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- Margins of Error
Look closely at almost anything and you'll find data—lots of it. But what are those numbers really saying about who we are and what we believe? Harry Enten is on a mission to find out. [TheTopNews] Read More.3 days ago - CNN Political BriefingThe political news you need to know, in 10 minutes or less. Hosted by David Chalian. [TheTopNews] Read More.3 days ago
- The Other Celebration of America
The celebrations of America’s 250th birthday, though they offered many wonderful moments, did not provide the sweeping sense of national unity for which some people had hoped. Some Americans found the July 4 weekend too political, too polarizing, and offering too much President Trump.But another event this summer has proved to be a source of infectious patriotism: the World Cup. A tournament that started with so much angst—so much “ugh,” some might say—has turned into a joyful celebration of America. A nation that, by reputation, doesn’t even like soccer is now rallying around its upstart team. TV ratings are at an all-time high, attendance records are being set, and the American squad can advance to the quarterfinals if it triumphs in tonight’s game against Belgium. Politics have mostly been irrelevant (well, until yesterday’s red-card controversy), and many Americans have briefly set aside their red-versus-blue differences to rally together in the nation’s swirly red, white, and blue soccer kits.Something else has happened over the past four weeks of this tournament: People from around the world came to our shores and fell in love with our country. The United States’ international standing has been badly damaged in the Trump era—alliances have been strained, bombs have been dropped, foreign aid has been cut—yet waves of foreign visitors have been moved by what they have found. There have been exceptions, and some of the good vibes are surely online fabrications, but for many, the geopolitical tensions have been temporarily set aside. Thousands of Norwegians marveled at the lights of Times Square. Algerians were delighted by the warm welcome they received in Lawrence, Kansas. The Scots drank Boston out of beer. A supposed German tourist went viral for a chain-restaurant tour of the South. The America on display was the land of plenty: full supermarkets, air-conditioning that actually works in a heat wave, endless appetizers and breadsticks. The United States’ soft power now relies less on USAID than on Applebee’s.The respite may be brief. Right around when tonight’s U.S. match wraps up, Trump will depart Washington and head to a NATO summit in Turkey, where, if past is prologue, he could clash with world leaders over defense spending, the war in Ukraine, and who knows what else. A high-stakes midterm election is coming, and there is little expectation that the good feelings created by the American squad’s run will last. But right now, let’s enjoy… [TheTopNews] Read More.3 days ago - With Graham Platner, Democrats Got Drunk on the Beer TestLast September, the progressive strategist Morris Katz confessed to The New Yorker that the process by which he decided that Graham Platner was qualified to run for U.S. Senate required less time than drinking a cup of coffee. Actually, it seems to have been less a confession than a boast. “Within a few minutes of talking to him, I was, like, ‘This guy owes it to the country to run for Senate,’” Katz recalled.In the 10 months that have followed, a procession of unflattering stories have made clear how dreadfully irresponsible it was for Democrats to entrust the task of flipping what seems like the most necessary seat to secure their potential Senate majority to a man who had never run for office or led an organization of any size. The almost-certain final straw is a Politico report that alleges Platner raped a woman named Jenny Racicot in 2021. The story includes messages referring to the incident sent by Racicot two years later, before Platner contemplated running for office. Platner called any allegation of nonconsensual behavior “categorically untrue.”There is no longer much question as to whether Platner is suitable for public office, and even less question as to whether plucking him from political obscurity made any sense. A more pertinent question is: What could possibly drive a professional political strategist to support such a rapid promotion in mere minutes?One plausible reason appears to be political ideology. Katz and his allies have sought out candidates who are willing to castigate the Democratic Party for selling out the working class—which necessitates, or at least militates toward, candidates who have no experience inside the party. And whereas this ideological orientation requires an intensity of commitment, it does not require a mastery of policy detail.[Read: Maine has a Graham Platner problem]Dan Moraff, one of the strategists who helped select and vet Platner, “wants his candidates to back Medicare for All and characterize the Israel-Hamas conflict as a genocide, but beyond that, doesn’t believe voters care about detailed proposals,” The Wall Street Journal reported last month. Having a policy agenda that could fit comfortably on a Post-it note without omitting any important details certainly speeds up the process. Platner, indeed, has boiled down nearly all political problems to the perfidy of sinister oligarchs. Whatever the merits of this worldview, it does not demand much knowledge.But a second, at least as important reason for Platner’s lightning-fast… [TheTopNews] Read More.3 days ago
- If Graham Platner Won’t Quit, Democrats Need to Quit Him
If you are a Democrat, the logic of “Vote Blue No Matter Who” is close to impeccable. Any Democratic candidate for President or Senate, even if not especially charismatic or competent, at the very least wouldn’t nominate or approve right-wing judges hellbent on rolling back constitutional rights. But there are exceptions to any rule. And being credibly accused of rape is one of them. This is what happened on Monday when Jennifer Racicot, an ex-girlfriend of Graham Platner, the Democratic Senate nominee from Maine, told Politico that five years ago, he had nonconsensual intercourse with her. A subsequent boyfriend of Racicot’s, in whom she confided three years ago, corroborated her allegations. Racicot also shared private Facebook messages from 2023 in which she warned an acquaintance, “I will just very politely call him consensually careless at times,” adding, “when drunk.” While Platner called the allegations “categorically false” in a social media video, he implicitly opened the door to withdrawing from the race when he said, “We are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward.” He doesn’t have much time to reflect; the deadline for him to withdraw is Monday, July 13. Then the Maine Democratic Party would have until July 27 to replace him. If Democrats are going to retain any credibility as the party of women’s rights and the party that adheres to the rule of law, Platner cannot be supported. If Platner makes the stubborn decision to stay on the ballot, principled Democratic operatives and volunteers on his campaign team should quit, and principled Democratic donors should demand refunds and refuse to donate further. Would that mean Democrats need to cross party lines and support the incumbent Republican Susan Collins? Absolutely not. Maine’s election laws allow write-in candidates to run if they file before August 25. If Platner does not allow the Maine Democratic Party to supplant him on the ballot, party leaders should renounce support for him and rally behind an agreed-upon write-in candidate. Obviously, that would present a difficult path to defeating Collins. Still, Democrats would need to have faith that upholding core principles in Maine—regardless of how the Senate race turns out—would put them in a better position to take control of the House and Senate than allowing Platner to exemplify a grotesque hypocrisy that would strip Democrats of any moral authority and drag down candidates across the… [TheTopNews] Read More.3 days ago - America at 250: An Idealist Without Illusions
I sat on the curb the morning of July 4th, watching a parade in a suburb outside Chicago, where my wife and I were visiting her mother. My thoughts turned to the Bicentennial, which only about a quarter of today’s Americans are old enough to remember. I was 18 then—68 now—and even the best of AI medicine won’t get me to the 2076 Tricentennial alive. My first thought was how much worse off we are than in the summer of 1976, when genial Jerry Ford was in the White House, and Jimmy Breslin wrote a post-Watergate book called How the Good Guys Finally Won. I focused for a moment on the “finally.” This time, I’m afraid that even if the Trump nightmare ends, we’ll have the delay implicit in “finally” without the finality and satisfaction of the accountability we achieved after Nixon resigned half a century ago. It was around 1976 that I defined my politics as John F. Kennedy once did: An idealist without illusions. Pragmatic and sensible for a teenager, no? Two years ago, I wrote a book called American Reckoning, in which I confessed that the specter of tens of millions of voters still supporting Donald Trump after January 6 convinced me that I had more illusions about the good sense of the American people than I had assumed. Trump’s terrifying second term has only reinforced that cold realization. And if he successfully steals the midterms, it’s curtains for American democracy. And yet I felt strangely hopeful on the curb today, as the firetrucks and cheerleaders and Boy Scouts and Uncle Sam on stilts moved past me. I waved my little American flag with genuine patriotism and faith in our civic religion. Why? Why do I feel that way when we have a demented president, a corrupted Supreme Court, and a Republican Party and corporate class full of craven knee-benders who have failed the character test of their generation? The answer is not just that this is a resilient country that has overcome worse (if different) crises in the past. It’s that a rational assessment—one without illusions—of the last 50 years since I watched the fireworks over Chicago’s Navy Pier must yield to a recognition of how far this country has come. (For a sense of how the country changed between big 4th of July anniversaries, see The Flag Was Still There, by David McKean and M. Todd Bennett.) Yes, we have… [TheTopNews] Read More.3 days ago
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