National news these days is overwhelming. It comes out fast. It changes by the hour. It often raises more questions than it answers. And, depending on where you’re getting your news, it does little more than reinforce our biases.
This is bad — for our well-being, our ability to engage, and our democracy.
That’s why, in late February, Citizen Co-founder Larry Platt offered our readers a path through the fog:
You are your own editor these days. So each week from now on we’re going to provide you the must-read or must-see picks, without regard to ideology, that we think are worthy of your attention in an effort to get a handle on just what’s really happening in national affairs.
Here’s what to read this week:
Snap Out of It, Democrats, by Peggy Noonan, The Wall Street Journal ($)
As usual, Peggy Noonan, no Trump supporter, gets to the heart of why Democrats so often lose. Her sharp analysis of Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress shows the one-time forward-thinking party of FDR and Obama as suddenly heartless, sitting “stone-faced, joyless and loveless. They don’t show love for Americans anymore. They look down on them, feel distance from them, instruct them, remind them to feel bad that they’re surrounded by injustice because, well, they’re unjust.” — Larry Platt, The Citizen Co-founder
Columbia University’s funding cut and Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest, by Isaac Saul, The Tangle
Isaac Saul makes sense of the right’s justification and the left’s outrage of the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a recent Columbia graduate student and U.S. resident from Palestine. But it’s Saul’s own nuanced take that offers the clearest reasoning why the arrest should be disturbing to anyone who cares about free speech. — Olivia Kram, The Citizen Social Media Manager
Stand Up for the First Amendment, by Jennifer Rubin, The Contrarian
Another take on Khalil’s arrest: Because [Mahmoud Khalil] advocated a position noxious to many Americans, his detention has been lauded by a purported civil rights group, the American Anti-Defamation League, and members of Congress have either cheered the action or were slow to object. The ADL should know better.
Why Tariffs Are Good, by Michael Lind, Tablet Magazine
A contrarian take on the hand-wringing over Trump’s imposed tariffs on goods from China, which makes the case that: Not only the U.S. but most other industrial nations and many developing nations like India are throwing up trade barriers against Chinese imports. If they do not, their national manufacturing industries will be wiped out and they will be reduced to supplying the Chinese industrial superpower with farm products or fossil fuels or services like finance and tourism.
The Two Nations of America, by Michael Podhorzer, Weekend Reading
This long read from a former union political director in December, 2023, lays out in stark details — including maps! — how red states and blue states truly are different countries, from healthcare and life expectancy, to economics, education, work, religion and politics. The differences are way more dramatic than I anticipated. — Roxanne Patel Shepelavy, The Citizen Executive Director
How to Protect Democratic Institutions, by Michael Waldman, president of Brennan Center for Justice
A how-to-guide for those looking for some concrete actions to take amidst the maelstrom of political decrees coming out of Washington D.C. every single day.
And an uplifting add to your scroll:
Jacobsimonsays on Instagram
With so many depressing headlines coming at us all the time, Jacobsimonsays spotlights the good things that are happening by sharing daily positive updates, discoveries and research in the fight against climate change. — Olivia Kram, Citizen Social Media Manager
