We Hold These Truths…

By Charlie Johnston In America we settle disputes with ballots, not bullets. Fascists use bullets and violence to get their way. Communists use coercion and force to achieve their aims. Authoritarians rig elections to make their depredations look genuine. In America, we settle disputes with ballots, not bullets. But we have the biggest fascist, communist, […]

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Midterm Madness

By Charlie Johnston A lot of people and commentators are deeply concerned the Republicans are going to blow the midterm elections. It is not an irrational concern. Wobbly Republicans have blown a lot of elections over the years. With too many Republicans in the Senate taking the “20” side of the 80-20 issue of voter […]

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Thoughts From the Texas Tundra

By Charlie Johnston I spent most of my life in various parts of the often-frozen northern states of Illinois and Colorado. Right now, I am housebound in Texas…not out of any infirmity, but because we had a decent ice and snowstorm outside. I chuckle because, objectively, what we got (about an inch and a half […]

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A Year of Reckoning for Islam

By Charlie Johnston I first posted the following article on November 20, 2015. I wrote the first version of this particular introduction to it in late 2023, right after the Hamas massacre of Israeli concert-goers. I caught a lot of flack for it, despite a certain delicacy in my candor. We were long governed by […]

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A Hope and a future

By Charlie Johnston (Though it covers some old territory as a preliminary, this is a foundational piece. If you read nothing else, please read the last paragraph of the first item. It is critical, going forward. Sorry it is so long. I just didn’t have time to write a shorter piece – CJ) When I […]

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Make All Things New Again

By Charlie Johnston Tallahassee, Florida – I have told the story of watching 9-11 in real time and exclaiming to my friend watching with me that the towers were about to collapse. I had seen them shudder just a few minutes before the first tower came down. My friend, a fellow long-time political operative, had let […]

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