Cognoscenti: 2024 ElectionCognoscenti's essays and commentaries about the 2024 election.What the Trump voters see is a calculated fictionTrump’s essential appeal to his base has little to do with his policy proposals, or his record in the White House, writes Steve Almond. It is bound up in his...Apr 24, 2024Project 2025 tells us what a second Trump term could mean for climate policy. It isn’t prettyMuch of the voting public is disturbingly unaware of President Biden’s climate record and the assault that the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 would marshal against it, writes Frederick Hewett. But...Mar 27, 2024Why is Joe Biden's age an indictment?There is zero evidence that Joe Biden’s age has compromised his ability to serve as president. But that hasn't stopped the media from obsessing over it, writes Steve Almond. In...Mar 7, 2024It’s Super Tuesday. Focus on the race, not the wreckIt wasn’t long ago that political veterans like me felt their hearts racing as Super Tuesday approached, writes former Gov. Jane Swift. But this year I can’t find anyone who’s...Mar 5, 2024Jon Stewart’s ‘calm-down’ paternalism isn’t funny in 2024Jon Stewart remains devoted to a lazy brand of false equivalency in which all political candidates are suspect, writes Steve Almond. But the political fate of this country isn’t a...Feb 22, 2024AdvertisementThe world has changed so much in the span of my teenage years. Why haven’t our politics?Like most young voters, I’m not enthusiastic about Joe Biden as a candidate, writes Josephine Almond, who will vote for the first time this year. But I’m going to vote...Feb 2, 2024How the Supreme Court can save itself — and the rest of usAfter runaway victories in Iowa and New Hampshire, Donald Trump is on track to win the Republican nomination. In early February, the Supreme Court will hear Trump’s appeal of a...Jan 24, 2024New Hampshire isn't perfect. But its primary should still be first New Hampshire voters have long demonstrated how seriously they take the primary process, writes Laura Tamman. Along the way, they’ve ensured that presidential candidates are required to answer to real,...Jan 22, 2024How Cog will cover the 2024 electionAmid the whirl of election news over the next 10 months, we’ll focus on the issues and ideas that are most important to voters, including health care, immigration, climate, the...Jan 21, 2024Nikki Haley is hardly a feminist icon. But her candidacy is a step towards gender equityAlthough Nikki Haley is the only Republican woman running for president, she has mostly escaped the sexist news coverage that has long haunted female candidates, writes Meg Heckman. Is this...Jan 19, 2024The GOP candidates' approach to immigration is bad for everybody. Including RepublicansRepublican rants against immigration come in a historical context of American xenophobia, writes Rich Barlow. That ugliness, not economics or national defense, is what animates MAGA Republicans.Jan 19, 2024Yes, Joe Biden is old. And?Nothing about aging is a monolithic experience, writes Pat Lowery Collins, who at 91 years old knows something about getting older. In President Joe Biden we have a Super Ager,...Jan 8, 2024
What the Trump voters see is a calculated fictionTrump’s essential appeal to his base has little to do with his policy proposals, or his record in the White House, writes Steve Almond. It is bound up in his...Apr 24, 2024
Project 2025 tells us what a second Trump term could mean for climate policy. It isn’t prettyMuch of the voting public is disturbingly unaware of President Biden’s climate record and the assault that the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 would marshal against it, writes Frederick Hewett. But...Mar 27, 2024
Why is Joe Biden's age an indictment?There is zero evidence that Joe Biden’s age has compromised his ability to serve as president. But that hasn't stopped the media from obsessing over it, writes Steve Almond. In...Mar 7, 2024
It’s Super Tuesday. Focus on the race, not the wreckIt wasn’t long ago that political veterans like me felt their hearts racing as Super Tuesday approached, writes former Gov. Jane Swift. But this year I can’t find anyone who’s...Mar 5, 2024
Jon Stewart’s ‘calm-down’ paternalism isn’t funny in 2024Jon Stewart remains devoted to a lazy brand of false equivalency in which all political candidates are suspect, writes Steve Almond. But the political fate of this country isn’t a...Feb 22, 2024
The world has changed so much in the span of my teenage years. Why haven’t our politics?Like most young voters, I’m not enthusiastic about Joe Biden as a candidate, writes Josephine Almond, who will vote for the first time this year. But I’m going to vote...Feb 2, 2024
How the Supreme Court can save itself — and the rest of usAfter runaway victories in Iowa and New Hampshire, Donald Trump is on track to win the Republican nomination. In early February, the Supreme Court will hear Trump’s appeal of a...Jan 24, 2024
New Hampshire isn't perfect. But its primary should still be first New Hampshire voters have long demonstrated how seriously they take the primary process, writes Laura Tamman. Along the way, they’ve ensured that presidential candidates are required to answer to real,...Jan 22, 2024
How Cog will cover the 2024 electionAmid the whirl of election news over the next 10 months, we’ll focus on the issues and ideas that are most important to voters, including health care, immigration, climate, the...Jan 21, 2024
Nikki Haley is hardly a feminist icon. But her candidacy is a step towards gender equityAlthough Nikki Haley is the only Republican woman running for president, she has mostly escaped the sexist news coverage that has long haunted female candidates, writes Meg Heckman. Is this...Jan 19, 2024
The GOP candidates' approach to immigration is bad for everybody. Including RepublicansRepublican rants against immigration come in a historical context of American xenophobia, writes Rich Barlow. That ugliness, not economics or national defense, is what animates MAGA Republicans.Jan 19, 2024
Yes, Joe Biden is old. And?Nothing about aging is a monolithic experience, writes Pat Lowery Collins, who at 91 years old knows something about getting older. In President Joe Biden we have a Super Ager,...Jan 8, 2024
