Clinton and Trump will make all manner of claims about their personal positions and policy preferences, but the truth is that neither of them would be able to lead in the manner they claim. We live in a hyper-polarized political age that makes presidents party leaders first and foremost. Campaign claims about rising above party or bringing the warring sides together or the classic promise to “work across the isle” for the best interests of the American people are utter nonsense. Presidents today cannot be “uniters” on policy and voters who think the quality or content of our politics depends in any significant way on the identity of the President are living in an alternate reality.

While our attention has been diverted by other minor threats, America is being menaced by a more frightening danger: political correctness.

We can barely hear Rush and no one takes Howie seriously. We have a feeble Outrage Industry in Massachusetts. But what we do have is a government that works.

Barack Obama can't be president because he lacks a valid birth certificate. Judge Gonzalo Curiel can't rule on a legal case fairly because he is of Mexican heritage. So it is in the world of Donald Trump.  But it's Trump who is un-American.

What caused the massacre at Pulse in Orlando? The answer is contingent and political.

One Bernie Sanders legacy is more positive feelings toward socialism among the young, but what does socialism mean? Is Scandinavian style "socialism" really socialism, and could it succeed in America?

Hillary Clinton is the presumptive Democratic nominee.  On the one hand, to borrow loosely from Joe, it’s a really big, er, deal.  On the other hand, ambivalence reigns amongst Democrats and Secretary Clinton is deeply unpopular for a major party nominee.   The history of women in politics suggests it had to be this way.

Think term limits are a good idea?  Not so fast.  Political science research suggests term limits don’t always work the way many think they will.

The citizens of Massachusetts subsidize and lend support to the two main political parties. It would seem a minimal expectation that, in return, the parties might produce nominees to compete in most legislative elections.