With just 28 days until Election Day, I can’t predict who will win. But after last week’s vice-presidential debate, I predict Sen. JD Vance of Ohio will be the frontrunner for the 2028 GOP nomination.
Even if Democrats win the White House in November, Vance will instantly become the most sought-after headliner for GOP fundraisers ahead of the 2026 midterms. On Capitol Hill, the junior senator from Ohio will be a power player in the fight to pick a successor to Sen. Mitch McCon...
Opinion
Who was the JD Vance voters saw at the debate?
Well that was ... unexpected. The first question is, was JD Vance kidnaped or did he voluntarily agree to swap places with his body double? The inoffensive, agreeable, occasionally empathetic GOP VP hopeful that showed up for the debate is not the JD Vance that ran for the Senate, turned up for podcasts or goes out and campaigns for Donald Trump. Vance is intelligent and articulate. His trademark is adapting his convictions and his personality to...
Voters need a second presidential debate that looks very different than the first
In every presidential election year since 1976, the main contenders have had at least two debates; in many years, there have been three.
However, we might only get one between the two nominees in 2024, now that former President Donald Trump has announced he will not debate President Kamala Harris again, claiming the original ABC debate was “rigged” against him.
That’s not good enough. If this is indeed the most important election o...
America is less polarized than it seems. Politicians need better data.
Polarization, a scholar has quipped, is a problem that no one can explain or solve.
We know that a vast ideological gulf now separates most Democratic from most Republican politicians. We also know that highly polarized politicians poorly represent many of their constituents, who remain comparatively moderate. But we’re not sure why polarization has arisen or what we can do about it.
As a pathology of American politics that has developed over decades, polarizat...
Our housing system isn’t working — we need a public option
The current U.S. housing system creates tremendous profits, but it doesn’t work for everyone.
Half of the nation's 45 million renters pay more than a third of their paychecks to landlords. Every year, landlords file 3.6 million evictions, and 6.7 million live in substandard housing — realities that disproportionately affect people of color. Homeownership doesn’t guarantee protection either, with almost 20 million owners in a s...
The Electoral College endangers the republic, but don’t blame the Framers
Our presidential elections suffer from a crisis of confidence.
Scores of anxious Americans await Nov. 5 with grave fears about integrity and fairness. Democrats decry the possibility of a candidate winning without a popular vote majority, and more than half of Republicans believe the 2020 election was stolen.
Many factors have brought us to this moment, but the strange mechanism known as the Electoral College ranks high among them.
Twice in the last ...
Harris’s agenda mirrors the Democratic Socialists of America
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump says Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate, is a communist and Marxist and refers to her as “Comrade Kamala.” While it’s doubtful that Trump’s name calling helps him win over voters, if he has to call her something, he should have tagged her as a socialist. That’s because Harris’s major policy proposals are almost identical to those promoted by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).
The DSA lists 10 policy positions under t...
Harris’s ‘Opportunity Society’ is in the shadow of LBJ’s War on Poverty
Vice President Kamala Harris has touted an economic vision for America called the “Opportunity Society.” The agenda harkens back to the days when presidents distinguished policies with slogans like the “New Deal” of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the “New Frontier” of John F. Kennedy.
This year marks the 60th anniversary of Lyndon B. Johnson’s “War on Poverty”; as such, it is appropriate to consider how the Harris plan for economic reform compares with that of an earlier Democratic...
England’s strained health care system should ring alarms in the US
The National Health Service in England, founded in 1948 to deliver health care directly to all in need following World War II, is in trouble.
Not only is it broke, but it is also broken, as the new British Prime Minister Keir Starmer just pointed out in response to a recent government study.
The waiting lines for care are prohibitive. A recent study revealed that 8 million people in the United Kingdom are waiting for their care, with 40 percent waiting for more than...
Kamala Harris will raise your taxes, no matter what she’s saying now
Have you ever found it weird how federal tax cuts always “expire,” whereas tax hikes last forever? It’s not by accident, it’s by design.
In looking at what the Biden-Harris administration has done in the past, and what she admits she wants to do in the future, there are only two certainties in life: death and Kamala Harris planning to raise the hell out of your taxes.
There is a Rorschach test for every American on tax policy. Everyone views income in one of two wa...