On Partisans and Truth
On two separate occasions recently, I’ve heard variations of a critique: “Don’t be partisan,” someone said to me recently when I told him about a talk I’ve been asked to give in Washington next month. “I’d like to share it, but it’s too partisan,” came from another friend who read a piece I wrote a couple weeks ago about the oath I swore to defend and uphold the Constitution. In … Read More
The Real Meaning of “Deep State”
One of the proudest moments in my life had no witnesses—at least none that I know personally. On my very first day working on Capitol Hill, I reported to the Senate personnel office. I think I was told to go down to complete some paperwork. I signed a couple of documents, and then a clerk—I remember he wasn’t wearing his suit-coat—told me to raise my right hand. I did, and … Read More
The Responsibility of Citizenship
We have heard a lot in the last couple of years—and even more in the last couple of days—about the challenge to the Constitution and our free institutions. With momentum building for impeachment proceedings in the aftermath of the whistleblower complaint against the president, those concerns are rising, again. The op-ed pages and the cable news channels are going to be full of breathless accounts of malfeasance, corruption, and violations … Read More
Not Normal
People who live in DC and people who don’t live in DC have a different standard of normal. When my wife and I were dating, she lived outside of Boston and I lived in Washington. She came down a couple of times each month and we’d take in all the city had to offer. I remember one beautiful afternoon sitting at an out-door table at a restaurant along the Potomac … Read More
Empathy not Sympathy
It seems like the biggest story of the week in the world of sports was the retirement of Indianapolis Colts Quarterback Andrew Luck. He cited years or injury, rehabilitation, and pain as his reason for retiring and the reaction was both horrifying and affirming. For some, their hot-take reactions were really only about what his loss would mean for his team. But others defended Luck’s motives and his right to … Read More
A Well-Regulated Militia
When I worked on the Hill, I was initially amused when Senators would submit a statement to the record about a bill that would pass overwhelmingly. “Why were they spiking the ball?” I wondered to myself. I eventually asked a more seasoned colleague who explained it wasn’t about vanity, rather it was about documenting legislative intent. If there was ever a court challenge or controversy about the bill, the legislative … Read More
It’s Exam Time: Impeachment is the Subject
I love being a professor. I teach one class every fall and it is the highlight of my year. I get 18 to 25 students who I can introduce to my passion for history, energize their critical thinking, stretch their minds and their imaginations, and hopefully inspire them to keep asking questions and looking to history for examples that are relevant to them—no matter what they do in the rest … Read More
The Opportunity Costs of Today’s Politics
I like Ike. On April 16, 1953, five weeks after the death of Soviet premier Joseph Stalin, Eisenhower delivered the “Chance for Peace” speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors. It is a classic of cold war political warfare with the Soviet Union—but it’s also a beautiful exposition of the concept of “opportunity cost.” Eisenhower described in the most human terms how the arms race between the Soviet Union … Read More
We are Americans, First
I saw a Tweet this week that made me laugh a little. Someone had shared a video of the flooding in downtown DC on Monday when that deluge of rain came through. The National Archives had tweeted the footage and pointed out that you could see their building beyond the waves of the flood waters. An historian at Georgetown said he hoped the Constitution had been kept dry because “we … Read More
Democracy is America’s Most Potent Asset
The next American president should get back to celebrating the moral power of democracy. This was standard fare for President Ronald Reagan—in fact it was pretty standard throughout the Cold War. The fact that democracy promotion is little more than a slogan and not a centerpiece of American foreign policy is a mistake. We are leaving our most powerful asset unused in the global competition that will shape the 21st … Read More