Government by Slush Fund

Trump’s new $1.776 billion anti-weaponization fund is a slush fund. But it is not his only one.

by Jonathan Winer

Featured

The Roberts Court Has Turned the Voting Rights Act on Its Head

by Leslie J. Winner

Steve Earle’s song “City of Immigrants”

by WS Editors

Republicans Made Children More Expensive: Here’s How to Fix the Problem

by Steven Pressman

Emergency Planning: The President Is Preparing to Challenge 2026 Midterms. The Country Can Still Act to Protect Them.

by Jonathan Winer

Iran and the Long Shadow of Vietnam: How Trump’s “Excursion” Could Lead to a Quagmire

by George Black

American Jewish Organizations Are Making a Dangerous Mistake

by Aaron Regunberg

Trump’s War on Iran—In His Own Words

by WS Editors

Voter Suppression Hasn’t Ended, It’s Evolved

by Kahlil Greene

Politics

The Russian Roots of Trump’s Venezuela and Greenland Operations

by Dave Troy

International Law and the Small Boat Strikes

by WS Editors

Two Firings—and Signs of Danger Ahead for Social Security

by Steven Pressman

Outsider Articles

American Jewish Organizations Are Making a Dangerous Mistake

by Aaron Regunberg

Growing up as a typical American Jew, I had it drilled into my head from a very young age that a...

Voter Suppression Hasn’t Ended, It’s Evolved

by Kahlil Greene

Current Archives

The Papacy and the Pathway Out

At this point there is no doubt as to whether we are having an authoritarian moment. We are — but...

Seen on the Web

Steve Earle’s song “City of Immigrants”

by WS Editors

Foreign Policy

Trump’s War on Iran—In His Own Words

by WS Editors

Trump’s War on Iran — In His Own Words 1. Why He Started the War February 28, 2026 Quote: “Our...

Culture

Culture, Empathy and Resistance

by Danny Goldberg

There is a widespread sentiment in the non- MAGA universe that this particular moment is the worst...

Economy

Republicans Made Children More Expensive: Here’s How to Fix the Problem

by Steven Pressman

The Department of Agriculture estimates that in 1960 it cost middle-income families $259,711 (in...

Reflections on the 50th Anniversary of the End of the Việt Nam War

Read the Special Issue

We would take a 6-by truck into An Tan from Ky Ha, to buy soda or beer or sex. A line of little thatched-roof kiosks, some of them walled with flattened beer cans from our trash dumps, strung along a dirt road rutted with...

Silences

by Bobbie Ann Mason

In my novel In Country (1985), Samantha Hughes is preoccupied with Vietnam. Her father had been killed in the war just before she was born. Now 17, she is filled with questions about what it was like over there. Her eccentric...

Life Framed by War

by Susan Schnall

My life is framed by war. My Marine father was killed in action on the beachhead of Guam, on July 22, 1944, while he was attempting to get his platoon dug in for the defense of a hill. Visibility was poor, and the enemy launched...

Podcast: Paranoia on Parade

Listen to “Paranoia on Parade”, a 3-part audio podcast with commentary from author Dave Troy, Jack Bryan, director of the 2018 film “Active Measures,” and Hamilton Fish, Editor of The Washington Spectator.

Paranoia on Parade, Part 1: The “Directors Cut” with Jack Bryan and Hamilton Fish

Paranoia on Parade, Part 2: The “Directors Cut” with Jack Bryan

Paranoia on Parade, Part 3: Bonus Interview with Hamilton Fish

Letters to the Editor

The Spectator welcomes letters from our readers reflecting diverse points of view. We'll assume they are for publication unless stipulated otherwise. Send letters via email to [email protected], and for information on where to send written correspondence to the editor, click here.

Roberts Court

The Roberts Court Has Turned the Voting Rights Act on Its Head

Leslie Winner's current piece in The Washington Spectator (The Roberts Court has Turned the Voting Rights Act on Its Head) is a concise, logical, clear and incredibly persuasive explanation of why the Callais opinion is so wrong. The simple statement that results matter more than intent is something that has been missed in so many other commentaries. I hope it gets wider attention because it really explains what is going on. I also feel a little better thinking that the progress from all that work post-Gingles has not been eliminated, even if we are going in a very wrong direction at the moment.

Anita Earls
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina

Emergency Planning

Emergency Planning: The President Is Preparing to Challenge 2026 Midterms. The Country Can Still Act to Protect Them.

To the Editor -

The Jonathan Winer article (Emergency Planning: The President Is Preparing to Challenge 2026 Midterms. The Country Can Still Act to Protect Them) is as serious a warning and exhortation regarding what is odds-on to be a fraught post-election period as I've seen anywhere. It is a true public service, from identification of a scenario the vast majority of even sophisticated readers have likely not considered, to presentation of systematic and coordinated steps to meet the exigencies contemplated.[...]

Thomas Bamboozled

How Clarence Thomas Bamboozled His Way Onto the Supreme Court

Feb. 13, 2026

To the Editor:

DeWayne Wickham’s “How Clarence Thomas Bamboozled His Way Onto the Supreme Court” provides an interesting behind the scenes look at the NAACP’s early tactical errors, but it suffers from a bizarre and glaring omission: the Anita Hill hearings.

Wickham argues that Thomas used his “up from poverty” narrative to outmaneuver civil rights leaders. However, the ultimate bamboozle occurred in October 1991, when Thomas neutralized his critics by labeling the sexual harassment inquiry a “high-tech lynching.”[...]

The Great Rewiring

The “Great Rewiring” by Robert Muggah and Mark Medish (TWS, October 31, 2025) elicited a variety of reader responses both pro and con, but one comment that stood out focused on the underexamined role of the U.S. in the helping to provoke the Ukraine war. The following exchange between reader and author is a nod to a more independently critical perspective on this topic – ED.

Nov. 21, 2025

To the Editor:

Reading the recent article The Great Rewiring, the authors appear to paint a coarse, authoritarian Russia as the bully attacking plucky democratic Ukraine.

A more rounded view may be found by consulting the analyses of such informed commentators as those in Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), for example Larry Johnson, Ray McGovern, and Larry Wilkerson.[...]

Danger of Preventive War

The Danger of “Preventive” War in Iran

To the Editor:

White House claims about the supposed success of US bombing in Iran are highly uncertain, but there is no doubt that unprovoked US and Israeli military strikes against Iran are a direct violation of international law. Article 2, (4) of the UN Charter prohibits states from using military force against other states without the approval of the Security Council, except for self-defense. States may use force to defend themselves when they are under attack by an aggressor, as Ukraine is doing, but that is not the case in this instance. Israel was not under attack when it began military action nearly two weeks ago. Iran did not use force first or threaten to do so.

President Donald Trump and his national security team meet in the Situation Room of the White House, Saturday, June 21, 2025. (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok)

Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter & the Merits of “Introspection”

To the editor,

Few, even among his detractors, will deny that Jimmy Carter was a man of consummate good character and personal integrity — before, during, and after he was president. He was indeed just that, even though opinions will differ significantly over his presidency — the many encomia at the time of his death notwithstanding.

Given his passing, I relistened to President Carter’s most famous speech, delivered on July 15, 1979. [...]

Photo of President Jimmy Carter at his desk in the Oval Office delivering his speech on inflation, October 24, 1978.

Fascism is not Patriotism

To the Editor:

It's a noble effort to make such a distinction, but to the people, fascism and patriotism are just buzzwords. The electorate speaks in kitchen-table issues and simple narratives, not political jargon- which holds no weight to them. Public distrust and discontent has eroded everything from their belief in government to the power of words. If Trump gets called a fascist, it won't mean anything to the ones who say they want better gas prices and who think Biden is just as bad as him. It's all just a bunch of loud noise to them, and luckily for them, they were born deaf to the dying gasps of the country that gave them shelter and sustenance.[...]

Dancing in the Dark 2

Dancing in the Dark: Steps to Avoid a Constitutional Coup in the 2024 Election

To the Editor:

This great article on concrete steps to avoid unconventional threats to a valid and trusted election in 2024 is extremely important. This article is the only effort I know of that warns and prepares us for the unexpected but possible coup against American democracy.

Dick Gephardt, former Majority Leader, US House of Representatives, currently working with Save our Republic, a bi-partisan effort to defend democracy.

Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant

To the Editor:

Holtec International, the firm responsible for decommissioning the Indian Point nuclear power plant, has stated that it will resume discharging radioactive wastewater into the Hudson River as early as August, and possibly sooner.

New legislation introduced by Senator Harckham and Assemblymember Levenberg, with the support of a growing list of co-sponsors, will put a stop to any radioactive discharges into the Hudson River. We need to make this bill a law before Holtec resumes the release of radioactive waste from Indian Point into the Hudson River. Legislators need to hear from you - click here to tell our representatives you support this important bill. [...]

Justice Thomas Should Take a Long Look in the Mirror

To the Editor:

Re: Justice Thomas Should Take a Long Look in the Mirror, by Jesse Wegman, New York Times, May 15, 2022

Looking into the mirror won’t help Clarence Thomas. He is a hopeless Uncle Tom, a stooge for white conservatives and a hypocrite. The depths of his hypocrisy can be seen when one considers that he grew up in segregated Pinpoint, Georgia at a time when Georgia crackers did all they could to suppress and dehumanize black folk. However, he was fortunate to come along in an era when black civil rights pioneers had paved the way for more open minority college admissions[...]

Unquiet Flows the Don

To the editor,

After Vladimir Putin seized the Crimea in 2014, he tried to shift blame for its woes on to Ukraine. He made the case that, by virtue of long occupation—Crimea was taken from the Ottomans in 1783 by Catharine the Great and defended by Nicholas the First in the Crimean War—the temperate peninsula was as Russian as Tolstoy or Red Square. [...]

“The wheels of justice grind slowly….”

“The wheels of justice grind slowly….”

To the Editor,

The House Select Committee on the January 6th attack on the Capitol was formed on July 1, 2021, almost 6 months after the insurrection took place. The DOJ and Attorney General Merrick Garland began their investigations much earlier, yet we are still waiting to learn if the instigators and planners of the attack will be charged and indicted and, just as important, that the events preceding the election and subsequent to it, amounting to federal offenses (interfering with election-results), are also investigated by the DOJ. [...]

Yes, Increase Taxes on the Ultrarich

Yes, Increase Taxes on the Ultrarich, but What’s the Best Way to Do It?

To the Editor,

I am not sure why Steve Pressman wrote, and you published, such a lame set of arguments against a wealth tax (Sept. 1st issue, page 6). The article claims "Perhaps the biggest negative is that the wealth tax does not have a very distinguished history." The main historical fact reported is that some wealth taxes were repealed, or reduced, or were unpopular as evidenced by their decline. So what? [...]

Bad Faith Documentary

Bad Faith

“A great and powerful and timely film” – Ken Burns

Critics are raving about BAD FAITH, the sensational expose of Christian Nationalism from directors Stephen Ujlaki and Chris Jones

Watch the trailer

“One of the Ten Best Films of 2024” – Variety

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Reflections on the 50th Anniversary of the End of the Việt Nam War

Podcast: Paranoia on Parade

Letters to the Editor

The Spectator welcomes letters from our readers reflecting diverse points of view. We'll assume they are for publication unless stipulated otherwise. Send letters via email to [email protected], and for information on where to send written correspondence to the editor, click here.

Bad Faith Documentary

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