Conceptualizing American Politics of Denial — In 1985, the United States slipped into debt— meaning, foreigners owned more in America than Americans owned abroad. Scolded for profligacy, the United States stood enfeebled by a status not seen since before World War II and the emergence of Pax Americana. Then something strange happened: nothing. It’s not that…

Without Taking on Federal Drug Prohibition, It’s Impossible to End the Government’s Addiction to the War on Drugs — Marijuana had a good election. Apart from some early results in the legalization movement, it always does. This time around, voters in Arizona, Montana, New Jersey, South Dakota, and Mississippi agreed to allowing some sort of marijuana consumption. It’s not often that those states find one another for company.

It’s the Democratic Republic, Stupid — President Donald Trump stands in egregious breach of the United States Constitution. Specifically, by word and by deed, he has rejected the constitutionally accorded powers of the United States Congress, placing him in deliberate and repeated violation of the separation of powers. No president before him — not even the…

The ambivalence that lies at the heart of the American project — the work to achieve a democratic republic, and the efforts to undermine it — routinely manifests at the voting booth. We exclude some from citizenship entirely; others from voting rights. In many places, we administer tests intended to…

DEA Data Collection & A Glimpse at the Deep State (the real one) — Perhaps with a wry smile, President Obama signed the Inspector General Empowerment Act a month before leaving office, ensuring that this reaffirmation of the 1978 Inspector General Act granted the full complement of Inspectors General(IGs) the power to obtain “all records” which investigators deemed necessary, not just the ones agency…

According to the CDC, 46 people die every day in the United States from overdoses involving prescription opioids. At this point, no reasonable and well-informed person doubts the story of corporate greed, malfeasance, and regulatory breakdown driving this facet of the nation’s terrible opioid crisis. But no one seems galvanized…

Join Me in Considering Them — Special Counsel Robert Mueller, responding to this week’s bitter (but not unforeseen) Manafort setback, has shown some real firepower on Michael Cohen, leaving his rapt audience of real and self-appointed commentators in a fierce debate over the implications of the testimony proffered by Trump’s former personal attorney. While others are…