Defending Democracy
It’s neither easy nor simple.
Articles by William Voegeli
Life of the Party
Democrats and Republicans seek their futures.
The Case Against a Second New Deal
The Woke’s on Them
The Left after Hamas.
They Never Did Mend It
Affirmative inaction.
Crime and the Democrats, Revisited
The root causes of the party’s dilemma.
All the Lawns Are Brown
Crisis politics and the California drought.
Leveling, Up and Down
Some are more unequal than others.
That Tottering Town
Chicago on the brink.
The Right Now
What Trump hath wrought…and revealed.
A Tale of Two Propositions
Diversity, democracy, and affirmative action.
Thrown Out at Home
America moves on from baseball.
Criminal Negligence
Liberals would rather live with crime than fight it.
Progressively Worse
Activist government’s crisis of competence.
“You’re Fired!”
Understanding Trump’s defeat.
The Weak Leading the Woke
What we ask about when we ask about Joe.
The Weak Leading the Woke
What we ask about when we ask about Joe.
Knowing, Choosing, Doing
Politics in the time of coronavirus.
Republics, Extended and Multicultural
Not all majorities are created equal.
Not so great
On Great Society: A New History by Amity Shlaes.
Nobody Knows Anything
The perils of democratic epistemology.
Liberty, Equality, Reality
Questions we'd rather not ask about race.
The Chosen and the Woke
Can Zionism survive liberalism?
A Kinder, Gentler Gulag
Bhaskar Sunkara’s new promise of socialist life is indistinguishable from the old promise of socialist life.
Conservatism after Trump
Insights, challenges, and opportunities.
Racism, Revised
The way we hate now.
Thomas Sowell’s Inconvenient Truths
Hard questions about discrimination, diversity, and civil rights.
He’s History
Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.’s political histories came up short.
When Your Neighbors Are Passive-Progressive
Progressive enclaves are neither diverse, nor inclusive.
After the Pervalanche
First they came for Harvey Weinstein....
The Democrats’ Dilemma
Is their coalition too narrow or too shallow?
Diversity and Its Discontents
Immigration politics after 2016.
The New Abnormal
Are you now, or have you ever been, a Trump supporter?
You Will Be Made to Understand: Donald Trump and Oppositional Journalism
It may not be too late for journalism to revert to being reportorial instead of oppositional.
The Democratic Party’s Identity Crisis
Where do they go to get their majority back?
What’s Left?
The dilemmas and doubts of today's progressivism.
Trump and Prudence: A Reply to Decius
Things aren't as dire as Decius suggests.
We Can’t Stand Welfare, and Can’t Stand Welfare Reform
20 years after welfare reform, we still don't know what we're doing or what we want.
Trump and His Enemies
Sometimes, worthy causes have unworthy champions.
What’s at Stake
This is the most important election of my lifetime
The Subway to Nowhere
Modern government works fine, apart from its inability to do stuff.
What’s at Stake
Elections have consequences.
Unsafe Spaces
The silencing of the American mind.
Hillary’s Female Problems
Hillary Clinton's problem with young female voters.
The Reason I’m Anti-Anti-Trump
Donald Trump's success in the polls tells us more about what's wrong with the country than about what's wrong with his followers.
Beyond Hope? Beyond Change?
Black and white when Obama is over.
That New-Time Religion
There are worse things to believe in than nothing.
Which Side Are You On?
Liberalism and political correctness.
The Newest New Right
The latest prescription for a conservative majority.
The Six…Oh
Senior Editor William Voegeli on turning 60.
Left, Right, and Human
Hippie Days are Here Again
The Redskins and Their Offense
the-redskins-and-their-offense
Poet of the Playing Field
A review of American Pastimes: The Very Best of Red Smith (The Library of America), by Daniel Okrent
The Higher Education Hustle
Political correctness and the Credentials-Industrial Complex.
The Same Old Deal
A review of The New New Deal: The Hidden Story of Change in the Obama Era, by Michael Grunwald
Extremism in Defense of Liberty
The Republican party has gone insane. Not whacky-but-basically-harmless, Uncle Joe Biden insane. We're talking remorseless-sociopath insane.
A CRB discussion of Economic Inequality
Not Leveling With Us
A review of The Great Divergence: America's Growing Inequality Crisis and What We Can Do about It, by Timothy Noah andThe Price of Inequality: How Today's Divided Society Endangers Our Future, by Joseph E. Stiglitz
Reclaiming Democratic Capitalism
Workers of the world—invest!
Enough Already
A welfare state we can live with.
Diane Ravitch Takes It All Back
But she had it right the first time.
Days of Rage, Years of Lies
The Tao of Jerry
Mr. Brown goes to Sacramento…again.
The New Frontier and the Neoconservatives
If the owl of Minerva flies at dusk, then those electoral beat-downs offered a promising moment to take stock of neoconservatism
Paul Ryan’s Roadmap
The challenges ahead on the road to solvency.
The Meaning of the Tea Party
The grassroots are up in arms.
Nice Work if You Can Get It
Meditations on how paid employment helps and hinders our efforts to fashion good lives.
Failed State
How the California dream became a nightmare.
Look Out for the Union Label
Liberals rejoin the picket line.
The Wilderness Years Begin
Does conservatism need to reinvent itself?
The Roots of Liberal Condescension
Ordinary Americans deserve some respect.
Reforming Big Government
The welfare state can’t go on indefinitely, but it does.
Conservatism and Civil Rights
Correspondence from the Fall, 2008 issue of the CRB.
Civil Rights and the Conservative Movement
What the Right got wrong and right.
The Trouble with Limited Government
Are we all big-government conservatives now?
Crisis of the Old Liberal Order
The eclipse of Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
Oh, What A Tangled Webb
Democrats want to love the senator’s problematic populism.
The Era of Big Ideas is Over
Will liberals embrace a future of ad hocery?
Rebels Without a Clue
A review of Nation of Rebels: Why Counterculture Became Consumer Culture, by Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter
False Security
The cynical idealism behind Social Security.
The Endless Party
Liberalism has always been unwilling, and unable, to define itself.
Gatsby and the Pursuit of Happiness
Money and morals in the American dream
Three Generations of Liberalism Are Enough
Using his own family history, George Packer tries to understand and defend liberalism.