The Newsletter Zeitgeist

The Biden administration's 2024 decision to block the JetBlue-Spirit merger was not just misguided regulatory overreach — it was the direct cause of Spirit's collapse, leaving workers and passengers stranded. The Trump administration's swift coordination with major carriers to cap fares and assist displaced employees is the model of what competent executive action looks like. This is what happens when government substitutes ideology for sound economic judgment, and it falls to the next administration to repair the damage.

Across abortion policy, AI regulation, and political rhetoric, Democrats are not simply offering a competing vision — they are systematically deceiving the public, suppressing dissent, and now openly calling for violence against political opponents. Whether it is weaponizing government agencies against pro-life organizations, proposing legislation that would strangle American innovation to protect ideological allies, or mainstreaming rhetoric about executing Trump officials, the Democratic Party has abandoned democratic norms entirely. The media's refusal to hold them accountable makes it a co-conspirator in this degradation.

Prestigious universities and media figures have abandoned truth-seeking and accountability, instead cultivating dangerous moral certainty that justifies political violence and dehumanization of opponents. The Free Press argues that academia's ideological rot directly enables educated elites to rationalize violent acts, while The Daily Signal contends that media figures like Jimmy Kimmel construct 'permission structures for violence' through conspiratorial rhetoric that frames political opponents as monstrous criminals. Together these arguments frame American civic deterioration as downstream of institutional failures in education and media.

Whether in labor markets, pension systems, or urban development, government action consistently delivers for organized insiders at taxpayers' and consumers' expense. Reason Magazine argues that self-checkout restrictions are a union jobs protection scheme dressed up as crime prevention, while The Daily Signal contends that public sector compensation packages hide unsustainable taxpayer obligations behind myths of public service sacrifice, and The Free Press frames New York's casino approval as politicians surrendering to corporate interests despite broken promises of public benefit. Across all three cases, the conclusion is the same: the stated public rationale is a cover story.

Trump's presidency is enabling an unprecedented corruption crisis — his children profit from foreign deals while Congress has dismantled the oversight mechanisms that would normally check executive abuse. The Roberts Court's dismantling of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act compounds this, stripping minority voters of protection at the precise moment accountability institutions are weakest. Together these represent not isolated failures but a systemic unraveling of the democratic guardrails that once constrained power.

With national debt exceeding 100% of GDP, the U.S. faces a genuine fiscal reckoning — and both Trump and Democrats are actively making it worse through deficit-expanding policies. There is no political constituency for fiscal responsibility, making this a structural failure that transcends partisan blame. The crisis is real but invisible in daily political debate, which is itself the problem.

Hungary's democratic rejection of Orbán proves that authoritarian-aligned leaders can be defeated even with major power backing, offering a template for resisting illiberal nationalism broadly. Trump's approach to NATO and Iran, however, risks squandering the very alliances and leverage that make such resistance possible. The argument is that democratic institutions can still prevail, but only when leaders don't undermine the structural tools that make victory achievable.

U.S. charges against a Mexican governor reveal how deeply cartel corruption has hollowed out Mexican political institutions, and President Sheinbaum's willingness to hold her own party accountable is now the real test of Mexican democracy. Meanwhile, Democrats in Washington are accused of their own institutional bad faith — covering up Biden's mental decline while aligning with radical groups and attacking Republican governance. Across both pieces, the argument is that political elites routinely subordinate institutional integrity to partisan self-interest.

Trump is exploiting a fraudulent ceasefire declaration to reset the War Powers Resolution's 60-day clock, allowing him to maintain an active military blockade and ongoing operations without congressional authorization. Republican lawmakers are not passive bystanders — they are knowingly enabling this constitutional violation because a formal war vote would be politically toxic heading into midterms. This abdication represents a deliberate, coordinated surrender of legislative war powers that the Founders specifically placed in Congress to prevent unilateral executive adventurism.

Gas prices are at four-year highs and climbing, directly traceable to Trump's refusal to accept a diplomatic resolution with Iran — yet Republicans are actively constructing false narratives to deny this economic reality to the public. The lying is not a political miscalculation but a deliberate loyalty performance aimed at pleasing Trump himself rather than persuading voters, making it both dishonest and strategically self-defeating. Without a course correction, oil markets will price in sustained supply disruption and prices will surge dramatically higher, deepening the political and economic damage Republicans are currently pretending does not exist.