WASHINGTON — A reactionary is someone who wishes to return, usually unrealistically, to an earlier and more appealing era. We have two reactionaries running for president. Both peddle agendas that promise to re-create a reassuring past. We are being fed different varieties of nostalgia. Neither will work. Donald Trump is most explicit. He pledges to […]
Op-Eds
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Service could bring people together
WASHINGTON — After this hellacious election is over, what in the world will we do as a nation to pull ourselves together? At the moment, the polls strongly suggest that we will again vote for a divided government with a Democratic president and at least one house of Congress under Republican control. Which policies might […]
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The year of the normal Republican
Mike Pence’s vice-presidential debate victory was a striking blow for normality. In fact, beneath the sound and the fury of the Trump campaign, normal Republicans are having a pretty good year. Pence had an exemplary introduction on the national stage. GOP Senate candidates are holding their own. House Speaker Paul Ryan, flying the banner of […]
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Challenge begins after the election
I used to love “The X-Files.” Like millions of Americans, I unfailingly followed FBI agents Mulder and Scully’s search for the truth in a labyrinth of conspiracy. But a few years on, after one too many red herrings and blind alleys of plot, it began to be obvious to me the conspiracy would never be […]
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Trump exposes corrupt U.S. tax code
NEW YORK — Donald Trump has done America a great public service. No, really. By taking advantage of the country’s tax laws in such spectacular fashion, he has shone a spotlight on the corruption that is at the heart of American politics — the tax code. When most people discuss taxes, they tend to talk […]
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The sad legacy of Barack Obama
WASHINGTON — Only amid the most bizarre, most tawdry, most addictive election campaign in memory could the real story of 2016 be so effectively obliterated, namely, that with just four months left in the Obama presidency, its two central pillars are collapsing before our eyes: domestically, its radical reform of American health care, aka Obamacare; […]
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Poland Spring committed to Maine
Those who are opposed to the idea of Poland Spring exploring a new spring source in Rumford need to do a little more research. This potential business venture in Rumford does not pose a threat to the local water supply — or anywhere else the company operates for that matter. Poland Spring is a valued, […]
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Ranked-choice voting would improve politics in Maine
The vitriol that people are seeing and hearing during this campaign season shows that things have been getting progressively worse each year. Question 5 on the ballot this November proposes a better system for electing politicians in Maine: Ranked-choice voting. It used to be that conservative Democrats and liberal Republicans helped to balance out the […]
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No substance to latest Trump claim
Having lost badly to Hillary Clinton in their first debate, Donald Trump has turned to a subject on which he can claim expertise: having affairs. Not his own, in this case, but Bill Clinton’s sexual indiscretions, which he is attempting to hang around Hillary’s neck. The logistical challenge is obvious: Most of the world regards […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
How Trump corrupts the GOP
MANCHESTER, N.H. — Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., has tried for months to walk a high wire on the vexing subject of Donald Trump. This week, she fell off. Her tumble, on what most of us would see as an easy question about whether Trump should be regarded as a “role model,” came during a debate […]