With 80% of votes counted, this redistricting referendum in Virginia is much closer than the polls suggested. I think "yes" will win, but a margin this slim means late night column tweaks lie ahead
In today’s @postopinions.bsky.social, I shared some reflections on meaningful coincidences, synchronicity, and making sense of the world around us.
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
Cover drop and I'm in love
press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
"Nations, like individuals, have egos — and each will wage war to protect its own."
The latest from @drtedj.bsky.social: https://wapo.st/4squY4G
A large banner displayed on a building features portraits of historical figures with the text "USDA Celebrates 250 Years of Freedom." An American flag is centered on the banner. Below, a headline reads, "America Turns 250, and Confidence in Democracy Is Shaky" by Theodore Johnson and M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska.
Us@250’s @drtedj.bsky.social and @mjrp.bsky.social discuss the complexities of modern American patriotism, past anniversaries, and how America's upcoming 250th anniversary can spur change.
🇺🇸 go.newamerica.org/america-turns-250-democr...
The US and Iran reached a temporary ceasefire yesterday, but the conflict wasn't just about shipping lanes—it was a crisis of national identities.
The real measure of success in the Strait of Hormuz is based more on
🚨ontological security🚨than national security.
wapo.st/3O5HxUY
"While their right to vote is no more sacred than anyone else’s, their service is a distinct claim to that right," @drtedj.bsky.social writes.
"And casting a ballot should be easier for them than it is for the commander in chief." https://wapo.st/4vkMZ7c
"Why push for a law that will hurt your voters, too?" @drtedj.bsky.social writes.
"Making the electorate smaller and more exclusive pushes power up to the few; making it larger and more diverse spreads power out to the many." https://wapo.st/4t7XkBg
On this 60th anniversary of Harper v. Virginia, ending the poll tax, Congress is debating the revanchist “Save America” Act.
A truth about our democracy:
Making the electorate smaller & more exclusive pushes power to the few; making it larger and more diverse spreads it to the many.
wapo.st/4tb7z8b
Trump’s tinkering with the White House would be better spent expanding the legislature’s chambers; we don't need a 1,000-person ballroom — we need a 1,000-member Congress. But that would require building something bigger than himself, and that seems to be the one deal he can’t close.
wapo.st/4cUcxRO
“The United States can win wars, celebrate gold , commemorate the nation’s founding, but if its president and politics reap rewards by sowing division, Americans are more likely to rally to a party’s pennant than around the nation’s flag.”
wapo.st/3Nd0tAE (gift link)
SCOTUS operates in months and years; the executive, in days and hours. The Constitution made the branches equal in power, not in speed.
That asymmetry is a feature of the system, but in the hands of defiant presidents, it becomes a loophole readily exploited. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
I have a new essay out this morning about Black History Month, remembering in a moment when those in power want us to forget, and the importance of seeing people in the past as people www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
"Like most of MAGA, many Black voters who backed Trump expected an exit from foreign entanglements and to reap dividends from a bustling economy," @drtedj.bsky.social writes.
"They’re getting neither." https://wapo.st/4kG7XIN
"In the 2024 election, Trump proved there were Black voters willing to give him a shot, and he convinced enough of them that MAGA held a place for them. But their experience in it — and the lack of anything to show for it — did not meet expectations. The honeymoon is over."
wapo.st/4s0qeD5
I had a fascinating conversation with Ted Johnson, Senior Fellow at @newamerica.org and columnist at @washingtonpost.com, on civic bravery and how its incumbent on us as ‘moral patriots’ to call out our nation’s institutions when they fall short.
open.substack.com/pub/thebeaco...
"The lesson of Black history is that preventing republican institutions from clawing back democratic gains and making government more responsive requires vesting more authority in more citizens," @drtedj.bsky.social writes. https://wapo.st/409mq6g
This year is the 100th anniversary of Black History Month.
America’s values are tested when it must share power with the people it once excluded. In this way, Black history is a definitive measure of the nation’s progress and capacity to live its creed - and evidence of the urgent work that remains
This year is the 100th anniversary of Black History Month.
America’s values are tested when it must share power with the people it once excluded. In this way, Black history is a definitive measure of the nation’s progress and capacity to live its creed - and evidence of the urgent work that remains
YEARS of crap like this
Most people cannot fathom the amount of racist, hateful things that Black columnists routinely receive.
“The most visible symbol of our thinning republic is ICE, whose actions have become shorthand for unaccountable federal power … it’s a democratic republic in structure, but it governs with diminishing regard for the people and behaves like it’s afraid of the president — a republic in name only.”
It’s a democratic republic in structure and process, but it governs with diminishing regard for the people and behaves like it’s afraid of the president — a republic in name only.
Today’s precedents set the baseline for tomorrow, leaving the republic intact in structure but brittle in essence.
"In practice, citizenship's legal meaning and the rights it confers have been eclipsed by partisan judgments about who belongs," @drtedj.bsky.social writes. https://wapo.st/4sHdoKT
Citizenship did not protect Renee Good from those who wear the shield. Democracies can survive policy fights and constitutional debates. But they cannot survive when citizenship no longer imposes obligations — on institutions, on the state, or on those who wield force in its name.
wapo.st/49AsFEv
My column made it to late night!! 😂
"Grappling with the morality of a mission is part of life in uniform," @drtedj.bsky.social writes. "Questioning the legality of operations shouldn’t be." https://wapo.st/3LgHiVF
"Sometimes service requires acting in gray areas — moral ones, certainly, but democratic ones, too.
Increasingly, the military is asked to conduct operations w/o congressional authorization or public debate. The democratic costs of that arrangement are real, as are the human costs."
wapo.st/3YppRVR
The “Redemeers” in the South were proficient at this. See Massacres at Colfax, Tulsa, Elaine, and so on.