Retrospective, Prospective, Perspective

Trump is to be our next president. Has the shock worn off yet? Maybe it’s beginning to, maybe not, but one week later I’m ready to offer my opinion on what happened and what everybody should do about it.

What happened is very simple: Trump won the electoral college and lost the popular vote by […]

FreeForum!

Some of you may have already noticed the new button in the website menu: FreeForum.

This is EI’s (first!) summer project.

Inspiration first struck when I found a list of the hundreds upon hundreds who had filed with the Federal Election Commission to be candidates. The project truly began when I realized six more months […]

What Good Are These Particular Presidents?

Previously, I have written about why the Presidency is important. Lest anyone think I was overcome by an uncharacteristic mood of sunny optimism and governmental idealism, I’d like to append to that statement by arguing that actual Presidents, within my political attention span, have been drastically less important than almost everyone thinks. Given I do […]

What Good Is A President, Anyway?

As the interminable election season grinds on (though we are constantly assured that it is still ‘early days’ and that Trump still has plenty of time to self-destruct in a suitably flamboyant manner), I continue to attempt to ignore the ins and outs in the same way I try to ignore Christmas music in mid-November.

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Religion and Politics

Two of the most contentious subjects, indeed. The cause of this particular essay is the New York Time’s debate titled ‘The Pulpit and the Ballot Box‘, which asked ‘Why do voters care about a candidate’s religion? Does it matter?’. Many of the responses are interesting in their own right, particularly Mirsky’s assertion of an American, […]