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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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Opinion >  Syndicated columns

Michelle Goldberg: How did so many elected Democrats miss Biden’s infirmity?

In 2022, after I wrote a column arguing that Joe Biden was too old to run for reelection, I had a bunch of conversations and at least one cable TV debate with Democrats who thought I was wrong. I don’t remember there being much difference between what these Democrats said publicly and privately; I certainly wasn’t hearing off-the-record whispers about Biden’s decline. Instead, officials and pundits I spoke to seemed convinced that it would be crazy for the party to give up the advantages of incumbency, that a primary risked creating nasty fissures among various Democratic factions, and, most relevantly, that Biden’s legislative successes proved he was still up to the job.
Opinion >  Syndicated columns

Michelle Goldberg: Can Hakeem Jeffries break through?

Recently I went down to Washington to speak to Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, after he gave a speech marking Donald Trump’s calamitous first 100 days in office. At a time when many Democrats feel leaderless, Jeffries, usually a relentlessly on-message inside operator, had been stepping further into the public eye. Not long before we spoke, he’d appeared on a live taping of the “Raging Moderates” podcast in New York City; it was, he said, probably the 18th or 19th podcast he’d done since February. On April 27, he spent more than 12 hours holding a livestreamed sit-in on the Capitol steps with Sen. Cory Booker to draw attention to Republican plans to ravage the federal safety net.
Opinion >  Syndicated columns

Commentary: Why cutting the Department of Energy’s budget is a good thing

Media coverage of President Donald Trump’s recommended Department of Energy budget has been predictably negative. It has focused heavily on his proposed cuts, with the word “slash” appearing in numerous headlines. But his budget is more accurately described as a major policy shift—and a very beneficial one. If Congress passes this budget so the president can sign it into law, then it’s goodbye ...
Opinion >  Syndicated columns

Mark Gongloff: Corporate America owes the rest of us $87 trillion

Most climate-change deniers don’t even bother fighting the established science anymore: The planet is warming, human activity is the cause, and we can do something about it if we really try. Modern deniers will concede all that, but fire back that the “do something about it” part is too hard, too expensive to be worth trying. We have to be pragmatic, they’ll say, and keep burning fossil fuels to make life easier on people.
Opinion >  Syndicated columns

Commentary: Where is the ‘real America’?

Is there such a thing as a “real America”? A battle now rages over this simple question. Some Democratic party operatives claim the real America are so-called “Trump voters,” who they say they need to better “study” in order to win future elections. Many Republican voices argue the real America are just those who support the new administration 100% of the time. Still, others assert that ...
Opinion >  Syndicated columns

Erwin Chemerinsky: Trump wants to topple the republic’s last line of defense

The arrest of a Wisconsin judge in her chambers is just the latest and most dramatic effort by the Trump administration to intimidate the judiciary. It follows the playbook of other countries where those seeking authoritarian power have sought to remove judges and lessen their authority. President Donald Trump and those around him know that at this point the only real check on his actions will ...
Opinion >  Syndicated columns

Bret Stephens: Trump is about to steal my friend’s Christmas — and yours

I first met Dane Chapin, a San Diego-area entrepreneur, in 2012, when he gave me a ride in his Prius and told me I was dead wrong about climate change. We’ve been close friends ever since. Sometimes he’s to my left politically, sometimes to my right. I’ve always admired his curiosity, optimism and independent thinking, especially when we disagree – as we did over his vote for Donald Trump in the last election.
Opinion >  Syndicated columns

David Brooks: Trump’s strength is his greatest weakness

I’ve detested at least three-quarters of what the Trump administration has done so far, but it possesses one quality I can’t help admiring: energy. I don’t know which cliche to throw at you, but it is flooding the zone, firing on all cylinders, moving rapidly on all fronts at once. It is operating at a tremendous tempo, taking the initiative in one sphere after another.
Opinion >  Syndicated columns

Gautam Mukunda: I guess Elon Musk doesn’t remember Econ 101

In 1854, Abraham Lincoln, who would not be elected president for another six years, mused about the purpose of the government he would one day save. He concluded that “the legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do for themselves – in their separate and individual capacities.” In this, as in so many things, Lincoln saw to the heart of an issue that still plagues us. His insight tells us that many of the DOGE cutbacks, which are supposedly aimed at “waste, fraud and abuse,” are slashing away at government’s core function: providing public goods.