Every Good Morning

You Can Listen Here: I cannot think of Reagan without grimacing, the first Republican to practice what my friend has called “smash and grab economics,” whereby the wealthiest begin their looting through tax cuts and sweet deals and the public good is given short shrift. Reagan continues the transformation of his party into white revanchists. He speaks of “welfare queens driving cadillacs”, and in a 1976 described “young bucks” using welfare money to “buy T-bone steaks .” With […]

You Can Listen Here: When Nixon was running in ‘68 and then elected, I watched him with fascination, a stingy respect and a deep wariness. This was a very smart guy, very tough, resourceful, resilient, and a true rags to power story. No one had handed him a thing — he was not raised in wealth, he worked hard at everything, he received no million dollar loans, he did not evade service during WWII […]

You Can Listen Here: It will take a generation of able historians to decipher the patterns and describe how all of this went so wrong, how in 2018 Americans found themselves so disoriented, alienated, furious, and feeling as if they have been seized by forces over which they have no control. It did not begin with Trump. I cannot tell where it began but only describe the events I have lived through that seem […]

You Can Listen Here: The dogs and I have been out in this “mild, mild wind, and a mild looking sky. On such a day – very much such a sweetness as this” we should remember the strokes of grace freely given to us — the joy of these and all animals, this early break in winter, flowers beginning to show themselves in green shoots along southern walls, the relief of shrugging off heavy […]