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Ross Douthat

June

Joe Biden and Jill Biden arrive on Marine in East Hampton to convince wealthy donors he can fight the election.

Joe Biden must quit now, in case he does actually win

The prospect of Biden as president for four more years is too scary to contemplate: the entire global order will be endangered if there is an empty vessel in the Oval Office.

February

Joe Biden insists that his memory is fine at a hurriedly called press conference last week.

Biden should step aside – but what is the safest way to do so?

Hanging on or handing over to Kamala Harris both contain huge risks. There is a third choice if the president wants to take it.

Birth rates are falling. Why family-friendly policies are not enough

The stunning fertility collapse in some countries is “not primarily driven by economics or family policies”. It’s more to do with culture and psychology.

October 2023

Destroyed furniture and charred walls are seen in a home that came under attack during a massive Hamas invasion into Kibbutz Nir Oz, Israel.

The victory Hamas has already won

Hamas is not as exposed as the Islamic State — not even close. Hamas and its terrorists have held or expanded their popular support across the Muslim world.

January 2023

Chian’s demographic shock has come much sooner than anyone expected.

Five rules for a world dominated by ageing, not climate

Pensions, family sizes, even innovation and fighting wars cannot be the same in societies that are not replacing themselves.

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October 2022

Liz Truss may have more answers than anyone thinks.

Is nostalgia killing conservatism?

The libertarian policies of Liz Truss look weirdly out of step. Until you consider the failings of both centrists and right-wing populists in Europe.

September 2022

A Ukrainian solider atop a wrecked Russian tank.

Ukraine’s wins will start reshaping the politics of this war

Russia had hoped to break Ukraine with a gas war on the West. Now it looks as though the battlefield will be decisive.

August 2022

Meryl Streep portrays a famously autocratic fashion magazine editor in 2006’s ‘The Devil Wears Prada’.

Why culture needs less Netflix and more Miranda Priestly

Fashion stores, music labels and streaming services are chock-full of copycats. Here’s how to resist the age of the algorithm.

January 2022

Meryl Streep as President Janie Orlean in Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up.

Don’t Look Up deserves a second cut and a better ending

The Netflix hit allegory on climate change and populism lets the expert class off far too lightly.

May 2021

The lab leak theory, like the virus, won’t go away

After 3.5 million deaths, a question persists: did COVID-19 escape accidentally from a Wuhan institute rather than leaping from bats or pangolins to humans?

April 2021

Following on from Donald Trump, Joe Biden is going to “Make America Great Again”.

Forget FDR and Lyndon Johnson, Joe Biden is channelling Donald Trump

A close look at the Biden agenda reveals a President seizing the populist opportunity that his predecessor let slip away.

January 2021

President Donald Trump addresses his supporters at a rally before the riot.

More than a riot, but not a coup: how Trump made a fantasy real

Rather than the first act of a mortal threat to American democracy, the mob storming of the Capitol was the culmination of the distorted reality that is 'The Trump Show'.

November 2020

Donald Trump's electoral triumph sends a message about America's social inequality.

There will be a Trumpism after Trump

Despite plague, economic crisis and his own immense faults, Trump was a competitive candidate with a coalition that was more blue-collar and nonwhite than the Republican vote in 2012.

In a polarised America, landslides give way to nail-biters

This election is one more sign, as if we needed more, that our system’s method of uniting power with legitimacy is slowly losing both.

October 2020

If you judge an authoritarian by institutional influence, Donald Trump falls absurdly short.

There will be no Trump coup

One can oppose Trump, even hate him, and still feel very confident he will leave office if he is defeated, and any attempt to cling to power illegitimately will be a theatre of the absurd.

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Donald Trump was late to every other opportunity where early or draconian action might have made a difference.

COVID-19 was a missed chance to transform this presidency

By choosing wisely, Donald Trump could have vindicated his world view and taken rapid action to contain the plague he has now caught.

September 2020

Gen X voters remember the success of American conservative politics, not its failures.

Why Gen X is the new bastion of America's Republican vote

The generation that came of age in the stability of the Reagan era is not as tempted by the left as are Baby Boomers and Millennials.

Donald Trump wears a mask after earlier playing down the seriousness of the virus infection.

Not all of America's virus failures are Trump's

I have argued that the blundering of the Trump administration, while real and deadly, may not be responsible for the bulk of America's coronavirus fatalities.

July 2020

Beijing bind: Trump is too populist and Biden too centrist too contain China.

COVID-19 could kill the Chinese century

COVID-19 gave Beijing a strategic opportunity, but that might not last if the US changes policy under a President Joe Biden or any Republican other than Trump.

June 2020

The political history of both the 1960s and the 2010s suggests a strong presumption against the political effectiveness of looting or vandalism or arson.

The case against looting and burning

History shows that violent uprising rarely leads to real change with more progressive social policy.

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/by/ross-douthat-p4yvk2