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Ben Beckett is an American writer in Vienna.
US democracy has been degrading for years. Donald Trump has the motive, the disposition, and the political and legal infrastructure to simply circumvent it, especially with such low approval ratings and midterm elections around the corner.
Donald Trump fired Kristi Noem for embarrassing him on TV, not for the civil rights catastrophe she oversaw at Homeland Security. Her replacement, Markwayne Mullin, is a loyal Trump ally who promises more of the same egregious overreach and abuse.
Joe Biden hopes to eke out a reelection win by raising alarms about the threat Donald Trump poses to democracy. Yet on immigration, Biden has pointlessly moved closer than ever to Trump’s cruel border policy.
Donald Trump has announced disturbingly detailed plans for the mass arrest and detention of people suspected of being undocumented immigrants. With Joe Biden’s dismal poll numbers, there’s an uncomfortable chance Trump might be able to follow through.
After already securing agreements for deep spending cuts earlier this year, House Republicans are poised to force a government shutdown to demand even more austerity. Democrats seem ill-prepared to stand up to the GOP’s hostage-taking.
Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy has opened a formal inquiry into impeaching Joe Biden. The case is thin — but the scandalmongering may weaken Biden’s reelection chances, especially if he doesn’t give voters a positive vision to counteract it.
The Biden administration could automatically cancel student debt for all borrowers right now. But its announced “Plan B” for debt forgiveness shows it’s setting itself up to be stymied by the Supreme Court all over again.
Recent polls show Republican voters now reject many of the old GOP shibboleths that Donald Trump trashed — and that they continue to rally around their new leader, indictments and all. Joe Biden can’t just base his campaign on being “not Trump.”
Donald Trump is rightly facing legal consequences for his attempts to overturn the 2020 election. But with his supporters unwilling to accept the facts and a Supreme Court likely to side with Trump, the situation may be a powder keg under US democracy.
Earlier this month, the Biden administration automatically discharged student debt for more then 800,000 borrowers. The move shows that, if he wanted to, Joe Biden could cancel debt for everyone else right now. He’s not doing that.
After claiming for months he wouldn’t negotiate budget cuts in exchange for raising the debt ceiling, Joe Biden is doing just that. In caving to the GOP’s threats, Biden is empowering them to demand even more.
Tax leniency for the rich and austerity for workers and young people are standard Republican fare. What’s notable this time is using government default as leverage for those tax breaks and austerity. If the GOP pulls it off, it will set a frightening precedent.
When he faced prosecutors in New York yesterday, Donald Trump appeared worried about pending cases against him in Washington, DC, and Georgia. Those charges are far more serious than the New York case, indicating that his problems have only just begun.
When asked about America’s gun violence and mass shooting epidemic after the recent horror in Nashville, Republican congressman Tim Burchett said the most honest thing a Republican has said in years: “We’re not going to fix it.”
Donald Trump deserves to be indicted and prosecuted. But his legal troubles may not end his political career, much less stop the rise of the broader Trump-inflected right. We’ll only defeat Trumpism by building an attractive political alternative.
Donald Trump has implored conservatives to hit the streets if he ends up indicted in New York. It might be cause for worry — if Trump had any ability to mobilize mass numbers of supporters anymore.
Republicans say they want to “protect” kids by stopping them from learning about LGBTQ identity and racism. Yet they are simultaneously rolling back child labor laws to allow children to work in industrial laundries, construction sites, and meatpacking plants.
CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, is usually one of the biggest events of the year for conservatives, but this year it was a huge flop. Has the Right given up trying to speak to anyone beyond its most unhinged followers?
Republicans hate Social Security and Medicare, but the programs’ universal structure makes them too risky to take on. We need more programs like that.
In 2020, Fox News anchors Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity pushed Donald Trump’s election fraud claims for weeks. New documents suggest they never believed any of it.