Oakland, California.
Marquise S. sat in the driver’s seat of an old black Honda on Oakland’s Foothill Boulevard with white powder spread out over his knees. A slender young black woman sat in the passenger seat; a young black man …
Is Josh Shapiro the American Disraeli?
Benjamin Disraeli observed of Victorian England the existence of “two nations; between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy”. In this perverse order, “Oligarchy has been called Liberty; an exclusive priesthood has been christened a National Church… while absolute …
Democrats need a new Clinton
A shattered Democratic incumbent. A rambunctious Republican outsider. An election marred by economic turmoil and the usual destabilising violence in the Middle East. A campaign of contrasts, of relentlessly negative liberals, dismissing their rival as extremist, and conservatives pushing forward …
Kamala Harris never stood a chance
Anyone who doubts the robustness of American democracy need only dip a toe in the rolling seas of commentary following Donald Trump’s mind-numbing recapture of the presidency. Freedom of speech has burst its seams. But then, far from being American …
How Trump crushed Obama’s legacy
It was long past midnight in Livingston, Montana, when Donald Trump finally stood up to address the nation as President-elect of the United States, having won the landslide victory that had eluded him in his successful run in 2016 and …
The Democrats got stuck in the Seventies
There’s a very good chance that you remember nothing at all of the Democratic 2020 primary cycle, maybe Bernie Sanders’ uncombable hair, maybe Elizabeth Warren mouthing some policy proposal that sounded smart even if no one understood it, maybe the …
Welcome back to Trumpland
“He watched the play with great intensity,” wrote Cormac McCarthy in All the Pretty Horses. “He’d the notion that there would be something in the story itself to tell him about the way the world was or was becoming but …
America’s destiny lies in the New South
Every morning, just as the sun rises, Charleston Harbor hosts a scene of stirring patriotism. There, in the courtyard of Fort Sumter, tourists raise a huge American flag, helped along by a National Park Service ranger. And why not? This, …
Will Sin City decide America’s fate?
Just days before the election, America’s destiny rests on that Valhalla of oddsmakers, Las Vegas. “If we win Nevada, we’re going to win the whole thing,” vowed Trump, and for once he was not exaggerating. Nevada not only holds the …
America’s future isn’t fascist
“Weird” does not begin to describe the American atmosphere at this moment. The media and internet seethe with talk of civil war; but everyone is going about their daily business. The weather is uncanny: temperatures in the Northeast, where I …
Donald Trump’s strange sincerity
The faster American culture spreads, the less foreigners seem to understand it. In October, the Irish novelist Anne Enright shared a few thoughts about the US elections. “[T]hese politics are playing out in some secret part of the American psyche,” …
When Trump fed the press a nothingburger
In his 1991 song “New Jack Hustler”, Ice T tells a tale that was already a gangsta rap cliche when the song was released — a narrator’s first-person story of his career as a successful seller of drugs, a busy …
The Democrat plan to censor America
The earthquake that struck Pompeii in 62AD was devastating. Houses were toppled, streets torn apart, and over 2000 people killed. The locals assumed that this was the whim of some intemperate god, rebuilt the city, and got on with their …
How Trump is tearing Erie apart
Joy Division is the depressingly appropriate house band for America’s 2024 election, and “Love Will Tear Us Apart” its soundtrack.
A generation ago, party affiliation played almost no role in American relationships. Today, only half of Republicans and one-third of …
Donald Trump: new media king
It’s a tender, almost touching moment — not at all something you’d expect to see at the height of a presidential campaign and far out-of-keeping with the general perception of Donald Trump’s character. At the start of an interview, a …