The two major parties in the United States deserve to fade away. That the electoral system continues to prop up the Republicans and the Democrats in the face of such obvious dysfunction testifies to a broken political process. This month Donald J. Trump is being inaugurated as 47th President of the United States, returning to…
“He has shown strength with his arm;/ he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts./ He has brought down the powerful from their thrones/ and lifted up the lowly./ He has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.” Luke 1: 51-53 I’m writing this column the day…
Americans have done it again. They have brought Donald J. Trump back to the White House after a hotly contested election campaign filled with plot twists worthy of an Agatha Christie novel. Who could have foreseen that President Joe Biden would bow out midstream and yield to his vice president, Kamala Harris? Who would have…
No, this is not about COVID or some other physical malady. It’s about how excessive political polarization is negatively affecting two of the world’s largest democracies in a way that threatens to erode their political institutions. The United States has one of the oldest functioning constitutional documents in the world dating back to 1787, when…
Apocalyptic language is being used to describe the upcoming U.S. presidential election. Democratic candidate Biden declares himself “an ally to the Light” to end the “Season of Darkness,” while Republican President Trump says Biden will demolish America’s cherished and sacred destiny if elected. The issues facing the U.S. are tremendous. There is COVID, racial tensions,…
Next month Americans return to the polls to elect a president and vice-president, members of Congress, and host of state- and county-level officials. They do so at a time of unprecedented crisis for the country. What happens on 3 November will have an impact on its future as we enter the third decade of this…
The irony of the question is not lost on this American author, given how much Canadians know about the United States, and how little interest Americans can show in other parts of the world, including our dear northern neighbor. Nevertheless, I can share two causes for concern and two reasons for hope among your neighbors…
The endless prairie all around is so bereft of people and buildings today that coming up on St. Stephenie Scandinavian Church from any direction is a resounding joy, even though the old church is but a shell of its former self. It’s hard to imagine the neighborhood teeming with Danes and Bohemians and Virginians, a Great Plains melting pot, each family – eleventy-seven kids too – trying to make a go of it on 80 acres.
No empire lasts forever. That’s the thesis of The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers by Paul Kennedy. Kennedy, a historian, says that all empires have this in common: militaries that make them great and also lead to their downfall. Eventually, the resources needed to keep a military powerful become a drain on the nation, and it begins to decline.
By choosing not to fully help Puerto Rico, the U.S. government is putting lives in jeopardy not only on the island itself, but on the mainland as well – and potentially elsewhere. The President of the United States seems to believe that if a place is poor, or is home to people with brown skin, it is worthless. We are seeing proof right now that – in an integrated global economy – there is no such thing as “over there,” anymore.
Two-hundred thirty years ago America’s founders met in Philadelphia to hammer out a new constitution that would bring the 13 newly independent states together into an innovative kind of union: a federal union based on a separation of powers among legislative, executive and judicial branches of government. At least this is what Americans have been led to believe over the centuries.
What sort of president will Trump be? Predictions are always hazardous, of course, because even the most cautious and conservative can be overtaken by unforeseen developments. But we can more easily see the sort of president Trump is unlikely to be.
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