Caesar in California
A domestic deployment in California could mark the moment the military ceases to serve the Constitution—and begins serving the man.
Featured
Special Issue
Reflections on the 50th Anniversary of the End of the Việt Nam War
A Day Nothing Happened
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
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
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...
Current Archives
Dave Troy
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
“20 Lessons on Tyranny” by Timothy Snyder — Highlights Read by John Lithgow
John Lithgow reads short summaries of the individual lessons in Timothy Snyder’s 20 Lessons...
Foreign Policy
The Danger of “Preventive” War in Iran
June 23, 2025 To the Editor: White House claims about the supposed success of US bombing in Iran...
Culture
Trickster, Improvisation and the Crisis of Trust
GUEST ESSAY Americans from all corners of the country are speaking out against the venality and...
Economy
The Secret Life of Tax Cuts
There have been five major tax cuts since the income tax was established in 1916. When this new...
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.
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.
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.
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. [...]
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. [...]
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? [...]
Pressman responds:
First, and maybe most important, property taxes are not wealth taxes. The property tax is a tax on the assessed value of a home and the land it sits on. It is not a tax on the equity that one has in one's home, which would make it a wealth tax. The same property tax applies to someone underwater on their mortgage and someone who owns their home outright -- when the two homes are of equal value in the same neighborhood. Rather than a tax on the wealthy, property taxes fall primarily on the middle class. [...]
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
“One of the Ten Best Films of 2024” – Variety