This is politics in plain English for normal people and the common good.

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SCOTUS isn’t the final word on anything

In the wake of a Supreme Court decision in June that took a shiv to democracy, I said liberals really truly need understand something: “The high court is no longer your friend. It ceased being your friend nearly two decades ago. It was just hard to see until lately. It’s time to take matters into…

‘It means killing people’

I can’t stop thinking about the time Tucker Carlson spoke the truth about the Republican Party without meaning to. It was during the president’s trip to North Korea. The Fox News host was trying to rationalize Donald Trump’s meeting with Kim Jong-un. No president has ever given that country’s murderous dynastic dictator so much prestige…

‘Republic,’ ‘democracy,’ and ‘liberal democracy’

The Times’ Jamelle Bouie debunked the whole “we’re a republic, not a democracy thing.” For those unfamiliar with it, this is a tired trope that racists (for the most part) roll out to justify minority rule (think voter suppression). Bouie writes that while the founders were skeptical of direct democracy, they nevertheless aimed to create…

Programming note

Hi all, I’m taking a break next week. The Editorial Board won’t publish Monday through Thursday. I might jump in now and then with one of these threads. But I won’t be writing think-y pieces. While I’m away, I hope you have a great week. Cheers, JS

Trump ‘orders’ firms out of China

China issued new retaliatory tariffs this morning on American goods. The president then posted a retaliatory tweet in which he “ordered” US firms to stop doing business with China. That, as a result, spooked Wall Street into a nosedive. It’s rare when cause and effect are so clear in the market. Donald Trump can’t order…