Category: Politics

Kamala Doesn’t Have to Be ‘Momala’ to the Whole Country

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What makes someone a parent? It’s not the most pressing question facing the country. But in the days since President Joe Biden dropped his reelection campaign and endorsed Kamala Harris to be the Democratic nominee, Republicans have lobbed a personal and notably misogynistic attack against the vice president: that she’s unfit to be president because she doesn’t have biological children. “The concerns of parents and families will always be abstract to her,” Will Chamberlain, a conservative lawyer, posted on X on Sunday. Blake Masters, a venture capitalist running to represent…

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The Harris Gamble

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The documentarian Matt Ornstein interviewed two young Latino men in Long Beach, California, at the midpoint of the Trump presidency. They were both strong Donald Trump supporters. Why? One answered, “Trump’s smart. He knows right from wrong.” The other one scoffed, “No. No he doesn’t. He’s dumb as shit. But he’s got balls.” In 2016, Hillary Clinton lost to Trump among male voters by 11 points. In 2020, Joe Biden ran about even with Trump among men. Clinton lost. Biden won. Now Democrats are preparing again to nominate a woman…

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The Democrats Aren’t Even Trying

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In a different election year, a place like Milwaukee’s Zeidler Union Square would surely have been teeming with people, marching around with Sharpied signs and chanting about fascism. Instead, the square, an official protest zone located a few blocks from the Republican National Convention, was like a scene from some postapocalyptic tale. This afternoon’s designated protest zone was a wide, mostly empty expanse of lush grass. In the middle stood a charming gazebo equipped with a microphone and sound system. But nobody appeared to be speaking. Orange-shirted security staff paced…

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A Legendary American Photograph

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Donald Trump raises a fist. Blood streaks his face. The sky is high, blue, and empty except for an American flag caught in a hard wind. A Secret Service agent has her arms around his waist. The former president’s mouth is open, in the middle of a snarled shout. We know from video footage that he is yelling “Fight!,” that the crowd is chanting “USA!” The photograph, by the Associated Press’s Evan Vucci, became immediately legendary. However you feel about the man at its center, it is undeniably one of…

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C’mon, Man

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Never underestimate the destructive power of a stubborn old narcissist with something to prove. Ideally no one gets hurt along the way: Maybe grandpop refuses to give up his license, drives into an oak tree, and only the car gets totaled. But sometimes there are casualties: Maybe a pedestrian gets hit. President Joe Biden, 81, is acting like one of history’s most negligent and pigheaded leaders at a crucial moment, and right now, we are all pedestrians. Since his debate debacle nearly two weeks ago, much of America has been…

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Jill Biden’s Momentous Choice

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This weekend, first lady Jill Biden has a momentous choice to make. Does she encourage her husband to overlook his personal well-being, recover from last week’s debate debacle, and keep up the campaign until November? Or does she persuade him to step aside, and yield the nomination to someone else? Biden isn’t the only first lady to face a choice like this one. As their wartime husbands undertook reelection campaigns, both Eleanor Roosevelt and Lady Bird Johnson faced difficult decisions, and they came to very different conclusions. Roosevelt supported her…

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