Fintan O’Toole Like ‘Being Friends with a Hurricane’ For the fixers, enablers, and vassals who surround Donald Trump, the rewards of his friendship are not worth the risks. July 18, 2024 issue
Kenneth Roth Crimes of War in Gaza Civilians in Gaza are in grave danger from Israel’s disregard for international law. July 18, 2024 issue
Christine Henneberg ‘I Still Would Have Had That Abortion’ Well-meaning supporters of abortion tend to tell stories that focus on decisions rather than experiences. This is the rhetorical legacy of a reproductive rights movement that has for too long focused on “choice” rather than “rights.” June 20, 2024 issue
Gyan Prakash A ‘Life of Contradictions’ As Indian democracy comes under increasing threat from Hindu nationalists, the Dalit politician B.R. Ambedkar’s fight against caste inequality acquires a new significance. June 20, 2024 issue
Zhenya Bruno Russian Decency In the investigative journalist Elena Kostyuchenko’s new book about Russia, resistance is carried out through small, discreet acts. June 20, 2024 issue
Rachel Donadio Meloni’s Cultural Revolution What changes has Italy’s far-right prime minister wrought? June 6, 2024 issue
Sarah Birke and Carlos Bravo Regidor Mexico’s Politics of Bitterness On the eve of Mexico’s presidential elections, Andrés Manuel López Obrador maintains a high approval rating. But his constitutional chicanery and disregard for the law have undermined democracy, and his divisive rhetoric has polarized the country. June 6, 2024 issue
Isabella Hammad Acts of Language Amid the actual violence of Israel’s assault on Gaza, why have so many writers treated pro-Palestine speech as a threat? June 13, 2024
Fintan O’Toole Saboteur in Chief When you want to discredit government itself, obliviousness and ineptitude are their own rewards. December 6, 2018 issue
Fintan O’Toole The King and I Trump cannot function as a dictator, but he thinks and behaves like one. And this contradiction of an authoritarian in a democratic system turns upside down one of the central qualities of dictatorship: the monopoly on predictability. March 21, 2019 issue
Fintan O’Toole Trump’s Show Trial Republican senators are now quite openly behaving as courtiers. It is impertinent for courtiers even to go through the motions of putting the monarch on trial. February 27, 2020 issue
Fintan O’Toole Dress Rehearsal Trump’s attempt almost two years ago to undermine the 2020 election reads today like a blueprint drawn for a future autocrat. January 19, 2023 issue
Joan Didion Clinton Agonistes The Clinton impeachment was a situation in which a handful of people with something to gain (a book contract, a sinecure as a network “analyst,” or the justification of a failure to get either of the Clintons on Whitewater), managed to harness this phenomenon and ride it. October 22, 1998 issue
Theodore H. Draper Reagan’s Junta “The implications of government by secret presidential junta strike at the very roots of the American system of government. One way to think about them is to note how the Iran-contra affair has been defended or rationalized by those politically or ideologically closest to the President.” January 29, 1987 issue
I.F. Stone A Special Supplement: Impeachment There are two reasons for impeaching Richard Nixon. One is that this may be the only legal proceeding to determine the President’s complicity in the Watergate scandal. The other is that only so grave a step may deter a future President from such abuses. June 28, 1973 issue
David S. Reynolds He Was No Moses While he opposed slavery and southern secession early in his career, as president Andrew Johnson turned out to be an unsightly bigot. December 16, 2021 issue
Geoffrey Wheatcroft A Tenuous Mandate Labour’s landslide victory in the British elections was achieved with only a third of the popular vote. Will the new government be able to steer Britain out of crisis after fourteen years of failed Tory policies? August 15, 2024 issue
Gordon F. Sander Ready for War in Sweden The Russian invasion of Ukraine has so alarmed the Swedes that they have turned their backs on two centuries of neutrality and joined NATO, causing a profound shift in the country’s identity. August 15, 2024 issue
Susan Faludi All the News That’s Fit to Feel Amy Chozick’s accounts of her time covering Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign for The New York Times seem to exalt the work of the new girl reporters, who bring their “whole selves” to the story. But is such an emphasis on the chroniclers themselves not a return to the lifestyle precincts of the old “women’s pages”? August 15, 2024 issue
Fintan O’Toole Savior Complexes The final weeks of Joe Biden’s campaign were most dismaying for the ways he mirrored Trump. August 15, 2024 issue
Ben Rhodes American Descent Donald Trump and right-wing strongmen like him around the world are using grievance-based nationalism to gain power. When does this sort of populism tip into fascism? August 15, 2024 issue
Tariq Mir Kashmir: Crackdowns and Plunder By revoking Kashmir’s semiautonomous status, India has launched a settler-colonial project. July 21, 2024
Ada Wordsworth Uzbek Uncertainties Uzbekistan is divided between nostalgia for the Soviet past and patriotic hope for an independent future. July 18, 2024
Yi-Ling Liu Planet TikTok The app’s young user base, fragmented content, and amped-up algorithm helped it spread around the world. If the US bans it, what would be lost? July 9, 2024
Sean Wilentz The ‘Dred Scott’ of Our Time In ruling in favor of Donald Trump’s claims of immunity from prosecution for his official acts, the Supreme Court has invested the presidency with quasi-monarchial powers, paving the way for MAGA authoritarianism. August 15, 2024 issue
Fintan O’Toole Savior Complex Biden’s tragedy is that he has come to feel that he alone can rescue America. July 2, 2024