Bernie Sanders lost the moment he became entranced by the prospect that he might win. What did he lose? His grip on political reality.

For most of his life Sanders has cultivated the role of political cynic, a professional outsider, a grand-standing critic of System. Once he came in from the cold and converted from independent socialist to a Democrat (for life, according to his campaign manager Jeff Weaver) that hard-boiled cynicism—one’s tempted to call it realism—eroded away in the face of large crowds of adoring supporters, from Portland, Maine to Portland, Oregon. Is it possible that Sanders became intoxicated by the floridness of his own rhetoric? More

It used to be taken for granted that Social Security was “the third rail” of American politics. This was before Reaganites, and then Clintonites, set out to privatize some or all of it. Hillary Clinton now finds it expedient to present herself as a defender of Social Security, distancing herself from her husband’s administration and from “the nineties.”

This is not necessarily dishonest; politicians’ views do “evolve,” as Hillary’s supporters point out. The liberals who do might note, however, that it was her purported role in her husband’s administration that supposedly qualified her to become New York’s Senator. Why would they bother, though, if they can have it both ways? More

The Occupation is approaching its 49th birthday, and over the years the international community has been sitting by and watching and occasionally issuing toothless condemnations of Israel’s behavior. There have been ebbs and flows in the rates of home demolitions, but the possibility of losing one’s home has nevertheless been a constant part of Palestinian life for generations now. In the year 2016, however, there has been a sharp and extremely disconcerting uptick in the pace of demolitions, as the first few months have seen a three-fold increase in such activity. On one day alone two weeks ago, April 6, the Israeli army demolished 54 structures in nine communities in the West Bank, displacing 124 people, including 60 children. More