People aren’t doing it for the free doughnuts. But they might do it for America. — The great patriotic holiday of July 4 came and went, and so did the brief hullabaloo in the press over our failure to hit Joe Biden’s deadline for getting at least one COVID shot into the arms of 70% of U.S. adults. The president made a speech promising to go…

The path to the White House requires dislodging Trumpism, not trying to tip-toe around it — I have some marketing advice for South Carolina Senator and newly announced Republican presidential candidate Tim Scott. Before we go on, you may be asking who Tim Scott is and you wouldn’t be alone. His showing in the polls is not that far from a rounding error. Yet there is…

Take a step back from the immediate chaos of the court fight over abortion pills and you see a larger threat to the republic — Late on Good Friday of this year, perhaps hoping the image of Christ crucified for our sins would put the nation in a forgiving mood, Federal Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk issued his ruling suspending the decades-old F.D.A. approval of mifepristone, a medication commonly used in abortions. Less than an hour later…

An unexpected case of Covid is keeping me from celebrating with the ones I love — Easter Morning Mass on a laptop is not the same as Easter Morning in the grand nave of a church. Let’s just say the trumpets don’t trumpet with quite the desired exultation. And yet, throughout the weird ebbs and flows of the pandemic I’ve watched a lot of TV church…

The “He Gets Us” ads are controversial. They’re also pretty good. — Like a lot of people, I watch the Super Bowl for the ads as much as for the football. But unlike a lot of people, I do this professionally. I’ve worked in the advertising business for longer than I probably ought to admit. Of course I pay attention to the…

The Republican Party’s culture of lies continues to bring out the worst in humanity — A few weeks ago I wrote about the fleecing of my fellow Americans by the Republican Party. The piece was, for the most, part inspired by the pathological con artistry of New York’s newly minted congressional rep George Santos. But it’s an idea that’s been running through my mind for…

If the Republicans were a private company instead of a political party they’d all be in jail — The election of serial liar George Santos to represent New York’s 3rd District in the U.S. Congress tells you everything you need to know about today’s Republican Party. A lot of adjectives get thrown around when trying to describe the current dysfunction of what we once thought of as The…

Wanna-be House Speaker Kevin McCarthy fails at partisanship, while his party picks a Democrat in Pennsylvania — For the past hundred years, the vote for the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives has been uneventful, like filling out the customs form upon your return from a trip abroad. Important to get right, but unless you tend to live your life as a trainwreck, you have it…

The quiet stretch bookended by Christmas and New Year’s is perfect for thinking about what comes next — The mad rush of Christmas is behind us. The new year is yet to arrive. For me, the days in-between are one of the best parts of the year. For one thing, the ad agency where I work shuts down. We’re all too distracted to be truly productive in our…