If Joe Biden were, as a matter of the principle, devoted to defending democracy at all costs, the first thing he would do would be to step aside for some younger, more capable, less radioactive Democrat with a much better chance of beating Trump.

What happened, one wonders, to the Trump who for weeks has faced growing scrutiny over his increasingly authoritarian and violent rhetoric?

If the massacre in Maine had been the first, there might be some understanding of how it happened. If there’d been no Columbine two and a half decades earlier. If no one had shot and killed four people further down Interstate 295 in Bowdoin and Yarmouth, six months earlier. But, not a peaceful year has gone by since the Columbine massacre. Every one of the last 25 years has been cratered with gun violence and the willful destruction of human life.

China is no longer just a trading partner with whom we have differences. It’s become a global adversary using trade to dominate militarily as well as economically.

Here is the embarrassing past the Biden administration prefers no 2024 American voter will notice: In 2021, the Biden administration decided to remove the Houthis from America’s terrorist list. … By delisting the Houthis, the Biden administration reversed Trump’s policy — but in the real world of physical suffering, Bidenites backed the Houthis fractious war and intentional starvation.

Chris Christie gave his party a measure of self-respect by going after Trump as a threat to America when most of the other Republican candidates wouldn’t even point out his criminality.

In the larger world of politics and government, we have a long-running trend of people who should be leaders opting instead to be showpeople.

Instead of dwelling on Donald Trump’s personality, Washington politicians and the media ought to be examining the reasons behind voter anger and desire to move the country in a different direction.

A senior Pentagon official said “The Ukrainians are already fighting for their existence. But the United States has a special obligation to avoid a nuclear war that would end all life on Planet Earth forever.”

Like “critical race theory,” DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) has become another example of a phrase or acronym popularized by progressives, then hijacked by the right to make it sound downright sinister.