Matt Gaetz vs the ethics committee
The former Florida congressman is uniquely grotesque, but his persistence as a national figure is troubling
On December 23rd a congressional committee released a lurid 37-page report alleging ethical misconduct by Matt Gaetz, the former maverick member of the House of Representatives who briefly stood as Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney-general. In a different time the investigation’s details about illicit sex and drug use would definitively end Mr Gaetz’s political career, and perhaps it will now. Yet he could soon test how far deviance has been defined down in America’s norm-smashing political era.
At the state level, democracy in America is fracturing
A study shows a regional and partisan divide caused by gerrymandering and voting policies
After a chaotic scramble, Congress strikes a budget deal
The brinkmanship is a sign that governing will be harder than Donald Trump might assume
Donald Trump’s DEI assessment
The Economist has been handed a confidential memo by a consultancy with way too much time on its hands
The Biden administration pursued a mistaken policy on LNG exports
It will be reversed eventually, but not before the courts have had their say
How the Democrats wandered away from America’s workers
A pro-labour Democrat’s career traces the party’s erratic path
Is the opioid epidemic finally burning out?
Overdose deaths are falling steadily