Category Added in a WPeMatico Campaign

America First? History Says Otherwise.

The United States did not fight, finance, or win the Revolution alone. As modern alliances come under strain, the nation’s founding story deserves a fuller—and humbler—telling. President Trump has made abundantly clear his attitude towards alliances, especially NATO. At best, his approach is transactional. More often, it is dismissive or even contemptuous. Leaving NATO would […]

The Weekly: Democracy Beyond the Ballot

This week The Steady State focused on the country’s internal polarization and the underlying challenges involving democratic culture, institutional resilience, and the continuing concentration and personalization of political power at a time that the country is facing international instability and strategic risk. We maintain that democracy’s survival depends not only on elections or constitutions, but […]

Will “Nice” Still Play in Peoria?

Peoria once symbolized an America where political opponents still shared democratic values and basic decency. The disappearance of “Peoria Nice” reveals how profoundly American politics—and the Republican Party—have changed. “Will this play in Peoria?” American presidents were famously known to ask this in the mid-20th century. Peoria, a small central Illinois city between Chicago and […]

Hunting Weapons of Mass Destruction with Andy Weber – A Joint Podcast Episode with Mission Implausible

Nuclear weapons-usable uranium, biolabs for biological warfare, secret chemical facilities — In Operation Sapphire, Former Assistant Secretary of Defense Andy Weber found and disposed of them. Where are the current threats? What does Iran still have? Biological threats may ultimately prove even more dangerous than nuclear ones. How do we control them? This special joint […]

Consensus Lost

Missile Silo at Minuteman Missile National Historic Site Visitor Center in South Dakota The collapse of the latest Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference was not an isolated diplomatic disappointment. It reflected a deeper breakdown in great-power relations, American diplomatic capacity, and the unresolved regional conflicts that increasingly overwhelm nuclear diplomacy. The inability of the Nuclear […]

Meet the Moment

Normalization of the Presence of Uniformed Military on our City Streets The decisive question is no longer whether Trump tests constitutional limits, but whether those around him will resist or accommodate expanding executive power. The country is well launched on the road to autocracy, and the President is leading the MAGA faithful and the rest […]

The Republic and the Ballroom

The debate is not fundamentally about architecture or design. It is a debate about whether public institutions reflect democratic values—or increasingly reflect the image and tastes of a single leader. The current controversy surrounding the proposed White House ballroom, the “Trump Arch,” and now the repainting of the Old Executive Office Building has generated intense […]

Afraid to Speak, Afraid for Democracy: New Poll Finds Widespread Concern About Rising Authoritarianism

Host Lauren C. Anderson, former senior FBI executive, sits down with pollster Stefan Hankin of Lincoln Park Strategies and journalist Joel Anderson of The Ringer and Slate to unpack a national poll released in May 2026. Key findings: 54% of Americans say they hesitate to express political views at work, online, or in their communities […]

Transcript Episode 27: Afraid to Speak, Afraid for Democracy: New Poll Finds Widespread Concern About Rising Authoritarianism