Joel Mathis

A few weeks ago, I wrote for THE WEEK that democracy was slipping away, and I wondered if we would notice if and when we hit the tipping point. Many Americans understand that Trump and his allies have given the country's norms and institutions quite a beating, but they may not realize how close our democracy is to outright failure. The breakdown will not come all at once, in a single moment. Instead, constitutional governance might die a death by a thousand cuts . The shutdown of the Michigan legislature is a warning sign: American democracy is still alive, for now, but the end could be nearer than we think. That was before George Floyd. Tonight, the president threatened to send the military into American cities if protests over Floyd's death continue. He seemed to offer praise to peaceful protesters -- "we cannot allow ... peaceful protesters to be drowned out by an angry mob" -- but his words were immediately belied by his actions. Simply put, the president of the

Republicans are starting to sound scary. This is a sitting congressman: And this is a senator who stands a decent chance of being president someday. The first tweet advocates "hunting down" American citizens as though they were opponents in the misbegotten "war on terror." Cotton, meanwhile, served in the Army in Iraq, which was was war-on-terror-adjacent. One thing that was notable about America's war on terror efforts is how cruel they often were. Dick Cheney told us we'd have to work the "dark side," and so we did -- at Baghram, Gitmo, and at secret torture sites around the world. Civil libertarians opposed these actions in real time, and a few low-level soldiers were prosecuted. But nobody in a position of real responsibility was held accountable, and indeed, pundits like Marc Thiessen made their names and careers defending the torture regime. When Barack Obama took office, he declined to prosecute the war criminals in his predecessor's adm

Because he won't. Official White House photo, via Flickr At The Atlantic , Michael Steinberger sees the dearth of calls for the president's resignation as a flaw in the body politic, a failure to get angry enough about this awful president: Zelizer, of Princeton, thinks future historians will be astonished that Trump’s failure was tolerated to the point that his resignation wasn’t even part of the conversation. “I think we will look back and ask why people weren’t more furious,” he says. “Where was the outrage?” I don't think that's a fair question. People are plenty angry! Before impeachment, there were lots of calls for impeachment . Mainstream columnists even suggested that the 25th Amendment should be used to remove him. Lots of folks want to seem him not in office, it's clear.  So lamenting the lack of calls for resignation is a very narrow way of looking at this moment. It seems clear to me that Trump would never heed calls for his resignation, even if it pi

My dad and his father both loved to make homemade BBQ sauce for Sunday roasts and briskets. I've never really done that.  Today, my son made my dad's sauce recipe for Mother's Day brisket.  I am proud and humbled.

Dear son: The COVID-19 pandemic, and accompanying economic disaster, have made me think a lot about your future. I believe that you will grow up in a tougher, meaner world than I have. It’s possible that survival, and not just self-actualization, will be the challenge that you face. Do not let this scare you: We are privileged that survival has not been a problem in my memory, nor my parents'. But people all around the world and across history have spent lifetimes much closer to the edge than we have. They have accepted the challenge and persisted — because that is what life is all about. What alternative, really, is there? But I worry. I am a man who has made a living by talking and writing. It’s not made me rich, but for the most part I have been able to provide food and shelter on the income those skills provide. I am not sure such opportunities will be as widely available in the future. And I don’t have the experience, skills or tools to do much else. What can I t

I'm aware of a study showing the shutdown of sports is taking some $12 billion out of the economy. And I love to listen to a baseball game as much as anyone. But I guess I can't help but notice that the push to reopen professional sports -- at risk to the participants, even if fans are kept away -- is going to have a disproportionate impact. Here's a 2018 report . First the MLB: With people of color making up 42.5 percent of MLB players, the league has one of the best diversity scores among the four major sports. Last year saw the highest percentage of Latinos, 31.9 percent, in the last two decades. The NBA: With 80.7 percent of players being people of color, the NBA takes the lead among men’s sports for player diversity. And the NFL: The league is primarily composed of African-American and white players. The percentage of players of color has slowly risen to over 70 percent since 1997; the percentage of white players reached a new low, 27.7 percent. The health burdens of t

One thing about quarantine: It has given me time to think about how I practice the craft of writing. I'm lucky: I've been able to make a living at writing -- both reporting and opinion writing. For most of the last decade or more, I've had a regular outlet (newspaper syndication, PhillyMag, and The Week) to express my opinions before large audiences. I don't take it for granted. But I always know I could do better. And I sometimes suspect I'm doing a two-dimensional version of something that might better contribute to the public conversation if I could somehow express it in three dimensions. I want to point to three pieces of writing done in recent years that I take as a model -- not just for writing, but for thinking, and maybe even doing this job in a way I consider to be moral. And here are the lessons I've learned from them: