JonathanRauch.com

The voters need help

Relying solely on voters to choose presidential candidates is a recent and radical experiment, and it has failed. We need peer review...

Rethinking polarization

A decade ago, we thought we were dealing with ordinary disagreement. But this is not your father’s polarization...

Wait a minute!

Instant posting to social media like Twitter is a bug, not a feature. A lot of online sociopathy could be solved with a pause button...

The court got it right

Extreme partisan gerrymanders are a problem. But the Supreme Court is wise to refuse the role of fixing them...

Autocorrect

The internet spreads lies faster than truth. But what if robot fact-checkers can detect and tag lies the moment politicians utter them?...

Nothing to fear but...

America's prosperity, peace, and safety would be the envy of any country. So why are so many Americans so angry and scared?...

Republicans might dump Trump

Any number of factors could collapse GOP support for Trump. Forcing him to quit would be good for the party, and for democracy, too...

I’m not LGBTQ. No one is.

The awkward acronym embodies what has gone wrong with identity politics. Instead, how about just Q?...

Star Trek saw Trump coming

The classic 1960s TV series has a lot to teach us about the 45th president and his sociopathic universe...

How reform really happens

Legalizing marijuana and gay marriage seemed impossible. Yet they succeeded by learning from the same mistakes...

Trump’s war on reality

The president and his troll army are out to demolish our Constitution of Knowledge. Here’s their battle plan and how to fight back...

If we’re so rich, how come we’re not happy?

Because happiness is relative and local. Which is also why conservatives need to start worrying about inequality...

A judicial Masterpiece

In Masterpiece Cakeshop, Justice Anthony Kennedy shows why he is America’s shrewdest politician—and gays’ best friend...

Rediscovering wisdom

Science has uncovered the secrets of the most precious of human qualities—just when politics has forgotten it...

The reinvention of aging

School. Work. Retire. Die. The traditional model for aging no longer matches reality. Fortunately, the future is already here...

Tribalism strikes back!

Modern humans thought we had tribalism licked. Instead, it has licked us. A new book explains the consequences...

Bumblecore politics

Pumping amateurs into politics and bypassing careerists and party gatekeepers is a bad idea, especially for progressives...

Liberalism’s identity hell

The trouble with liberals’ identity-politics obsession is that they aren’t really doing politics at all...

Is Trump ‘treasonous’?

Steve Bannon went and used the T-word. By showing what’s at stake, he annoyed lawyers but did democracy a favor...

Re-engineering politicians

Parties and officeholders used to recruit and vet political candidates. Now activist groups select our politicians, long before we vote...