How Did America’s Weirdest, Most Freedom-Obsessed State Fall for an Authoritarian Governor?

Illustrations by Brandon Celi This article was featured in One Story to Read Today, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a single must-read from The Atlantic, Monday through Friday. Sign up for it here. In the course of a single month this year, the following news reports emanated from Florida: A gun enthusiast in Tampa built a 55-foot backyard pool shaped like a revolver, with a hot tub in the hammer. A 32-year-old from Cutler Bay was arrested for biting off the head of his girlfriend’s pet python during…

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TikTok Threatens America’s Social Fabric, Tech Policy Expert Says 

The American public needs to know how egregious of a threat the Chinese-owned TikTok app poses to our nation’s social fabric, the director of the Tech Policy Center at The Heritage Foundation says.   In a conversation Tuesday with Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts on “The Kevin Roberts Show” podcast, Kara Frederick discussed what TikTok’s ties to the Chinese Communist Party mean for the everyday American ahead of the TikTok CEO’s appearance before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday.   “It’s extremely problematic, because that parent company, ByteDance, headquartered…

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America’s Military Strength Losing Ground to China’s, Report Says

A new report offers harrowing insight into the strength of Communist China’s military a day after Chinese President Xi Jinping renewed calls for the “reunification” of China and Taiwan. “Resolving the Taiwan question is a matter for the Chinese, a matter that must be resolved by the Chinese,” Xi said Sunday at the opening session for the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing. “We will continue to strive for peaceful reunification with the greatest sincerity and the utmost effort, but we will never promise to renounce…

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America’s Pandemic Star Loses Some Luster

Is Vermont the envy of America no more? The state long hailed for its pandemic response is experiencing one of the most intense COVID-19 surges in the country. Cases are twice as high as they’ve been at any other point. Hospitalizations are up sharply as well, confounding hopes that Vermont’s best-in-the-nation vaccination rate would protect its people from the Delta wave. The resurgence of the coronavirus—cases are rising again nationally after a sustained decline—has demoralized much of the country, but nowhere is that frustration more keenly felt than in the…

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Rural America’s False Sense of Security

Every few months throughout the pandemic, Wesley Thompson, a communications consultant in Washington, D.C., has driven to Indiana with his wife and two kids to visit his parents. He wanted to escape COVID cabin fever and give his 4- and 2-year-old some room to run around, which they could do more easily in his parents’ small town. The trips have offered him a glimpse into how Americans who live between the coasts have been spending the pandemic. In the summer of 2020, some people around his parents’ hometown “would look…

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