The Atlantic: on Principles & Values
Ben Carson:
2010: Vetted for Lt. Gov., but decision to run "up to God"
Setting aside the Wall Street Journal's hyperbolic call for a President Carson, does the doctor have a future in politics? He left the door open this weekend, saying, "That's not my intention, but I always say, 'I'll leave that up to God.'"
In 2010, former Maryland Republican Governor Bob Ehrlich approached Carson about running with him in an attempt to reclaim the governor's mansion, but Carson declined, Fund reports. Carson says he's an independent, but assuming his views would push him
toward the GOP, Maryland is generally tough going for Republicans. There's only one in the Congressional delegation. Senator Barbara Mikulski, a Democrat, won't be up for reelection until 2016, and her fellow Democrat Ben Cardin has a term that ends in
2018. But Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley will have to step down in 2014 due to term limits. If Carson wants to make a run for it, it's clear he's got some fans in the conservative media to help him get started.
Source: David A. Graham in The Atlantic magazine
Feb 19, 2013
Charlie Crist:
I stand for fairness and trying to treat people right
What does Charlie Crist stand for? "Some use the word opportunist," he tells me. (Crist is one of those politicians who will tell you all the terrible things people say about him.) "Yeah, this is a delightful opportunity, to run into a $100 million buzz
saw face-first. That's a joyous thought, right?"What he stands for, he says, is "fairness and trying to treat people right." He thinks now that he never should have been a Republican, the sort of blithe declaration that makes Florida Republicans choke
on their food. But it's true that Crist's actions annoyed plenty of Republicans even when he was one of them. As a state senator in the 1990s, education commissioner in the Jeb Bush gubernatorial administration, state attorney general, and governor
beginning in 2007, Crist enjoyed bucking his party [on abortion, voting rights, education, and environmental issues]. Other than the party label, Crist says, "None of this is new. I haven't really changed."
Source: The Atlantic Magazine on 2014 Florida governor's race
Mar 11, 2014
Donald Trump:
OpEd: criminal act to try to get A.G. to unrecuse
The president committed crimes. Mueller does not accuse the president of crimes. He doesn't have to. But the facts he recounts describe criminal behavior. They describe criminal behavior even if we allow the president's--and the attorney general's--
argument that facially valid exercises of presidential authority cannot be obstructions of justice. They do this because they describe obstructive activity that does not involve facially valid exercises of presidential power at all.
Consider only two examples. The first is the particularly ugly section concerning Trump's efforts to get then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to "unrecuse." Another example: Mueller reports that after the news broke that Trump had sought to get
then-White House Counsel Don McGahn to fire the special counsel, Trump sought to get McGahn to deny the story. He also sought to get him to create an internal record denying the story. McGahn refused.
Source: The Atlantic magazine on Mueller Report
Apr 29, 2019
Donald Trump:
OpEd: impeachable act to fire FBI's Comey
[Besides criminal obstruction described in the Mueller Report], the president also committed impeachable offenses. Crimes and impeachable offenses are not the same thing. Some of the most obviously impeachable offenses are the most unacceptable abuses
of power [regarding] the firing of former FBI Director James Comey. While this fact pattern is complicated for criminal purposes, as a matter of impeachment, it's very simple indeed. The president of the United States isolated Comey in order to ask that
he drop a sensitive FBI investigation in which Trump had a personal interest. The president then leaned on Comey to make public statements about his own status in the investigation. And when he couldn't get Comey to do so, he recruited the deputy
attorney general to create a pretext for Comey's removal.While there may be viable technical defenses against a criminal charge here, there simply is no plausible way to understand this fact pattern as a good-faith exercise of presidential power.
Source: The Atlantic magazine on Mueller Report
Apr 29, 2019
Donald Trump:
OpEd: impeachable act to investigate Hillary Clinton
[One of the most obviously impeachable offenses was] the effort to get A.G. Jeff Sessions to investigate Hillary Clinton. Mueller does not disentangle this effort from the attempt to get Sessions to reassert control of the Russia investigation.
Let's do so here: Even as he was trying to get Sessions to protect him from the FBI, Trump was also trying to induce Sessions to investigate his political opponents.This is not obstruction of justice in any criminal sense.
It's rather the opposite of obstruction of justice; it's the initiation of injustice. So I don't think it's plausibly sound in terms of criminal law. But it is molten-core impeachment territory. Consider: The president of the
United States was trying to induce the attorney general of the United States to initiate a criminal investigation based on no known criminal predicate against a private citizen whom he happened to dislike.
Source: The Atlantic magazine on Mueller Report
Apr 29, 2019
Donald Trump:
OpEd: Trump's crew tried to collude, like Keystone Kollusion
Trump was not complicit in the Russian social-media conspiracy. Separating the wheat from the chaff is important, so let's do so. While Trump has a great deal to answer for, Mueller unambiguously clears him--clears in the true sense of the word--of
involvement in Russian efforts to interfere in the U.S. election by means of the Internet Research Agency's social-media campaign.Here's the key point: If there wasn't collusion on the hacking, it sure wasn't for lack of trying.
Indeed, the Mueller report makes clear that Trump personally ordered an attempt to obtain Hillary Clinton's emails; and people associated with the campaign pursued this believing they were dealing with Russian hackers. And Donald Trump Jr. was
directly in touch with WikiLeaks--from whom he obtained a password to a hacked database. None of these incidents amount to crimes. But the picture it all paints of the president's conduct is anything but exonerating. Call it Keystone Kollusion.
Source: The Atlantic magazine on Mueller Report
Apr 29, 2019
Michael Bennet:
Most Democrats are not socialists and should say so
He warns that Democrats shouldn't make it easy for Donald Trump to write them off as socialists (he jumped up and applauded when the president said "America will never be
a socialist country" in his State of the Union address, realizing only later that Bernie Sanders was right behind him, scowling in his seat).
Source: The Atlantic, "Stop the Rage" on 2020 Democratic primary
Mar 2, 2019
Paul Ryan:
I credit Ayn Rand for getting me involved in public service
Rep. Paul Ryan [gave] a 2005 speech at The Atlas Society, where he extolled author and philosopher Ayn Rand, particularly her magnum opus Atlas Shrugged. What liberals always seize on is his statement, "I grew up reading Ayn Rand and it taught me quite
a bit about who I am and what my value systems are, and what my beliefs are." In that same 2005 speech: "The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand," he said. "If we're
going to actually win this we need to make sure that we're solid on premises, that our principles are well-defended, and if want to go and articulately defend these principles and what they mean to our society, what they mean for the trends that we
set internationally, we have to go back to Ayn Rand," Rep. Ryan said.
"I think a lot of people would observe that we are right now living in an Ayn Rand novel, metaphorically speaking," Rep. Ryan observed in 2009.
Source: Conor Friedersdorf in The Atlantic, "Atlas Shrugged"
Aug 13, 2012
Rick Perry:
Western ideology respects others; ISIS ideology does not
Perry's London speech contrasted ISIS ideology with the defining characteristic of the values of the US and Europe, which: "are outward-looking ideas, lifting our sights beyond the tribe and the group to see the worth and goodness of everyone,
to respect others, to empathize with them, and to include them in the progress of humanity." He added: "You don't find all that in every tradition. Its abundance in our Western tradition is to be cherished, tended, and protected."
Source: The Atlantic 2014 coverage of 2016 presidential hopefuls
Oct 20, 2014
Scott Walker:
19 Walker associates involved in "John Doe" scandal
Walker's opponents have pushed to tie an ongoing scandal involving former Walker aides to the governor. The so-called "John Doe" investigation, which is ongoing, centers around allegations of misuse of government time and money during Walker's tenure as
the county executive of Milwaukee. It has already resulted in the arrest of three former Walker aides, two of his appointees and a major donor, while 13 others have been granted immunity to aid the investigation. Walker has amassed a large legal-defense
fund but insists he is not a target of the investigation; Democrats point to the circumstantial evidence to claim that something fishy clearly was happening on his watch.If this issue seems like a sideshow compared to what the recall is supposed to
be about--a referendum on Walker, his agenda, and his style of governance--that's because views of Walker appear deeply entrenched among the Wisconsin electorate.
Source: The Atlantic on 2012 Wisconsin gubernatorial recall debate
Jun 5, 2002
Tom Steyer:
Trump is a criminal, nothing at all like me
Q: People have compared you to Donald Trump--another rich white man who talks about populism and is ready to take on members of his own party. Steyer: He's had a completely different career from me; he has completely different values;
he wants completely different things than I want. I consider him to be the most corrupt president and one of the most important criminals in American history. I couldn't imagine someone who I think is less like me.
Source: The Atlantic magazine on 2019 Democratic primary
Jul 10, 2019
Cornel West:
Everybody could gain by having a relationship with Jesus
As a Christian, I think everybody could gain much by having a relationship with Jesus. But I think the left can teach Christians like myself very much in terms of their willingness to speak in a courageous way to the "least of these," to echo the
25th chapter of Matthew: the poor, the orphan, the widow, the exploited. They've done a much better job than most churches, synagogues, temples, and mosques.
Source: The Atlantic magazine on 2024 Presidential hopefuls
Aug 13, 2021
JD Vance:
Trump is cultural heroin: you feel better for a little bit
To many, Donald Trump feels good, but he can't fix America's growing social and cultural crisis, and the eventual comedown will be harsh.A common thread among Trump's faithful, even among those whose individual circumstances remain unspoiled, is that
they hail from broken communities. These are places where good jobs are impossible to come by. Where people have lost their faith and abandoned the churches. Where too many young people spend their days stoned instead of working and learning.
[These are,] in the aggregate, a social crisis of historic proportions. There is no group of people hurtling more quickly to social decay. No group of people fears the future more, and exposes its children to such significant domestic chaos.
Trump's promises are the needle in America's collective vein. What Trump offers is an easy escape from the pain. Trump is cultural heroin. He makes some feel better for a bit. But he cannot fix what ails them, and one day they'll realize it.
Source: The Atlantic on 2024 Vice-Presidential hopefuls: Vance OpEd
Jul 4, 2016
Page last updated: Jul 21, 2024