In his first few days in office Trump and several members of his team attacked the media for underestimating the size of the crowd that attended the Inauguration. Trump argued that, “I turn on the networks, and they show an empty field. I’m like, wait a minute. I made a speech. I looked out, the field was, it looked like a million, million and a half people.” This could have been labeled just another off-the-cuff remark that has endeared Trump to political-incorrectness-fundamentalists, but later that day the baton was passed to his Press Secretary Sean Spicer who expanded on Trump’s argument claiming that, not only had Trump’s crowds and viewership been larger than the media reported, but that it had been “the largest crowd ever to witness an Inauguration”. Ever. The largest crowd ever. With her eye on the finish line, Trump’s Senior Counselor Kellyanne Conway took the baton and…

Wednesday night Arizona governor Jan Brewer vetoed SB1062, a controversial bill that was supposedly intended to protect the religious freedoms of businesses and individuals who might out of ‘sincere belief’ need to discriminate against gay patrons or gay weddings. The bill had all of the markings of a political stunt. It was big, vague, ill-conceived and promised to solve a problem that only exists at the margins while at the same time creating a myriad of new problems. The governor had vetoed a similar bill in 2012, so why did the Arizona legislature bother? A closer look at the sponsors of the bill and the political climate on the right – past and present – offers some possible answers. A peculiar thing happens when you Google the sponsors of SB 1062 – Reps Nancy Barto, Bob Worsley and Steve Yarbrough. Once you wade through the blistering attacks and criticism by…

When my son was about one and a half he would occasionally walk over to the bookshelf, toss all of the books from the bottom shelf onto the floor, then put them back (in no particular order of course). Once he had put the books back, he’d scream ‘yay!’, applaud himself, then run over for a celebratory ‘high five!’. He had solved a problem that he had created and I of course went along with it high-fiving and congratulating him, but it did occur to me that I might be creating a monster – or a politician. The controversy over gay marriage has been aggravated by the Democratic Party’s unwillingness to take a principled position and stick to it. So, laws like the Defense of Marriage Act pass with Democrat support. Prop 8 passes with Democrat silence. And now that public opinion has shifted in favor of gay marriage, Democrats…

In the weeks and months following President Obama’s reelection, Republicans will struggle to rebrand and redefine themselves for the electorate.  A few have already come forward with prescriptions for the future. Bobby Jindal, Governor of Louisiana argues that the GOP must stop being the ‘stupid party’ and craft a message for all Americans. John Boehner expressed a willingness to consider revenue increases, though not yet tax increases, and spoke of Obamacare as the ‘law of the land’. Sean Hannity made a passionate plea on behalf of illegal immigrants the day after the election, suggesting that those who have been here for years and broken no laws – aside from being here illegally – should be put on the path to citizenship. As much as these efforts to moderate or modernize the GOP make sense, they will be unsuccessful because they risk revealing the big lie that keeps many poor, working…

Working in NYC means riding public transportation and occasionally having a crazy person strike up a conversation about mind control serum in the water, Jewish cabals, or gay conspiracies involving probes of one kind or another. I can never be sure if the individual is serious or joking or more importantly armed or unarmed, so I usually nod, say something like ‘That’s wild’, then get off at the next stop or switch train cars, because there is no way to talk to a crazy person without yourself seeming crazy. Our nation’s history is not without nefarious conspiracies like Iran-Contra, Watergate, the Tuskegee Experiment; gross violations of citizens’ rights like Presidents Lincoln and Wilson’s suspension of habeas corpus and free press; and sociopaths masquerading as elected officials like… well fill in the blank. However, whether we have been in the throes of a national crisis or in an era of relative…