We can do more to fight poverty

March 2nd, 20220 American policymakers have a very full plate. They’ve got to grapple with health care, education, the environment, economic growth and more. The list goes on and on. Along with these priorities, I have argued for some time that the policy community needs to do more to address poverty. How much time and resources should we devote to...

Hope is elusive in troubled Middle East

November 5th, 20200 Where is the hope for the Middle East? No matter how hard we try, it is hard to find grounds for optimism about the future of this troubled region. The Middle East has been a focus of American foreign policy for decades. The time, talent and resources that the United States has spent on challenges in the Middle East are staggering,...

How Congress has changed

April 22nd, 20200 If you feel like Congress has become less productive, less functional and more partisan… you’re right. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how it’s changed over the years since I served there in the ‘60s to the ‘90s, and several issues help explain why it often struggles to get things done. Heightened partisanship may...

Compromise is the essence of our democracy

June 8th, 20190 You may not be ready for next year’s elections, but in political time, they’re coming up fast. Even politicians who aren’t running for president are crafting their stump speeches. Which means that at some point you’re almost certain to hear someone announce, sternly, “I. Will. Not. Compromise.” And if you’re there in the...

What does it mean to be an American?

October 16th, 20180 What does it actually mean to be an American? Tell me. In the press of day-to-day events and amid the ongoing tumult of politics, we don’t think about this much. Yet it’s a crucial question, one that each generation in this country is called upon to answer for itself. Despite our differences, there are some traits that I think we...

Restoring faith in representative democracy

July 27th, 20170 There's no shortage of threats to our democracy. Russian meddling in elections, the vulnerability of state voting systems to hacking, politicians' assaults on the media and political leaders' growing fondness for policy-making in secret — all of these pose a real challenge to our system's viability. As worrisome as these are,...