let’s start with these reforms suggested by Fred Wertheimer: creating a new small donor, public matching option for federal campaigns and requiring disclosure of the large contributions flowing to dark money groups.
Fred explains:

democracy21.org/news/freds-w...

Even taking Trump’s confused reasons for the Iran war at face value, it’s still a total disaster | Jonathan Freedland Two weeks in, it’s increasingly clear that the US-led war has taken every problem it aimed to solve – and made it worse, says Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland

One of the strongest arguments I have read against the Iran war & Trump’s irresponsibility. @jonathanfreedland.bsky.social
takes the best cases for the war and shows how it will not achieve the aims those making such arguments lift up. A smart, searing critique.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Opinion | Why Trump’s Fearmongering Is Falling Flat With Voters

Trump distracts by provoking fear & hatred. It might work if people were happy about the economy. But they’re not, so his tired diatribes show that the only thing he can deliver is fear itself. A presidency built on reruns is rapidly losing its audience.
My column

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/27/o...

Opinion | Why Trump’s Fearmongering Is Falling Flat With Voters

Trump distracts by provoking fear & hatred. It might work if people were happy about the economy. But they’re not, so his tired diatribes show that the only thing he can deliver is fear itself. A presidency built on reruns is rapidly losing its audience.
My column

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/27/o...

Opinion | I fact-checked Trump's speeches for years. Here's what to expect from his State of the Union address. Glenn Kessler on what he learned about debunking this president from his years running The Washington Post Fact Checker.

My former colleague @glennkessler.bsky.social ran the Washington Post Fact Checker for 15 years. He pre-bunked tonight’s State of the Union Speech for @ms.now: www.ms.now/opinion/trum...

Trump’s approval rating with independents hits a new low ahead of the State of the Union | CNN Politics When President Donald Trump gives his State of the Union address Tuesday, he will face a public that increasingly questions his priorities and expresses broad doubts about whether his proposed policie...

Trump in big trouble going into his SOTU speech. New CNN/SSRS Poll finds 68% of Americans say he hasn’t paid enough attention to the country’s most important problems while 61% say his policies will move the country in the wrong direction. His job approval rating: 36%.

www.cnn.com/2026/02/23/p...

Trump’s Epic Loss on Tariffs Is Even Worse for Him than You Think The Supreme Court’s stunning invalidation of most of the president’s tariffs is another sign that Trumpist populist nationalism is in crisis.

What Trump’s immigration & tariff losses mean for his supposedly ascendant populist nationalism. “Two of that ideology’s most critical elements are driving his biggest policy fiascos and his cratering standing with the public.”
@gregsargent.bsky.social

newrepublic.com/article/2068...

I hope conservative justices—including the Chief—who properly ruled against Trump on tariffs but gave him enormous unchecked power in the immunity case listened to his wild & unhinged screed against them & the rule of law. They should reconsider how much authority they’re willing to surrender to him

Oops. Tagged the great Steven Greenhiuse in this when I intended to tag (tge also great) Greg Sargent.

@gregsargent.bsky.social

www.nytimes.com/1988/04/10/w...

Thanks for this, Adam. You could feel the breakthrough and history being made in 1988. Attached a piece I wrote then below.

Greg has been ahead of the curve on this. There is an opening for a better debate on immigration, practical and humane at the same time. An American majority wants both.

@greenhousenyt.bsky.social

Congratulations, Nicole! Your work is so important and always enlightening — about our past and our moment.