All posts tagged: Tom Nichols

When experts fail – The Atlantic

When experts fail – The Atlantic

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. In 2017, my Daily colleague Tom Nichols wrote a book titled The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters. Three years later, America underwent a crisis that stress-tested citizens’ and political leaders’ faith in experts—with alarming results. The Atlantic published an excerpt today from the second edition of Tom’s book, which includes a new chapter evaluating the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the relationship between experts and the public. I chatted with Tom recently about American narcissism, the mistakes experts have made during the pandemic, and why listening to expert advice is a responsibility of citizens in a democracy. First, here are three new stories from The Atlantic: Narcissism and Distrust Isabel Fattal: Why did you feel it was important after the COVID-19 crisis to rerelease this book? Tom Nichols: The book is …

The Republicans’ Last Great Test of Character

The Republicans’ Last Great Test of Character

Will enough of Trump’s party finally be willing to stand up for Ukraine rather than follow his lead and bow to Russia? Haiyun Jiang / NYT / Redux February 12, 2024, 1:15 PM ET After weeks of backroom maneuvering, the Republican split over foreign policy has burst into full view. The immediate stakes are the survival of Ukraine and the credibility of NATO. But behind the crisis of today is a larger crisis of tomorrow: U.S.-led defense of collective security, global trade, and the vitality of democracy as a force in the world. That split in the GOP emerged over the weekend in two starkly contrasting stories, each pointing toward a very different American future. At a rally in South Carolina on Saturday, ex-President Donald Trump denounced NATO allies and said that he “would encourage” Russia to attack them. By Sunday, many elected Republicans were making the usual excuses for Trump. Senator Marco Rubio appeared on CNN to say that he had “zero concern” about Trump’s latest pro-Moscow outburst. “He doesn’t talk like a traditional …

Trump Gets One Step Closer

Trump Gets One Step Closer

January 27, 2024, 12:25 PM ET Editor’s Note: Washington Week With The Atlantic is a partnership between NewsHour Productions, WETA, and The Atlantic airing every Friday on PBS stations nationwide. Check your local listings or watch full episodes here.   The 2024 race is coming into focus this week after Republican front runner Donald Trump’s victory in New Hampshire brought him one step closer to the GOP’s presidential nomination. But his final primary opponent, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, has rejected calls to drop out of the race and continued to campaign in her home state. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have also ramped up their campaign, making reproductive rights a central theme of their reelection efforts. Meanwhile, the fate of a bipartisan border-security deal, which Republican lawmakers had insisted upon before considering additional funding for Ukraine and Israel, has been complicated by Trump’s opposition to the deal. Joining the editor in chief of The Atlantic and moderator, Jeffrey Goldberg, to discuss this and more are Laura Barrón-López, a White House correspondent …

A Warning About a Second Trump Term

A Warning About a Second Trump Term

Like many reporters, I’ve been operating in Casaubon mode for much of the past eight years, searching for the key to Donald Trump’s mythologies. No single explanation of Trump is fully satisfactory, although Atlantic staff writer Adam Serwer came closest when he observed that the cruelty is the point. Another person who helped me unscramble the mystery of Trump was his son-in-law Jared Kushner. Early in the Trump presidency, I had lunch with Kushner in his White House office. We were meant to be discussing Middle East peace (more on that another time), but I was particularly curious to hear Kushner talk about his father-in-law’s behavior. I was not inured then—and am not inured even now—to the many rococo manifestations of Trump’s defective character. One of the first moments of real shock for me came in the summer of 2015, when Trump, then an implausible candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, said of Senator John McCain, “He’s not a war hero … I like people who weren’t captured, okay?” Explore the January/February 2024 Issue Check …

The First Great Crisis of a Second Trump Term

The First Great Crisis of a Second Trump Term

Both his supporters and and his opponents assume that former President Donald Trump’s legal jeopardy will go away if he can win the 2024 presidential election. That’s a big mistake. A Trump election in 2024 would settle nothing. It would generate a nation-shaking crisis of presidential legitimacy. Trump in 2024 means chaos—and almost certainly another impeachment. Trump’s proliferating criminal exposures have arisen in two different federal jurisdictions—Florida and the District of Columbia—and in two different state jurisdictions, New York and Georgia. More may follow. As president, Trump would have no power of his own to quash directly any of these proceedings. He would have to act through others. For example, the most nearly unilateral thing that Trump could try would be a presidential self-pardon. Is that legal? Trump has asserted that it is. Only the Supreme Court can deliver a final verdict, which presents a significant risk to Trump, because the Court might say no. Self-pardon defies the history and logic of the presidential-pardon power. Would a Supreme Court struggling with legitimacy issues of its …