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☆ Opinion | Taylor Swift Needs to Become Other People
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-26 | by ( Ross Douthat | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Which are the 12 best songs — not just in absolute terms, but in terms of the whole (the album) being constructed out of the parts (the songs)? Which of these songs do they want to play live dozens of times on their upcoming concert tour? For a very different analysis of Swift, consider these comments on X from Katherine Boyle, an Andreessen Horowitz venture capitalist, repurposing a take she offered in 2023. In our cultural environment, Boyle argues, being prolific is everything: “You can’t cede ground to competitors. If Taylor writes 31 songs and 3 are memorable, she’s written three epic songs.

Persons: ”, Taylor Swift’s, Swift, you’re, —, Damon, Bruce Springsteen, Springsteen, Katherine Boyle, Andreessen Horowitz, Boyle, ” Boyle, Taylor

☆ Voters Think America Is Broken. Biden Needs to Meet Them Where They Are. - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-08 | by ( Damon Linker | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Seven months away from a rematch election pitting President Biden against former President Donald Trump, the incumbent is struggling. The question is why. It’s usually wiser to listen to what voters are saying — beyond the obvious concerns about the president’s age. The long-term trend tells a clear story: From the mid-1990s to late 2004, the level of satisfaction bounced around between 39 percent and 71 percent. They would reach a low of 9 percent satisfaction in October 2008, in the midst of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Persons: Biden, Donald Trump, Trump, Biden’s, “, Bush Organizations: Gallup Locations: U.S, Iraq

☆ Opinion | The Cure for What Ails Our Democracy
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-15 | by ( David Brooks | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

What do we have to do to rectify this situation? Well, a lot of things, but one of them is this: More of us have to embrace an idea, a way of thinking that is fundamental to being a citizen in a democracy. That idea is known as value pluralism. It’s most associated with the British philosopher Isaiah Berlin and is based on the premise that the world doesn’t fit neatly together. We all want to pursue a variety of goods, but unfortunately, these goods can be in tension with one another.

Persons: Isaiah Berlin, Damon Organizations: University of Pennsylvania Locations: America, British, Berlin

☆ Opinion | Why Does the Right Hate America?
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-06 | by ( Paul Krugman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

But is America beyond the political realm also in crisis? A recent essay by Damon Linker in The Times profiled conservative intellectuals whose writing, he argued, helps explain where the MAGA right is coming from. What struck me, reading some of their work, is the dire portrait they paint of the state of our nation. For example, Patrick Deneen’s “Regime Change” describes America thus: “Once-beautiful cities and towns around the nation have succumbed to an ugly blight. Do they have any sense, from personal memory or reading, of what America was like 30 or 50 years ago?

Persons: Damon, MAGA, Patrick Deneen’s Organizations: Times Locations: America

☆ Opinion | Get to Know the Influential Conservative Intellectuals Who Help Explain G.O.P. Extremism
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-04 | by ( Damon Linker | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Some catastrophists take it a step further and suggest that officials might contemplate overthrowing liberal democracy in favor of revolutionary regime change or even imposing a right-wing dictatorship on the country. It includes respected scholars at prestigious universities and influential think tanks. That makes this a crucial time to familiarize ourselves with and begin formulating a response to these ideas. If Mr. Trump manages to win the presidency again in 2024, many of these intellectual catastrophists could be ready and willing to justify deeds that could well bring American liberal democracy to its knees. The essay set the tone of life-or-death struggle (and related imagery) that is common among catastrophists.

Persons: Trump, Michael Anton, Anton’s, Hillary Clinton “, ” Mr, Anton, Rudy Giuliani, Rush Limbaugh Organizations: Claremont, catastrophists, Republican, Claremont Institute, National Security Council Locations: California

☆ Where Presidential Hopes Go to Die - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-12 | by ( Gail Collins | Bret Stephens | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

But speaking of forest fires, shall we get to that latest Trump indictment? Gail: We’re obviously in history-making territory — first former president indicted in a criminal case brought by the federal government. And this one, which involves trying to stash away official papers he’d been told were government property, is certainly a classic Trump combination of shocking and stupid. That may be about as close to a slam dunk, legally speaking, as we’re ever going to get in a case like this. Bret: The second thought is that a special counsel appointed by President Biden’s attorney general is bringing a criminal case against the president’s presumptive opponent in next year’s election.

Persons: Gail, We’re, he’d, Bret, I’m, ” Gail, Jack Smith, Trump, Biden’s, Damon Organizations: Georgia

☆ Trump’s Indictment Puts Us Into Uncharted Waters - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Damon Linker | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

That’s especially true in our era of stark partisan polarization and intense negative partisanship. That Mr. Trump would be running against an opponent with persistently low approval ratings who will be 81 years old on Election Day 2024 only makes a Biden-Trump matchup more uncertain. Mr. Trump is not a standard-issue politician who happened to run afoul of corruption statutes. God Bless President Trump.” It’s likely that tens of millions of our fellow citizens agree with the sentiment. To most Americans, such a reaction to news of Mr. Trump’s indictment seems unimaginable.

Persons: Trump, He’s, ”, Jim Jordan, ” It’s, Trump’s Organizations: White, Biden, Trump Locations: United States of America, Ohio, America

☆ Opinion | Put ‘Succession’ in the TV Pantheon
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( Ross Douthat | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +5 min

Then, too, the show’s judgment on elites can be read in two distinct ways, one more left-wing and one more right-wing. This consciousness came with varying levels of self-delusion, and none of these shows fully forgave their protagonists in the end. But the possibility of redemption existed for them at least notionally, and I think that’s why “Succession” seems like such an outlier among its peers. I think this critique is partially fair, and that, along with the strengths I described above, there is a savage superficiality to some of the characterizations in “Succession” that’s beneath the psychological level achieved on other famous TV dramas. When it comes to the desire for redemption and honesty and love, though, I’m not sure “Succession” is as barren as Phillips seems to suggest.

Persons: Kendall Roy’s, Logan, Tom Wambsgans, Roy, Naipaul, ”, Damon Linker’s, Brian Phillips’s, Tony Soprano, Walter White, Don Draper, There’s, Hank, Peggy Olson, I’m, Phillips, Shiv Roy, Shiv, Tom Organizations: “ Locations: Swedish

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