United States

America, Through the Looking Glass
“Have you guessed the riddle yet?” the Mad Hatter asked Alice. The MAGA crowd knew the answer to their riddle. They proceeded to “primary the hell” out of the Capitol. America was shocked. They had stepped through the looking glass.

Between Insurrection and Revolution
Years later, after leaving the country and then returning as a journalist, I would ask fellow Syrians what they understood themselves to be. “What is Syria? Who is Syria?” I asked anyone who listened. “What does it mean to be a citizen of Syria?”

America’s Preexisting Conditions
Consider first the systematic, crippling insecurity that too many Americans suffer for lack of basic resources. The pandemic has accentuated this insecurity.

Little Man, What Now?
Can anyone now deny that the core of MAGA is a molten cauldron of cultural and psychological pathologies characteristic of middle-class dilettantes and people with at least enough money to have way too much time on their hands?

A Country with a Conscience
It was a small example of a truth readily apparent outside Washington: Americans have an instinctive concern for what happens in the world. And they prefer to face challenges head on.