Dr. Robert Zaller

Art

Poor Richard, Poor Donald: Philip Guston’s Timely Show at Hauser & Wirth

There isn’t a timelier art exhibit anywhere at the moment than the show of Philip Guston’s suite of drawings about Richard Nixon and his era now on display at Hauser & Wirth’s new gallery on [ Read Article ]
Politics

How To Be a Citizen in the Age of Trump

“Hey, I’m President! I’m President! Can you believe it?!” That’s what Donald Trump said in celebrating the passage of the American Health Kill bill through the House of Representatives at a beer party on the [ Read Article ]
Politics

How Long Must the Charade Go On?

Five months into the Trump presidency—or five hours, for that matter—it was clear that the White House had been occupied by a charlatan, somewhere between a buffoon and a demagogue and competent in neither role. [ Read Article ]
Politics

F for Fake: The Alternative Presidency of Donald Trump

Orson Welles, the great American filmmaker, loved a good joke. He began his career with a radio broadcast about a Martian invasion of New Jersey that threw the whole country into a panic, and ended [ Read Article ]
Politics

What Should the Left Do in the Trump Era?

Get over it, Joe Biden was advising us the other day. It’s happened, it’s done. Well, yes. Donald Trump is our 45th president, and our cross to bear. And, okay, what next? A lot of [ Read Article ]
Politics

Our Broken Polity, and How To Fix It

As we stagger toward the finish line of one of the most dismaying election campaigns in American political history, one thing is clear: that our political system as it now stands is broken. We reached [ Read Article ]
Politics

When a Liar Speaks the Truth: Why Donald Trump Discomfits Us

In writing about Donald Trump in these pages last spring, I pointed out that part of his appeal—and his value—lay in his willingness to drive sacred cows out of the barn. Trump, and no one [ Read Article ]

Going Crazy Over Terrorism

Politics

October 13, 2016 0

On the morning of September 11, 2001, I got a phone call from my son. He told me to turn on the TV, and I saw the World Trade Center towers burning. Ash, some of [ Read Article ]

Romancing Barack: Hillary’s Last Fling

Politics

October 11, 2016 0

As I write this, the results of the Super Tuesday primary votes and caucuses have not yet come in, but the result is foregone: the media that anointed Hillary Rodham Clinton the Democratic nominee and [ Read Article ]

Politics

The Death Penalty: Abolition’s New Cause

October 11, 2016 0

A century and a half ago, America came out of slavery. It was perhaps not literally true, as Abraham Lincoln said, that every drop drawn by the lash would be paid for by one drawn [ Read Article ]

Politics

Free Speech, Propaganda, and the Right To Be Heard

June 12, 2017 0

Free speech is the most important right we have. The Founding Fathers, understanding it as the prime element in a free society, wrote it into several amendments of the Constitution. The First Amendment guarantees it [ Read Article ]

Politics

The Arkansas Death Circus

May 2, 2017 0

Arkansas: Isn’t that the place the Clintons came from? Yes, indeed. And some of us will remember that the Man From Hope, as Bill Clinton enjoyed being called, suspended his presidential primary campaign exactly twenty-five [ Read Article ]