[Tyler Cowen] How gender relations define today’s politics

Explanations of the Donald Trump phenomenon often start with conservatives versus liberals, the rural-urban split, or perhaps race and immigration. Those all play a role, but the accumulation of evidence is validating a hypothesis from New York Times columnist Ross Douthat: A big and very fundamental split in American electoral politics today is between different understandings of sex and gender relations.　I am struck by a recent poll by the Pew Research Center. Millennial women, defined as the

April 9, 2018

[Jonathan Zimmerman] Where does MLK fit in today’s #MeToo world?

Last November, students protesting sexual violence at Morehouse College in Atlanta defaced a church named after the school’s most famous graduate. The Martin Luther King Jr. Chapel was spray-painted with the words “Practice what you preach Morehouse + end rape culture,” which police officers covered up with a brown tarp.　Today, the students might protest the sexual misconduct of Martin Luther King Jr. himself. Over the past few days, during commemorations of the 50th anniversary of his murder, w

April 8, 2018

[Stephen L. Carter] Spies tracking our phones? Don’t be so shocked

The press has been in a lather of late over reports that the Department of Homeland Security had discovered evidence that cellphone tracking tools were being used by “unauthorized” parties in and around Washington. Formally known as International Mobile Subscriber Identity catchers, and often called stingrays, these devices fool your phone’s baseband into believing it is in contact with a cell tower. IMSI catchers can use your phone’s signal to track your movements and contacts. In some cases th

April 8, 2018

[Martin Schram] How Trump, down to last option, got tough on Putin

Finally, and most unexpectedly, President Donald J. Trump climaxed yet another wacky, whipsawing week by doing the one thing even his handwringing, privately-panicky fellow Republicans never really believed he’d ever do.　He did precisely what he’d been insisting he was doing all along.　He just got tough with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Very tough -- financially and personally (at least by extension, since Putin, often called the world’s richest man, is believed to have links to many that t

April 8, 2018

[Pritzker & Gutierrez] US Census not about citizenship

As former secretaries of commerce, with direct oversight of the US Census Bureau, we have grave concerns about the proposed addition of a citizenship question to the decennial census in 2020. If included, this question will put in jeopardy the accuracy of the data that the census collects, and increase costs. 　The census should not be a partisan issue. Mandated under the US constitution, the census requires the actual enumeration of all persons in the United States, not simply all citizens. In f

April 6, 2018

[Tyler Cowen] Two American power centers are about to clash

Not long ago I attended an informal session in San Francisco on, basically, how to make the world a better place. Most of the attendees were from the Bay Area, and the technology industry. I was struck by how their approaches and perspectives differed from what I am used to, living in Northern Virginia, just outside of Washington.　Many participants announced visions of a better and very different future, such as letting top scientists operate without financial constraints. It was implied that we

April 5, 2018

[Gordon Brown] The new global youth movement

The recent March for Our Lives in the United States inspired millions not just across America, but also around the world. Until the nationwide demonstrations on March 24, most people thought that little new could be added to the conversation about the seemingly endless rounds of gun killings.Yet the brave and moving way in which, out of their anguish and pain, young people told the world that decisions on gun laws and safe schools are too important to be left to adults who had let them down has

April 5, 2018

[Jason Schenker] Trade tensions are already hitting industrial-metal prices

The prices of industrial metals, oil and other commodities have risen significantly since the Chinese manufacturing recession ended in June 2016. But many have fallen from their highs in January 2018, first in reaction to the risk of higher interest rates and now, more critically, because of trade tensions and the potential for global manufacturing and growth to be slower than expected.　The potential for slower growth due to US and reciprocal tariffs was highlighted by the International Monetary

April 5, 2018

[Jeffrey D. Sachs] China’s bold energy vision

The boldest plan to achieve the targets set by the 2015 Paris climate agreement comes from China. The Paris accord commits the world’s governments to keeping global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius relative to the preindustrial level. This can be accomplished mainly by shifting the world’s primary energy sources from carbon-based fossil fuels to zero-carbon, renewable (wind, solar, hydro, geothermal, ocean, biomass) and nuclear energy by the year 2050. China’s Global Energy Interconnectio

April 4, 2018

[Baltimore Sun] Does Trump even understand DACA?

Over the weekend, President Donald Trump shared some thoughts on immigration that strongly suggest he either isn’t paying much attention to current events or he’s just trying to stir up his core supporters again in the face of congressional inaction and negative attention in the media. Either is a possibility; a combination of both is a probability. If he can denounce dark-skinned immigrants, the Mexican government and Democrats in one fell tweet, this is a president who is willing to put in the

April 4, 2018

[Jay Ambrose] Securing trade peace with China

Getting in a trade war with China or anyone else is economically suicidal, a way to disrupt everything and anything, and here is hope that what we are really seeing is the art of the deal. What you do is make egregious demands and then back down as the other side sees the hurt of obstinance and the benefit of concessions.　Maybe that’s what the Trump administration is really up to in its talk about $60 billion worth of tariffs on China, and there are signs of such a thing. China, in addition to s

April 4, 2018

[Virginia Postrel] Politics of ‘Roseanne’ are recognition and empathy

Before Wednesday evening, I’d never seen a single episode of “Roseanne.” But in the interest of cultural commentary, I cranked up my ABC.com app to see what all the fuss -- and the extraordinarily high ratings -- was about. Here’s what I learned.　1) It’s knowing. From the moment Dan Conner (John Goodman) wakes with a start, we’re in a familiar world rarely seen on TV. His face is covered by a plastic mask with a breathing tube. The show assumes the audience recognizes what it is: a CPAP (continu

April 3, 2018