Mike, last month I lauded your courageous stand against your party’s extremists after six unproductive months to help Ukraine (Principle Before Party). Remember that? “When [Johnson] brought the Ukrainian aid package to the floor last week, his far-right colleagues—who firmly stood against any aid to Ukraine until the Biden administration addressed the border crisis—denounced him.” Remember Marjorie Taylor Greene’s response?...

Why do I like New York Times columnist David Brooks? Simple. Much of the time, I write about the tree. Brooks writes about the landscape. I tend to look at the brush fire that’s threatening the tree. He focuses on how America’s inherent strength can overcome the fires of our discord. One thing about commentaries in The Times is that...

She’s a maniac, maniac on the floor, And she’s dancing like she’s never danced before. —Michael Sembello, Flashdance I’ll give Marjorie Taylor Greene credit for two things: she knows exactly who she is and exactly what she’s doing. Of all the Trump wannabes, Greene sits at the top of the heap. She takes self-aggrandizement to a new level. No, arrogance....

While Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address is one of the most remembered and well-regarded, it is not his greatest speech. His second inaugural address was far superior and can be viewed as a prophecy for today’s divided nation: “On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought...

Fifty-two members of the US Congress are leaving: 44 members of the House and 8 members of the Senate. The New York Times interviewed 12 of them to answer some questions. It’s a sobering look at the state of the country’s legislature. However, one representative offers a chance of hope. Here are some of those conversations. “Is Congress corrupt?” Rep....

Columbia University, House of Representatives, and the New York trial of former president Donald Trump: Pick a topic, and you will see what utter chaos looks like. Pro-Palestinian protestors not only defied Columbia University’s order yesterday to dismantle their encampments on the New York campus but assaulted and seized a building, Capitol building-style. All classes on the campus have been...

Silent movie legend Lon Chaney was known as the “Man of a Thousand Faces.” So convincing was Cheney—who developed and applied his own makeup—he could disappear into roles from the “Phantom of the Opera” to “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” and the cross-dressing old woman from “The Unholy Three.” Embed from Getty Images Donald Trump only needs three to convince...

“Duty is ours. Results are God’s.”—John Quincy Adams In 1806, after a series of attacks by Britain on American ships carrying goods, Massachusetts Senator John Quincy Adams and his colleagues were outraged. American sailors were being captured and “impressed” into the King’s navy. When the American frigate Chesapeake was fired upon by a British ship, Adams was so incensed he...

The Date: September 28, 1955 The Place: Yankee Stadium The Event: Dodgers/Yankees, Game 1 of the 1955 World Series Every baseball fan has seen the video. Every baseball fan knows the outcome . . . or do they? I’ll come back to this. For my book, What Do You Stand For?, documentary filmmaker Ken Burns spoke to me about the...

It’s getting harder and harder to see the light at the end of a dark, relentless tunnel of anger and war at home and abroad. However, another story reminds us of hope and opportunities. Not long after I completed my second book, What Do You Stand For?, I came across another book that closely paralleled my own. With a forward...