“Nuance” in Politics and Public Policy? No Thanks.
By Thomas L. Knapp In 2004, Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry called his ever-shifting position on the war in Iraq “nuanced” as a way of explaining why he was for it before he was against it and why his prescriptions for its future kept changing. “Nuance” pops up frequently in debates on politics and […]
Tweeting Publicly Available Information Isn’t “Shameful and Dangerous”
by Thomas L. Knapp On August 5, US Representative Joaquin Castro (D-TX) posted an infographic to Twitter naming and shaming his city’s most generous supporters of President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign: “Sad to see so many San Antonians as 2019 maximum donors to Donald Trump …. Their contributions are fueling a campaign of hate […]
Reading Is Fundamental. Congress Should Try It.
by Thomas L. Knapp As the US House of Representatives took up the Affordable Care Act, aka “ObamaCare,” in 2010, then Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) famously told her fellow members of Congress “we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.” The 900-plus page bill (which […]
Wish List Politics: Green No Deal
by Thomas L. Knapp The word of the month for the Democratic Party’s would-be 2020 presidential nominees is “aspirational.” “The Green New Deal? I see it as aspirational,” US Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) told Fox News on February 12. She would vote for the resolution introduced by US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and US […]
Aircraft Carriers: Give Truman and Ford a Burial at Sea
By Thomas L. Knapp The US Department of Defense wants to retire an old aircraft carrier early while building two new ones (and adding other goodies to their shopping list). Surprise, surprise — politicians from states with the shipyards and naval bases that employ their constituents want to keep the old carrier AND build […]
Why Wait for 2021? End the Federal War on Marijuana Now!
By Thomas L. Knapp The Boston Globe’s Naomi Martin and James Pindell report that all of 2020’s formally declared “major party” presidential candidates say they support legalizing marijuana at the federal level. Yes, that includes President Trump. Great idea! But why should the nearly 2/3 of Americans who want marijuana legalized spend the next […]
Mueller Report: Secrecy Shouldn’t be an Option
By Thomas L. Knapp As February draws to an end, rumors abound that we’re about to see Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Or at least that someone — namely, newly confirmed US Attorney General William Barr — is about to see that report. The rest […]
Congress’s Cowardly “Emergency” Rebuke
By Thomas L. Knapp By the time you read this column, the US House of Representatives will almost certainly have passed the following Joint Resolution: “Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That, pursuant to section 202 of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. […]
Gina Haspel: Torturers Should be Punished, not Promoted
by Thomas L. Knapp US president Donald Trump should never have nominated Gina Haspel to head the Central Intelligence Agency. When Haspel offered to withdraw her name from consideration, as the Washington Post reports she did during a White House meeting in early May, her offer should have been gratefully accepted. The US Senate […]
The Atlantic Is at Sea | They Fired Jeffrey Goldberg for What?
By Thomas L. Knapp Things that make me go hmmm … The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, adds conservative writer Kevin D. Williamson to the publication’s masthead. An odd choice, it seems to me. I’m a fan of both the magazine and the writer, and for similar reasons, but they make an odd match. I […]
