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Jan 10, 2025 | 
19fortyfive.com | Neal Urwitz
Democrats are forlorn over Donald Trump’s electoral victory, and national security-focused Democrats are no exception. In nominating relative unknowns like Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense and spending his transition period threatening to use coercive power to annex Greenland and retake the Panama Canal, Trump seems to be confirming all of our worst fears.
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Dec 11, 2024 | 
19fortyfive.com | Neal Urwitz
America’s focus on higher education has, quite fairly, focused on the anti-Israel protests–which have often veered into overt antisemitism–that have hit college campuses since last October 7. The protests are newsy and fit neatly into a persistent criticism of higher education, namely that it has a double-standard that empowers doctrinaire progressivism. Yet that is not the biggest controversy facing higher education.
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Nov 22, 2024 | 
usnews.com | Norman Ornstein |Neal Urwitz |Albert Hunt
As bad as many of us believed a Trump 2.0 administration would be, President-elect Donald Trump’s promises and actions since he won underscore that it will be even worse than we could have imagined.
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Nov 21, 2024 | 
usnews.com | Neal Urwitz |Albert Hunt |Rick Wilson
My wife and I have spent the last week potty training our son. Anyone who has been through this knows what’s involved: reading and rereading “Elmo Learns to Use the Potty,” effusive praise for successful trips to the toilet and lots of M&Ms as a reward. As every parent knows, the most effective strategy to train a toddler is to cajole them to do the right thing and heap on the praise; it’s prettied-up manipulation. Democrats should adopt the same approach with President-elect Donald Trump.
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Nov 14, 2024 | 
nationalinterest.org | Neal Urwitz
I’m pro-Israel, through and through. I started my career at AIPAC. I’ve been to Israel a number of times. One of my earliest published commentaries came when I was still in college, lamenting Hamas’ election in Gaza (little did I know how prescient I was.) I’ve even written that I am concerned that Donald Trump isn’t pro-Israel enough (or, more accurately, that his pro-Israel bona fides could disappear in a flash).
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Nov 2, 2024 | 
nationalinterest.org | Neal Urwitz
Vice President Kamala Harris is the conservative choice. Trump is the far more radical one. I know that sounds nuts. Trump has taken to calling Harris “Comrade Kamala” and she did have a liberal voting record in the Senate. Trump, on the other hand, is a mainstay of right-wing television outlets and likes to talk about bringing America back to an earlier era; he likes to talk about President William McKinley and recently referenced the Alien Enemies Act, which Congress passed in 1798.
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Oct 27, 2024 | 
nationalinterest.org | Neal Urwitz
From a pure policy standpoint, one could see why Donald Trump thinks he deserves the Jewish vote. During his administration, he moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. His tax cut overwhelmingly favored the wealthy, and Jews are one of the most affluent demographics in the United States. And yet, polls show Trump losing Jews by a huge margin. Indeed, he’s “pre-blaming” Jews for an election loss. Such behavior for Trump, however, is par for the course.
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Sep 11, 2024 | 
nationalinterest.org | Neal Urwitz
One thing was clear during Tuesday’s debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris: Trump rose to every lure Harris threw in the water. Harris repeatedly triggered him, and he lost his ability to make coherent points or avoid bizarre conspiracy theories that he knew would turn off the moderate voters he wanted to appeal to. The lesson for foreign adversaries is crystal clear: they can play Trump like a harp.
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Jun 1, 2024 | 
nationalinterest.org | Neal Urwitz
Summary: The predictable reactions to Donald Trump's conviction for falsifying business records missed the crucial point: Trump's actions reflect poor character and impulsiveness, traits unsuitable for the presidency. -His affair with Stormy Daniels, efforts to cover it up, and dishonest behavior highlight his unsuitability. -Moreover, Trump surrounds himself with unethical individuals, as seen in his associations with Michael Cohen and David Pecker.
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Nov 8, 2023 | 
nationalinterest.org | Neal Urwitz
Since winning a flukish election against a flawed candidate in 2016, the Republican Party has been on a relentless downward spiral. In election after election – from the 2018 midterms to the 2020 presidential election to countless one-off special elections and the 2022 “red tsunami” that never made landfall – voters have roundly rejected the GOP. They’ve built a brand around verifiable lies and the lack of a coherent agenda, topped with brutal yet petty infighting.
