Wheeling, West Virginia Correspondent — Institutional credibility is a structural problem now, and it was structural here long before it was structural nationally. A president can stop making it worse. He can reduce the pressure on agencies and platforms to police speech. He can't make a newsroom cover something it doesn't want to cover. Trump … Continue reading Trust in media, technology platforms, and government institutions has fallen further during this campaign. Does the next president have any realistic ability to improve that trust, or has institutional credibility become a structural problem beyond one administration?
writing
Character, age, and fitness for office have been raised against both candidates. Should these considerations carry more, less, or the same weight as policy differences in this election?
Prescott Valley, AZ Correspondent — Character and fitness matter because the office concentrates power and demands judgment under pressure that nobody can rehearse. Both candidates have vulnerabilities and I'd resist the framing that one set is serious and the other is noise. Trump's are extensively documented and frequently self-inflicted. Biden is seventy-seven and the questions … Continue reading Character, age, and fitness for office have been raised against both candidates. Should these considerations carry more, less, or the same weight as policy differences in this election?
After weeks of unrest and federal deployments to protect courthouses and monuments, should the use of federal officers in cities that refuse to hold a riot line be normalized, or reserved as an exceptional remedy?
Prescott Valley, AZ Correspondent — A courthouse is not a suggestion and a monument is not a comment box. When a city won't hold a line around either, somebody else does or the line is a rumor. Normalize is the wrong word if it means federal patrols standing in as municipal police. Exceptional is the … Continue reading After weeks of unrest and federal deployments to protect courthouses and monuments, should the use of federal officers in cities that refuse to hold a riot line be normalized, or reserved as an exceptional remedy?
Is the growing use of national-security justifications for tariffs and investment restrictions creating a new form of permanent industrial policy?
Owatonna, MN Correspondent — National-security language is being applied to a widening set of economic measures. Some uses are legitimate. Others are conventional industrial policy wearing a more convenient label. The tell is usually the product. When the security case is made about uranium or semiconductors, it's at least arguable. When it's made about a … Continue reading Is the growing use of national-security justifications for tariffs and investment restrictions creating a new form of permanent industrial policy?
Should the United States continue to treat the Hong Kong protests primarily as an internal Chinese matter, or take a more active diplomatic stance?
Sydney, Australia Correspondent — Hong Kong occupies a middle position — legally part of China, operating under a framework the world has treated as distinct for twenty-two years. Treating the protests as purely internal concedes the argument that no external interest exists, which is precisely the claim being tested. A more active stance built on … Continue reading Should the United States continue to treat the Hong Kong protests primarily as an internal Chinese matter, or take a more active diplomatic stance?
Will the ongoing investigations into the previous presidential campaign ultimately strengthen or further erode public trust in federal law-enforcement institutions?
Wheeling, West Virginia Correspondent — Trust in these institutions was already uneven here before any of this started. In a place where the Bureau's main historical appearance was in a corruption case against somebody local, the reservoir was never deep. When a high-profile probe is read through partisan lenses, every procedural decision becomes evidence of … Continue reading Will the ongoing investigations into the previous presidential campaign ultimately strengthen or further erode public trust in federal law-enforcement institutions?
Will the opioid epidemic ultimately force a fundamental rethinking of both pharmaceutical regulation and criminal justice approaches to addiction?
Wheeling, West Virginia Correspondent — We lived this in real time. Entire communities were hollowed out while the rest of the country was still deciding whether it was a story. The companies that pushed the pills and the distributors that shipped absurd quantities into towns of four hundred people should have faced harder consequences years … Continue reading Will the opioid epidemic ultimately force a fundamental rethinking of both pharmaceutical regulation and criminal justice approaches to addiction?
Should members of Congress who used taxpayer funds to settle sexual misconduct claims be required to repay those funds, resign, or face prosecution?
Wheeling, West Virginia Correspondent — We've watched powerful people protect each other for a long time in this country, and I spent thirty years on the union side of that arrangement, so I'm not new to it. When the settlement money comes out of public funds, it stops being a private personnel matter. Ordinary workers … Continue reading Should members of Congress who used taxpayer funds to settle sexual misconduct claims be required to repay those funds, resign, or face prosecution?
Is the growing migrant caravan from Central America primarily a humanitarian, security, or political issue, and what policy responses does it demand?
Prescott Valley, Arizona Correspondent The question gives me three boxes to choose from, and I taught long enough to distrust any question that comes with its own boxes, so let me say at the outset that the caravan is all three and that the order in which a person ranks them tells you more about … Continue reading Is the growing migrant caravan from Central America primarily a humanitarian, security, or political issue, and what policy responses does it demand?
How should Western governments respond to the increasing use of social-media platforms by foreign actors to influence domestic political debates?
Wheeling, West Virginia Correspondent — Foreign attempts to stir up division aren't new. My father's union dealt with people who turned up to make a strike worse on somebody else's instructions. What's new is the speed and the price. Governments need better detection and public attribution when a campaign is clearly state-directed. Platforms have to … Continue reading How should Western governments respond to the increasing use of social-media platforms by foreign actors to influence domestic political debates?
