As we reach the end of another tumultuous year, it's clearly time for taking stock in advance of even more critical times ahead. Nothing better indicates the urgency of doing so than this recent poll result: 71% of Republicans believe our democracy is under major threat....
It's said that in life, we go through three stages: dependence, independence, and interdependence. As a nation, like mid-lifers in crisis, we've been stuck in the second stage for more than 250 years...
Never in our history have we seemed so lost, so unsure of who we are. Instinctively, like children, we seek to go back to our beginnings. But origins nearly always prove more complex than we expected...
There are six degrees of separation from the past, not in sequence, but overlapping, like waves: embrace it, reject it, avoid it, ignore it, learn from it, build on it...
At a time when mistrust is at its highest levels since the Civil War, we have to work together like we haven't since World War II. New understandings and new forms of engagement are going to be necessary in all sectors...
In his farewell address, Washington was very clear about his top-of-mind fear for our democracy: political parties. And yet it's hard to imagine the progress we've made w/out the Ds and Rs...
Presidential transitions are normally quiet affairs. This year's, belated to begin with, promises to be long, and touch all aspects of American life as few have seen government so much as attempt...
Normally we put this issue out in early January, but this year, 2020 lasted longer than usual, all the way to December 51st. The good news is that even though 2020 seemed to go on forever, it produced many ideas and initiatives worth re-sharing...
It sounds like such a gloomy way to begin the new year, especially after the gloom-filled epithet of a year preceding. But post-mortems are actually the first green shoots, the beginning of hope...
This past month, American democracy had a near-death experience. It's clear that we need to treat not just the symptoms, but the disease, and find ways to prevent it from recurring, but how?...
