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A Disgusting Night for Democracy
The 90-minute spectacle tonight calls into question the value of having any “debates” of this sort ever again. No one knows more about public life than he or she did before this disaster began; some...
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Where Harris Succeeded and Pence Failed
Will this latest debate make a measurable difference in the outcome of the election? Probably not; vice-presidential debates rarely do. But something significant may have happened last night, and it...
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Trump’s Indifference Amounts to Negligent Homicide
Negligent homicide has a specific meaning in the law books. The standards of proof and categories of offense vary from state to state. But the essence is: Someone died because someone else did not...
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How Biden Should Investigate Trump
This article was published online on December 9, 2020.I. A Crimes Commission?As he prepares to occupy the White House, President-elect Joe Biden faces a decision rare in American history: what to do...
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Time for Consequences
The most immediate challenge any new president faces is deciding what not to do. For Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the catastrophes of the past four days have not radically changed the way they should...
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Why Biden’s Inaugural Address Succeeded
Political speeches follow a surprisingly simple set of rules—or at least the successful ones do. Newly sworn-in President Joe Biden observed them all in his inaugural address. Although his 20 minutes...
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A ‘Climate Corps’ of California Volunteers
Editor’s Note: This article previously appeared in a different format as part of The Atlantic’s Notes section, retired in 2021. Back in the early days of the pandemic, when some people imagined that...
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What Matters in Tonight’s Debate
Editor’s Note: This article previously appeared in a different format as part of The Atlantic’s Notes section, retired in 2021. This evening we’ll see Donald Trump and Joe Biden on the same stage, in...
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What Happens After the Election
Editor’s Note: This article previously appeared in a different format as part of The Atlantic’s Notes section, retired in 2021. What else is going on in the country, with less than two weeks in this...
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How to Reconnect Rural and Urban America
Editor’s Note: This article previously appeared in a different format as part of The Atlantic’s Notes section, retired in 2021. As it was in 2016, so it is again in 2020: A central axis of...
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What Post-pandemic Repair Could Look Like
Editor’s Note: This article previously appeared in a different format as part of The Atlantic’s Notes section, retired in 2021. The pandemic ravaged America’s big cities first, and now its countryside....
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How Michael Jones Changed Our Daily Lives
Editor’s Note: This article previously appeared in a different format as part of The Atlantic’s Notes section, retired in 2021. Last week, at his home in Sunnyvale, California, a man named Michael T....
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Learning From the New Deal—For the Next Recovery
Editor’s Note: This article previously appeared in a different format as part of The Atlantic’s Notes section, retired in 2021. A few days ago, I was talking with the mayor of a medium-sized “red...
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When a Company Invests in an ‘Underdog City’
Editor’s Note: This article previously appeared in a different format as part of The Atlantic’s Notes section, retired in 2021. The country is full of “underdog cities”—communities and regions that are...
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Why the Our Towns Documentary Is Timely
Editor’s Note: This article previously appeared in a different format as part of The Atlantic’s Notes section, retired in 2021. This evening—April 13, at 9 p.m. ET—HBO will air its new documentary Our...
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A Film ‘for the 80 Percent’
Editor’s Note: This article previously appeared in a different format as part of The Atlantic’s Notes section, retired in 2021. Last night HBO aired its new documentary, Our Towns, which grew out of a...
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What the Bidens Understand About Community College
Editor’s Note: This article previously appeared in a different format as part of The Atlantic’s Notes section, retired in 2021. In the last week of April, Joe Biden gave his address to a joint session...
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How FDR Changed Political Communication
Editor’s Note: This article previously appeared in a different format as part of The Atlantic’s Notes section, retired in 2021. The renowned filmmaker Ken Burns has a new project called UNUM, about the...
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Dan Frank Was a Gifted and Generous Editor
Editor’s Note: This article previously appeared in a different format as part of The Atlantic’s Notes section, retired in 2021. I don’t know how many people in the reading public would recognize the...
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What Ancient Rome Tells Us About Today’s Senate
Editor’s Note: This article previously appeared in a different format as part of The Atlantic’s Notes section, retired in 2021. The U.S. Senate’s abdication of duty at the start of this Memorial Day...
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Does the U.S. Senate Resemble Ancient Rome?
Editor’s Note: This article previously appeared in a different format as part of The Atlantic’s Notes section, retired in 2021. Over the weekend, this space held the third installment in the “Lessons...
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Our Towns: State Programs Are Laboratories for the Nation
Editor’s Note: This article previously appeared in a different format as part of The Atlantic’s Notes section, retired in 2021. My wife, Deb, has written about the concept of “Big Little Ideas.” These...
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Will the U.S. Pass a Point of No Return?
Editor’s Note: This article previously appeared in a different format as part of The Atlantic’s Notes section, retired in 2021. This is the latest installment in a series that began back in 2019, with...
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Biden’s State of the Union Did Something New
Listening to Joe Biden give his first official State of the Union address on Tuesday night, I thought: This is strong. It is clear; it’s the right message in the right language. It reflects the speaker...
View ArticleAn Unlucky President, and a Lucky Man
Life is unfair, as a Democratic president once put it. That was John F. Kennedy, at a press conference early in his term.Jimmy Carter did not go through as extreme a range of the blessings and...
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