Ross Douthat

Strip away the weird semi-fascist optics, the creepy crimson lighting and the Marines standing sentinel, and the speech Joe Biden gave on Thursday night outside Philadelphia’s Independence Hall could have been given by other prominent Democrats throughout the Trump era. The song is always the…

The two weeks since the F.B.I. descended on Mar-a-Lago have felt remarkably familiar. It’s not just that Donald Trump is dominating headlines once again; it’s that all the hits of 2017 and 2018 are being played again: legal experts cobbling together complex theories out of fragmentary information,…

In Donald Trump’s quest to sustain his dominance over the Republican Party, his claim to have been robbed of victory in 2020 has been a crucial talisman, lending him powers denied to previous defeated presidential candidates. By insisting that he was cheated out of victory, Trump fashioned himself…

The experience of driving across America, which my family just recklessly embraced, is an experience of America but, of course, also an experience of driving. In the last three weeks I’ve spent roughly 55 hours behind the wheel, counting all our detours and side trips, in a rented American minivan …

I have few stronger opinions about movie characters than my view that Miranda Priestly, the demanding fashion-magazine boss in “The Devil Wears Prada,” is actually the heroine of the movie. Not an uncomplicated heroine, certainly not a nice person. But a figure to be celebrated nonetheless: a…

In the most popular show on American television, “Yellowstone,” the heroes are the rich owners of a vast, gorgeous spread of Montana real estate. The villains are anyone else who wants to live there. I exaggerate; the show is a little more complicated than this. There are times when the Duttons,…

Sure, it works in practice, but does it work in theory? Over the years I’ve heard this parody of academic pomposity put in the lips of various targets, from French intellectuals to University of Chicago economists. Lately, though, I’ve begun thinking it myself — about the hawkish side in the debate…

Since the initial Omicron wave receded and inflation replaced Covid-19 in the headlines, the debate over reopening has largely been settled in favor of the reopeners. But the debate over the wisdom of reopening and unmasking hasn’t gone away. As Covid cases rise again, there is still a vocal…

Last week brought a little clarity to the fog of the Ukraine war: The significant date of May 9, the celebration of the Soviet Union’s victory over Hitler’s Germany, came and went with no change of Russian strategy. When Vladimir Putin came out to inspect the military parades and…