ArcaMax

You may wonder why President Donald Trump is doing everything he can, day by day, to destroy faith in democracy in little and large ways, on the job day and night. I have an answer that will presently be revealed.

It involves a modest proposal.

Here in the capital, our hearts are hurting over his huge new White House ballroom construction (...Read more

SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA -- On an August day way back when in 1974, the president of the United States resigned, and my mother disappeared. She didn't take any of us kids with her and didn't say where she was going. But she was gone for a couple hours.

The day that Richard Nixon finally faced mounting public pressure against him for his ...Read more

Since the Fourth of July celebration of the nation's 250 years was a bust, let's look at the next anniversary, noting when a Puritan governor declared that we would be as "a city upon a hill" in 1630.

Almost 400 years later, in our summer of desperation, that's a quaint notion.

Massachusetts Bay Colony leader John Winthrop reached for a ...Read more

Madison, Wisconsin -- This is my hometown, where it's consoling to be in a sane state in high summer.

Since Maine Democrats fell for the oysterman hook, line and sinker, they deserve what they get in November. Choosing Graham Platner's rocky record over a seasoned woman governor, Janet Mills -- who could have defeated Sen. Susan Collins in a ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- The Trump whirling dervish has come and gone to Turkey -- to demand NATO hand over Greenland! -- leaving a city exhausted by his wild Fourth of July displays.

But first, it was so great to see legions of World Cup soccer fans all over the world, at all hours, cheering on their countries, especially the England and Mexico teams ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- No, friends, Romans, countrymen, it wasn't enough to murder the White House Rose Garden.

It wasn't enough to tear down its stately East Wing, where guests gathered and mingled. It wasn't enough to brandish "Donald J. Trump" over "John F. Kennedy" on the marble wall of the national performing arts center.

Oh, and he just closed ...Read more

What a glorious day in June.

The Barack Obama Presidential Center opening in Chicago gave us a complete contradiction of the times we've been living through. Community rather than chaos, lightness versus darkness, and hope instead of fear.

I might add: beautiful music and language that lifted up instead of tearing down. A garden, a library, ...Read more

I swam in the beautiful bay water three times that day. Salt on skin does wonders. Six of us had a sundown dinner on the roof, with a homemade almond cake a la creme and fruit for dessert, a ferry and lighthouse in the distance.

Everyone around the table at the house party was a true-blue friend. Some I'd known forever, so it seemed.

Our ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- June 27 is coming up, the date of the 2024 debate when America watched Joe Biden tank the election to Donald Trump.

Remember? It would be hard to forget Democrats' pain when we saw a ghostly Biden self-destruct and grope for words. Jill Biden tried to pretend otherwise, but the damage was done.

America is still paying dearly ...Read more

Change is not my best friend. Not since the day my family moved from Wisconsin to California when I was eight.

Leaving the land of my grandmother, the skating rink and snowballs in winter, Lake Mendota and the tennis courts in summer, the community garden and all that seemed unfair.

The Fourth of July parade for kids was pure Americana. I ...Read more

Here in Washington, D.C., we endure slights of the president's barking, his constant use of capital letters and his ever-present red ties. These are forms of shouting, weapons of psychological warfare that he wields as the master of repetition. Then there's the 250-foot Arch he plans to build, which would block the view across Arlington ...Read more

Are we almost at the point of no return? Let America be America again, please, in a post-Donald Trump world.

Rebuilding our institutions, arts and trust in government is not a sure thing. Given a global economic, environmental or medical crisis, the endeavor could cross country boundaries, as natural historian David Attenborough said, in "an ...Read more