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Edward Luce

Monday 2nd of March 2026

9/11 The US now has 13m citizens with permits to carry concealed firearms, which is more than 12 times the number of police officers. As one lobbyist for the National Rifle Association tells [Evan] Osnos [author of a book being reviewed], the al-Qaeda attacks were a giant windfall for the US gun lobby. The fall of the Twin Towers followed a decade of sharply declining crime rates and lower gun sales. Suddenly there was a new paranoia of terrorists to exploit. Edward Luce, Financial Times, September 11, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
2020 Presidential election It may be beyond the imagination of Americans to accept that their system is in jeopardy.  Countries with radically different histories, such as South Korea, find it much easier. But the facts are staring the US in the face. What happened on January 6 has so far gone unpunished, which means it is likely to be tried again. Edward Luce, Financial Times, December 16, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
2020 Presidential election Running as a universe-saving Luke Skywalker against his [Trump's] Darth Vader could work at the ballot box. But it would be a vapid basis for governing. Edward Luce, Financial Times, January 4, 2019 © 2019 Kwiple.com
2020 Presidential election  There is no perceptible platform or even a ghost of a second term agenda for Donald Trump's party. There is thus no possibility of dissent. His chief surrogates are his own family members. The message is Mr Trump, the whole Mr Trump and nothing but Mr Trump. Edward Luce, Financial Times, August 26, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
2020 Presidential primaries Every Democrat wants to be president. No one wants to be elected senator or governor. Those who have been still appear to want to be in the White House. Democrats are far more obsessed than Republicans by who captures the presidency than by who runs the rest of America. Edward Luce, Financial Times, june 27, 2019, on what he calls the Democrats' “West Wind syndrome” © 2019 Kwiple.com
2020 Presidential primaries Mr McConnell has the skills to stop a Japanese bullet train. Against him, no Democratic president would have much chance of pushing through the healthcare bills, green new deals, progressive judges or other pledges on which the candidates were trying to outbid each other. Edward Luce, Financial Times, June 27, 2019, on what he calls the Democrats' “Mitch McConnell problem” © 2019 Kwiple.com
2022 midterm elections Roughly half the Republicans running for federal or statewide office believe the presidency was stolen from Donald Trump in 2020. That means America’s system itself is on the ballot next Tuesday. Edward Luce, Financial Times, November 2, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
2024 Presidential election Bill Clinton once said Americans prefer “strong and wrong” to “weak and right”. On Thursday, those two options were on the debate stage. Every Democrat, including Biden, tirelessly repeats that democracy is on the ballot this November. They argue that the stakes for America are existential. The question now is whether they have the ruthlessness to act on those beliefs. Edward Luce, Financial Times, June 28, 2024, after Biden's disastrous performnce in the first 2024 presidential debate  © 2024 Kwiple.com
Affirmative action The US debate remains stubbornly monopolised by the ethnic breakdown of the tiny number of students who win the Ivy League lottery. The 19mn or so of those 31mn young Americans who do not progress beyond high school, and the roughly 12mn who go to less elite colleges, barely feature. Whatever tweaks the Ivy League has to make to keep its diversity ratios after last week’s ruling are thus largely irrelevant to the 99.8 per cent that will never get there. Edward Luce, Financial Times, July 5, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Afghanistan War At each point in the post-9/11 story big US decisions have been based on conditions on the ground — the ground in Washington, that is. citation Edward Luce, Financial Times, August 17, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Afghanistan War So it has come full circle. What started as an operation to eradicate al-Qaeda has ended two decades later with the return of its Afghan enablers to power. Rarely have so many lives and so much cash been spent on so little. citation Edward Luce, Financial Times, August 17, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Apple, Inc. What is good for Apple may not be good for America. It shuttered its last US production facility in 2004. Edward Luce, The Retreat of Western Liberalism  © 2017 Kwiple.com
American plutocrats The Democratic party has been put on notice. If it picks a pro-tax candidate to take on Donald Trump next year, a billionaire will probably enter the US presidential race as a spoiler. Whether that is Howard Schultz, the former chief executive of Starbucks, or someone else, is secondary. Any third-party plutocrat would have the means to split the vote and enable Mr Trump's re-election. The inference is clear: a large chunk of America's plutocracy would risk a second Trump term to keep their taxes low. Edward Luce, Financial Times, Jan. 31, 2019 © 2019 Kwiple.com
Asslickers America's National Association of Manufacturers gave Ivanka Trump, the president's daughter, its prestigious Alexander Hamilton award this year. “Like no one in government has ever done, she has provided singular leadership and shown an unwavering commitmwent to manufacturing,” said the industry group, in what ought to have earned it the Order of Sycophancy. Edward Luce, Financial Times, July 16, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Biden administraation It took about 50 days for US president  Joe Biden to fulfil his 100-day vow of 100m vaccinations. The trick is as simple as it is old: under-promise and over-deliver.  Yet after four years of Donald Trump doing the opposite, it feels strangely novel. The same applies to Biden’s $1.9tn recovery package. In one bill, he has provided the financial relief that Trump kept telling middle-class Americans they already had. Might America dare to hope that its days of politics as a branch of the entertainment industry are over? Edward Luce, Financial Times, March 18, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Books There is no need to ban books if people are not reading them. Edward Luce, The Retreat of Western Liberalism  © 2017 Kwiple.com
By the numbers Although manufacturing now barely reaches double digits as a share of the U.S. economy, it accounts for almost three-quarters of private sector R&D spending in the United States. Edward Luce, Time to Start Thinking  © 2017 Kwiple.com
By the numbers In a 2010 poll, a small majority of Americans revealed that they did not realize that humans and dinosaurs never coexisted. Another showed that almost half of Americans thought the sun revolved around the earth. Edward Luce, Time to Start Thinking  © 2016 Kwiple.com
By the numbers In the year leading up to Trump's election victory, the word “transgender” appeared  in the New York Times 1,169 times. The word “opioid” appeared just 284 times.  Edward Luce, Financial Times, January 13-14, 2018 © 2018 Kwiple.com
By the numbers One in four at Ivy League universities are legacy students. Edward Luce, Financial Times, April 27, 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
Christian right Five years ago, many evangelical voters still felt distaste for Mr Trump's libertine personality. They quickly learned he was the kind of pugilist they wanted. The likely Supreme Court confirmation next week of Amy Coney Barrett, and that of Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch before her are testaments to that. America's Christian right has embraced its inner Vladimir Lenin – the end justifies the means. Edward Luce, Financial Times, October 15, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Cities For all the emphasis we place on our multicutural cities, they epitomise our oligarchic reality. In the U.S., the more liberal a city's politics, the higher the rate of inequality. Edward Luce, The Retreat of Western Liberalism  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Cities To the West's economic losers, cities like London and Chicago are not so much magnets but death stars. Edward Luce, The Retreat of Western Liberalism  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Cold War 2.0 A big difference between today’s cold war and the original one is that China is not exporting revolution.  From Cuba to Angola and Korea to Ethiopia, the Soviet Union underwrote leftwing insurgencies worldwide. Edward Luce, Financial Times, March 8, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Cold War 2.0 [L]oose talk of a US-China conflict is no longer far-fetched. Countries do not easily change their spots: China is the middle kingdom wanting  redress for the age of western humiliation; America is the dangerous nation seeking monsters to destroy. Both are playing to type. The question is whether global stability can survive either of them insisting that they must succeed. The likeliest alternative to today's US-China stand-off is not a kumbaya meeting-of-minds, but war. Edward Luce, Financial Times, March 8, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
The Constitution of the United States It would be easier to convert America into a French-speaking country than amend its constitution. Edward Luce, Financial Times, October 6, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Coups d'etat On Wednesday, Mr Trump was asked what he wanted from his Ukraine call. He dismissed the inquiry as a hoax driven by the corrupt media. Those who lied about him were guilty of treason. His verdict leaves no middle ground. Either you believe Mr Trump, or you are corrupt. In an old-fashioned coup, the people kept their heads down. In the 21st-century version, public opinion is key to whether one can succeed. Edward Luce, Financial Times, October 4, 2019 © 2019 Kwiple.com
COVID-19 coronavirus America's abdication of leadership is an act of self harm, which threatens to make it an object of mockery. There are no do-overs on pandemics. Mr Trump's response to the coronavirus is worse than a crime. It is a mistake. Edward Luce, Financial Times, March 26, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
COVID-19 coronavirus The cost of Covid can also be measured in damage to global psychology, including a form of diplomatic long Covid. The world's superpower and its rising great power are both now working from home and nourishing paranoia about each other. When we look back on Covid that may be its biggest cost. Edward Luce, Financial Times, March 1, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
COVID-19 coronavirus The fiscal cost of this pandemic so far has been $10tn of public debt, which is 700 times the annual cost of creating a modest global fund to prepare for such a disaster. They say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. In this case that would come to 43.8 pounds. Edward Luce, Financial Times, August 5, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
COVID-19 coronavirus Having the worlds best labortories will come to naught if Americans refuse to fight side-by-side in the same war. Edward Luce, Financial Times, June 11, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
COVID-19 coronavirus  Ignoring common sense never used to be an anglophone stereotype. What separates the US and the UK from other democracies is extravagant self-belief. Half a millennium of potted history tells Anglo-Americans they are destined always to be on the winning side.  It blinds both to how the rest of the world increasingly views them, which is with sadness and growing mockery.  Edward Luce, Financial Times, July 9, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
COVID-19 coronavirus Woke nativism will prove a more durable pathogen than Covid-19. Edward Luce, Financial Times, August 13, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Cyber warfare The good news about cyber warfare is that it can never rival the damage caused by nuclear weapons. The bad news is that it is permanent war. Edward Luce, The Retreat of Westsern Liberalism  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Death Falling life expectancy is the last thing you would expect on a worry list about US national security. Yet when it is dropping as fast as it is in the US — Americans live almost five years less than the wealthy country average — even the Pentagon has to sit up. At 76, Americans now live shorter lives than their peers in China and only a year  longer than the citizens of supposedly benighted Mexico. People in Japan, Italy and Spain, on the other hand, can expect to live to around 84. Your people’s longevity is the ultimate test of a system’s ability to deliver. Yet neither Democrats nor Republicans, presidents or legislators, seem too bothered. Edward Luce, Financial Times, September 8, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Democracy According to V-Dem, a Swedish research institute, almost three quarters of the world's population now live in autocracies against less than half a decade ago. That vertiginous shift justifies the term “democratic recession”. Edward Luce, Financial Times, March 29, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Democracy  Gone are the days of military coups.  Edward Luce, Financial Times, January 13-14, 2018 © 2018 Kwiple.com
Democracy In the 1990s, the wealthy backed democracy more strongly than any other income group in America and Europe. That has turned upside down. The poor are now democracy's strongest fans, the rich its biggest skeptics.  Edward Luce, The Retreat of Western Liberalism  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Democracy  Those questioning the future of American democracy are behind the curve.  Half of it has already packed up. Parties are what animate a democracy. There is no longer a Republican one distinct from the cult of personality it has become. It is what Mr Trump says it is at any given moment.  One day North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un may be America’s deadliest enemy. Standing ovation. The next day, Mr Kim is Mr Trump's soul brother. The audience stays on its feet. Edward Luce, Financial Times, August 26, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Democracy Trump's fate will shape the future of liberal democracy. That is what makes it so alarming.  Edward Luce, Financial Times, January 13-14, 2018 © 2018 Kwiple.com
Economic growth Clearly what the typical American understands by growth differs greatly from that of macroeconomists. GDP numbers insist we are doing well, at a time when half the country is suffering from personal recession. Edward Luce, The Retreat of Western Liberalism  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Education According to one Harvard study, more students attended America's elite universities from the top 1 per cent of income backgrounds than from the bottom 60 per cent. Edward Luce, The Retreat of Western Liberalism  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Elites If Rome’s oligarchs could have travelled to the future, they might have learned a trick or two from the US Ivy League. It is hard to think of a better system of elite perpetuation than that practiced by America's top universities. … Of the 31mn Americans aged between 18 and 24, just 68,000 are Ivy League schools  undergraduates — about a fifth of a per cent. Of these, a varying ratio are non-white beneficiaries of affirmative action. Many of those are from privileged black or His[anic backgrounds, as opposed to Chicago's South Side or the wastelands of Detroit. This is the basis on which the Ivy League lays claim to being a deliverer of social change. Edward Luce, Financial Times, July 5, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Employment The economy increasingly requires people with very high skills or very few. The far more numerous jobs requiring “middle” skills that could be learned principally on the job are disappearing. Edward Luce, Time to Start Thinking  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Entrepreneurs From Andrew Carnegie, who was born in Scotland, to Andy Grove of Intel from Hungary, or Sergey Brin of Google from Russia, foreign-born entrepreneurs are as American as pizza and bagels. Edward Luce, Time to Start Thinking  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Environmentalism Under a 1970 environmental policy act, projects take an average of 4.5 years to complete their impact assessments.  That is before litigation and other overruns. The law’s key flaw is that it emphasises the views of local communities over the benefits to millions who live elsewhere. Time and again, experience shows that “community participation” is captured by wealthy retirees and lawyers with time on their hands. The law was written before global warming became the issue. Edward Luce, Financial Times, December 16, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Facts During the first day of public impeachment hearings on Wednesday, Mark Meadows, one of Mr Trump's most loyal congressional allies, said: “Everyone has their own impression of what truth is.” When conservatives embrace relativism, facts have clearly lost their use. Edward Luce, Financial Times, November 13, 2019 © 2019 Kwiple.com
Facts Facts are what you feel comfortable believing. No one in your social group is likely to challenge you. Edward Luce, on divisiveness in America Financial Times, December 21, 2015 © 2015 Kwiple.com
Foreign relations c Biden supposedly values allies. Europe’s chagrin is that Biden could have fulfilled both vows [ending forever wars and rebuilding alliances] if he had closely consulted with them on his Afghan exit. He chose not to. The fact that Nato was there at America’s behest rubbed salt into the wound. The 9/11 attacks marked the only time Nato has invoked its Article V mutual defence clause — following an assault on America, not Europe. Edward Luce, Financial Times, August 24, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Foreign relations If you have an American president at foreign summits eating with his mouth closed and not throwing cutlery around, the world will give him a standing ovation. Unnamed Biden adviser quoted by Edward Luce, Financial Times, August 13, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Foreign relations It is no accident that Carter's  first state visit as president was to Poland. Unfortunately, his interpreter mangled his words. Carter said that he was glad to be in Poland and wished to have close relations with its people. It came out as saying that he had left America for good and wanted to have sex with locals. Poles did not seem to mind. Edward Luce, Financial Times, Februry 22, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Government Governments of all types – democratic and authoritarian, small states and superpowers – are losing their ability to anticipate events. They are thus losing  the means to shape them. Edward Luce, The Retreat of Western Liberalism  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Government In today's world, smart government is a critical ingredient of national competitiveness. Unless America can address government's role in a more pragmatic light, it may doom itself to continued descent. Edward Luce, Time to Start Thinking  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Guns In the past decade, the volume of private firearms has jumped more than a third to 120 guns per hundred Americans. The US now accounts for 46 per cent of all private gun ownership worldwide — more than ten times its share of the global population. … In the last generation, the share of American homes that own guns has actually fallen. … That means there are more guns owned by fewer people. Some homes have caches that could qualify as their own mini-militias. Edward Luce, Financial Times, July 6, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Higher education The only change that would qualify as radical in a society that claims to be meritocratic is one that would  boost life chances for the rest. That would mean starting at the beginning of a child’s life with better childcare, good pre-school education, and so on. It would entail dramatically increasing the pipeline of students who might have the chance to win the educational lottery. Until that changes — and unless it becomes America's focus — the current debate is a big red herring. Edward Luce, Financial Times, July 5, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Higher education The ratio of effort to outcome is rising. The more people study, the lower the return to education. You always need more credentials, which most cannot afford. Instead of capital, losers accumulate frustration. Thomas Frank, Financial Times, February 8, 2018 © 2018 Kwiple.com
Higher education Ms Trump and her older brother, Donald Jnr, were admitted to the University of Pennsylvania after her her father had pledged a $1.4m gift. Both were legacy students – their father went to the same school. Mr Kushner was admitted to Harvard after his father, Charles, had donated $2.5m. These are familiar stories. A study last week showed that 43 per cent of Harvard's white under- graduates were legacy students, children of donors or staff, or athletics scholars. Edward Luce, Financial Times, July 16, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Immigration Germany has taken in roughly 800,000 Syrian refugees in the past two years. The US has taken in fewer than 20,000. On a per capita basis, therefore, Germany has absorbed 160 times more refugees than the country that was built on immigrants. Edward Luce © 2017 Kwiple.com
Impeachment Washington is staging the opposite of a Moscow show trial. In the Soviet version, Joseph Stalin would coerce innocent comrades into false professions of guilt. In Donald Trump's Senate trial, the US president's party is proclaiming the innocence of an allegedly guilty man The overlap is that each trial was pre-cooked before it began. Edward Luce, Financial Times, January 23, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Income growth If there is an explanation as to why U.S. middle-class incomes have stagnated this is it: whatever jobs the United States is able to create are in the least efficient parts of the economy, the types that neither computers, nor China, have yet found a way of eliminating. That trend is starting to lap at the feet of more educated American workers. Edward Luce, Time to Start Thinking  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Justice Justice is never in a hurry. Politics usually is. Edward Luce, Financial Times, March 30, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Libertarians American libertarians should rarely be taken at face value. They generally share two characteristics. The first is that they are rich. It is as rare to find an impoverished libertarian as it is to find a wealthy socialist. The second reason is that their libertarianism rarely stretches beyond their personal freedoms, especially the liberty not to be taxed. Other people's freedom is their own lookout. Edward Luce, Financial Times, May 26, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Lies [A] culture of lying leads to nihilism. When people believe in nothing, they can believe in anything. Edward Luce, Financial Times, October 11, 2018 © 2018 Kwiple.com
Markets [I]t was not that long ago that we intuitively knew the difference between a market economy and a market society. The former is a way to produce goods and allocate capital. The latter is a place where the economy is the arbiter of everything. Even our social life has a price. As we consider a society in which even our private recesses can be monetized (I'm thinking of the social influencers my daughter's generation watch, who are today's best examples of winner-takes-all economics), we need to pay more atten- tion to those who have nothing to sell. Edward Luce, Financial Times, Mar. 27, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Money in politics Just as Republicans repay their donors with tax cuts, Democrats repay their base with debt forgiveness. Edward Luce, Financial Times, December 7, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Money in politics In some ways Obama is to election finance what  George [W] Bush had been to tax cuts — a bonanza.  Edward Luce, Time to Start Thinking  © 2017 Kwiple.com
National security The line between legitimate national security concerns and outright paranoia is perilously thin. Edward Luce, Financial Times, September 19, 2019 © 2019 Kwiple.com
Nimbyism Nimbyism captures both both of the left’s worst traits: it is often those who most loudly profess their principles who are quickest to veto any disruption to their own lives. Edward Luce, Financial Times, December 16, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Polarization What should we make of the fact that America's TV channels all carried the live jubilee festivities of an elderly monarch but will part ways on this week's hearings into an assault on US democracy? The light-hearted take is that the British crown is above politics, including in America. The darker interpretation is that the survival of US democracy itself is now a partisan issue. Edward Luce, Financial Times, June 8, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Political inequality In theory, senators representing just 16 per cent of America's population could hold sway over the US Senate within a generation. On present course, almost all are likely to be Republican. With 750,000 people, North Dakota has one senator per 375,000 people. With 40m, California has one representing every 20m. It would take a two-thirds majority of each chamber and three-quarters of the states to approve a constitutional amendment. The chances that Republicans will agree to alter the rules are close to zero. It would be like turkeys voting for Thanksgiving. Edward Luce, Financial Times, November 9, 2018 © 2018 Kwiple.com
Politics America's political inclination is to distribute power rather than wealth. Edward Luce, Financial Times, March 7, 2019 © 2019 Kwiple.com
Politics In politics, it is not what you say but what people hear. Edward Luce © 2015 Kwiple.com
Politics Politics is about spending capital to achieve messy results. Being a celebrity is about protecting your brand. Edward Luce, Financial Times, January 11, 2018 © 2018 Kwiple.com
Politics We should never interrupt the enemy while he is making a mistake. Edward Luce, Financial Times, October 14, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Populism The question is  no longer whether America's populist left is rising. It is who will lead it.  Edward Luce, Financial Times, June 22, 2017, following defeats of establishment Democrats in four special congressional elections to fill seats vacated by Republicans who left to join Trump's adminisration © 2017 Kwiple.com
Populism What does he think Trump has that the others lacked, I ask? The short answer is that Trump understood that that America's “aspirational” working class had become “desperational”. Edward Luce, from his interview with Anthony Scaramucci © 2018 Kwiple.com
Problem solving “See this?” he says. “These are front-stabbing knives. You only use these in New York. In Washington you use a shiv, or mechanisms in the press, back-stabbing, subterfuge, opposition research . . . Not in New York. We come at you right from the front.” Anthony Scaramucci, quoted in Edward Luce's interview with Scaramucci at a restaurant in New York © 2017 Kwiple.com
Public discourse Following Trump's victory, an ancient Greek term suddenly suddenly re-entered English usage: demophobia – literally fear of the mob. What if conveys is cold feet about democracy. … The Trump era's changing vocabulary also includes a word of more recent coinage: oikophobia, literally an aversion to home surroundings. In reality, it means fear of your own people – the opposite of xenophobia. Edward Luce, The Retreat of Western Liberalism © 2017 Kwiple.com
Public discourse The higher the oratory, the riskier the magic. Edward Luce, Financial Times, January 4, 2019 © 2019 Kwiple.com
Public discourse There is a thin line between convincing people of the merits of a case and suggesting they are moral outcasts if they fail to see it. Edward Luce, The Retreat of Western Liberalism  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Racism Imagine a group of black men in paramilitary gear with semiautomatic rifles moving towards a US state capitol building. Their chances of reaching the steps without a police stand-off – or worse – would be tiny. Yet every few days white protesters do just that. They often enter the building armed but unchallenged. Nothing brings into sharper relief America’s colour disparities than life and death in the great lockdown. Edward Luce, Financial Times, May 14, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Rule of law Mr Linick is the fifth inspector general to be sacked in the past two months. “Someone was walking my dog to sell arms to my dry cleaner,” was how Mr Pompeo mocked the uproar. That is the language of impunity. Edward Luce, Financial Times, May 21, 2020 [Linick was investigating Pompeo for using State Department employees as his and his wife's gofers and for bypassing Congress to sell arms to Saudi Arabia. Pompeo asked Trump to fire Linick. Trump said he never heard of Linick but fired him anyway.] © 2020 Kwiple.com
Selfie I believe that protecting society's weakest from arbitrary misfortune is the ultimate test of our civilisational worth. Edward Luce © 2017 Kwiple.com
Separation of powers Given America's separation of powers, the Tea Party needs to be only a majority of the majority of one half of one branch of government to have a pretty good shot at ensuring nothing significant can move in Washington, D.C. The only threshold that matters is to be a majority of the minority party in the Senate (where forty votes can block almost all legislation), and to remain the largest and most powerful faction in the House. Even if Republicans lost control of the House, the Tea Party could still get by on the minority veto in the Senate. Edward Luce, Time to Start Thinking © 2017 Kwiple.com
Sexual harassment The winner was the #MeToo wave against sexual harassment. … The #MeToo road leads to the White House. Edward Luce, Financial Times, December 14, 2017, on Roy Moore's defeat in Alabama and accusations of sexual harassment against Donald Trump by at least 16 women © 2017 Kwiple.com
Snapshot By the standards of most US presidents, Biden's ego is modest. That is an admittedly low bar. But at 78, it is hard to claim you personify the wave of the future. The best kind of politics is to govern, rather than fret about your brand. This sets Biden apart from Obama as well as Trump. Not everything needs to be about him. Joe Biden portrayed by Edward Luce Financial Times, March 18, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Snapshot Similar obituaries were being penned  only two weeks ago as Biden's poll numbers  dropped below even Donald Trump's nadir. Yet here we are. America's oldest president can now boast of a stronger legislative record in less than two years than either Obama or Bill Clinton achieved in eight. It turns out that low expectations are Biden's secret weapon. Joe Biden portrayed by Edward Luce Financial Times, Auguest 9, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Snapshot The joke goes that Mr Bolton never met a war he did not like. That may be an understatement. Mr Trump's new national security adviser rarely sees a peaceful entanglement that could not be improved by artillery. John Bolton portrayed by Edward Luce © 2018 Kwiple.com
Snapshot Mr Bolton has no patience for US democracy promotion, which gels with Mr Trump's worldview. Contrary to popular opinion, Mr Bolton is not a neoconservative. Neocons believe US values should be universal. Mr Bolton believes in aggressive promotion of the US national interest, which is quite different. John Bolton portrayed by Edward Luce © 2018 Kwiple.com
Snapshot Branding his campaign “Jeb!” has fooled nobody. What they read instead is “Bush?!” Jeb Bush portrayed by Edward Luce © 2015 Kwiple.com
Snapshot Her fixation on bringing about Donald Trump’s political demise — possibly in the form of a jail sentence — has turned Cheney into America's most celebrated electoral suicide. Unlike the real thing, the politicl version can become a platform for rebirth. Liz Cheney portrayed by Edward Luce in Financial Times, August 17, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Snapshot Garland could be Mueller’s heir. He is a public servant who goes by the book in an America that has given up reading. Merrick Garland portrayed by Edward Luce, Financial Times, June 22, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Snapshot If a person's past were another country, Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump’s lawyer, would be refused a visa. Rudy Giuliani portrayed by Edward Luce, Financial Times, December 5, 2019 © 2019 Kwiple.com
Snapshot [T]he Green New Deal is already branded in the public's mind. Just as Ms Ocasio-Cortez is known by her initials – AOC – her bill is already known by its shorthand, GND. Few politicians, or bills, make that distinction. Think of John F Kennedy (JFK) or Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR). The fact that a 29-year-old former bar- tender has gone from zero to ubiquitous abbreviation in a few months tells us something about America's appetite for change. She is now the most influential figure in US politics after Mr Trump. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez portrayed by Edward Luce, Financial Times, February 15, 2019 © 2019 Kwiple.com
Snapshot Mr Pence is an evangelical who has vowed never to dine alone with a woman except his own wife.  He has been pilloried for his prudishness.  How can anyone work in today's world without being alone with a female colleague? It is altogether Saudi Arabian. Mike Pence portrayed by Edward Luce © 2018 Kwiple.com
Snapshot Are they “laughing their asses off” in Moscow, as Mr Trump tweeted last weekend? They ought to be. America's president is a gift that keeps on giving. Donald Trump portrayed by Edward Luce Financial Times, February 22, 2018 © 2018 Kwiple.com
Snapshot Donald Trump has altered what it means to run for high office. No White House contender ever came near his blend of fantasy and falsehood. He won all the same. He may well do so again. The least bad thing you could say about Mr Trump's fabulism is that he paid no price for it. But the truth is uglier: it may well have brought him victory. Donald Trump portrayed by Edward Luce in Financial Times, March 21, 2019 © 2019 Kwiple.com
Snapshot Donald Trump has altered what it means to run for high office. No White House contender ever came near his blend of fantasy and falsehood. He won all the same. He may well do so again. The least bad thing you could say about Mr Trump's fabulism is that he paid no price for it. But the truth is uglier: it may well have brought him victory. Donald Trump portrayed by Edward Luce in Financial Times, March 21, 2019 © 2019 Kwiple.com
Snapshot Flattery gets you everywhere with Donald Trump. But only while it lasts. … The law of diminishing returns applies to favors already bestowed. At a certain point, the ratio of Trump flattery to loss of self-respect would be too high. Donald Trump portrayed by Edward Luce © 2018 Kwiple.com
Snapshot  He altered the nature of American politics by making it an all or nothing battle in which winning was the only goal, no matter what the outcome. Donald Trump portrayed by Edward Luce Financial Times, August 26, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Snapshot He is the Houdini of bankruptcy court. Donald Trump portrayed by Edward Luce Financial Times, March 30, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Snapshot It is easy to mock those who think he “tells it like it is.” What they mean is that he speaks plainly. Even when he lies, Mr Trump's meaning is easy to grasp. Donald Trump portrayed by Edward Luce Financial Times, March 8, 2018 © 2018 Kwiple.com
Snapshot It is often tempting to think Donald Trump can do no worse. Yet he keeps finding that extra mile. Donald Trump portrayed by Edward Luce © 2017 Kwiple.com
Snapshot Mr Trump is everywhere at all times. If you measure a presidency by media saturation, Mr Trump is already on his fourth term. Donald Trump portrayed by Edward Luce in Financial Times, July 25, 2019 © 2019 Kwiple.com
Snapshot Mr Xi [Jinping] holds a telescope. Mr Trump stares at the mirror. Donald Trump portrayed by Edward Luce © 2018 Kwiple.com
Snapshot Somewhere in our bourgeois subconscious is the  realisation that Mr Trump is no accident. He holds up a cracked mirror to our illusions. When we mock him, he draws strength. When he provokes, we stumble. Yet we cannot help ourselves. He is deeply outrageous. Donald Trump portrayed by Edward Luce © 2018 Kwiple.com
Snapshot Trump will operate as a kind of Ku Klux Kardashian, combining hard-right pubilism with the best of postmodern vaudeville. Donald Trump portrayed by Edward Luce © 2017 Kwiple.com
Snapshot We need Mr Trump just as he needs us. It is a ghastly symbiosis. Without Mr Trump, there would be no distraction. We might be forced to examine whether we live up to our own values. Do we love the highly educated? Do they deserve by virtue of credentials to be celebrated? Or should we revisit what we mean by a fair society? Donald Trump portrayed by Edward Luce Financial Times, February 8, 2018 © 2018 Kwiple.com
Snapshot Mr Trump has the attention span of a goldfish. Mrs. Clinton, meanwhile, has the memory of an elephant. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton portrayed by Edward Luce © 2017 Kwiple.com
Snapshot This week, America's self-named First Daughter urged America's almost 30m unemployed to “find something new”. Learn another skill, Ms Trump advised. Look for a different job. … No one wants to hear they are to blame for being unemployed. … As a benchmark of disconnectedness, Marie Antoinette could hardly have done better. … It would be tempting to treat Ms Trump's “find something new” campaign as a Freudian slip about her father's job. Ivanka Trump portrayed by Edward Luce, July 16, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Snapshot If Ms Winfrey  is the answer to Mr Trump, what was the question? Oprah Winfrey portrayed by Edward Luce © 2018 Kwiple.com
Socio-economic mobility The drawbridge is rising. The gap between the self image of meritocratic openness and reality is wide. Psychologists call this “self-discrepancy”. Economists call it barriers to entry. Edward Luce, Financial Times, February 8, 2018 © 2018 Kwiple.com
Socio-economic mobility Since most of Washington's spending on economic mobility comes through tax expenditures – subsidies that individual filers claim via their IRS returns – there is clearly foreknowledge of the outcome. The poor do not file tax returns. The rich have accountants. Edward Luce, Time to Start Thinking  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Socio-economic mobility Today it is rarer for a poor American to become rich than a poor Briton, which means the American Dream is less likely to be realised in America. The meritocratic society has given way to a hereditary meritocracy. Edward Luce, The Retreat of Liberal Liberalism  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Southern border wall Mr Trump never intended the wall as anything more than a slogan. The manufactured crisis on the US border stopped the moment Mr Trump was elected in November 2016. It only resumed in the weeks leading up to the 2018 midterm elections. Border crises are a way of whipping up fear and outrage. They only manifest themselves when Democrats are in office. Edward Luce, Financial Times, January 10, 2019 © 2019 Kwiple.com
State of the union The challenge for the Democratic party is whether it can win back white working class voters faster than Republicans win over non-white voters. At the moment that is an open question. The fate of Mr Biden's presidency – and his party – may rest on the answer. Edward Luce, Financial Times, December 15, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
State of the union If you want a picture of the future, imagine Donald Trump, Jr, yelling about America's bright and beautiful future – forever. Edward Luce, Financial Times, August 26, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
State of the union Imagine two kinds of threat: one where a bear breaks into your cabin, the other where termites eat it from within. Mr Trump is the bear. Edward Luce, Financial Times, November 7, 2016 © 2016 Kwiple.com
State of the union There are two words for those who think the US republic is teetering: Donald Trump. There is also a two-word riposte: Robert Mueller. While Mueller stays in his job, the US system is working as it should. Edward Luce, Financial Times, November 2, 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
State of the union We are barely two months into the republic’s year from hell. In 2024, US politics is hitting a perfect storm of partisan loathing in a society where algorithms become ever more skilled at generating outrage among the exhausted majority. Conditions are as good as they get for an outrage entrepreneur like Trump. The rest of this year promises to be nastier than anything we have seen. Edward Luce, Financial Times, February 29, 2024 © 2024 Kwiple.com
State of the union We are entering Nixonian territory. … Not even Nixon fired the head of the FBI.  Edward Luce, Financial Times, May 9, 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
Supreme Court  If you look at other western legal systems, there is no parallel to the bind  in which America finds itself. The closest analogy to a Supreme Court whose majority follow originalism — fidelity to the alleged wishes of long-deceased men — sits in Tehran. Iran's Council of Guardians is unelected, regulates women’s bodies, cannot be re- moved and is impervious to public opinion. They answer to a higher power. The more America's Supreme Court resembles a theocratic body, the more it imperils itself. Edward Luce, Financial Times, May 3, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Taxes The company's army of lawyers and tax advisers had used every loophole to ensure GE paid a grand total of zero federal taxes on its $5.1 billion of U.S. profits in 2010. The company even claimed a rebate from the Internal Revenue Service. That's what a thousand-strong tax department can do for its employer. Edward Luce, Time to Start Thinking  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Terrorism America's debate over how to uproot Islamist terrorism is as much about defeating political enemies at home as it is about coping with ground realities in the Middle East. Edward Luce, Financial Times, December 21, 2015 © 2017 Kwiple.com
Terrorism Two-thirds of its [America's] terrorist incidents last year were carried out by homegrown extremists from the far-right. That rose to 90 per cent in the first five months of this year. Edward Luce, Financial Times, September 10, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Treason The notion that America's president could be an agent of the Kremlin is so outlandish that it is almost self-discrediting. People who happily speculate about UFOs, or an inside job on 9/11, steer clear of portraying Mr Trump as the Manchurian candidate. To float the idea is to risk being labelled a conspiracy theorist. In private, however, it is a serious topic. Edward Luce, Financial Times chief US commentator, January 18, 2019 © 2019 Kwiple.com
Tribalism In a nation of tribes, only the warriors command respect. What happens if they lose it? Edward Luce, Financial Times, January 25, 2018, referring to the armed forces, the only American institution more than 50% of Americans have confidence in © 2018 Kwiple.com
Trumpism As long as Donald Trump is breathing,  the odds are that he will run again in 2024. This has become clear not because his ambitions have changed — Trump is no longer concerned with his business except to prevent its collapse — but because Republicans are all in for Caesarism. The party as a whole now has one truth, which is whatever Trump says, even if it is different after breakfast than before. Edward Luce, Financial Times, July 29, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Trumpism If Trump did not exist, you might describe DeSantis's philosophy as fossil fuel Christian nationalism. Its enemies are amoral tech oligarchs, Big Pharma, ESG-endorsing finance,  the corporate media and elite universities.  Since Trump does exist, we call it Trumpism. The difference lies in the competence of its execution. Edward Luce, Financial Times, December 21, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Trumpism It is not as though Mr Trump lacks business friends. But they differ from the traditional crowd. Almost none run publicly listed com- panies. They tend to be property developers, private equity billionaires, casino magnates, and heads of family-owned companies. They swim in different water to C-suite executives. Many are based in middle America and cater to a purely domestic market. They are little affected by the tariff wars Mr Trump has unleashed. Nor do they worry about public relations. Apple and Nike may oppose a US state when it bans transgender bathrooms, or restricts gay rights. Their stakeholder reputation demands it. America's multinational companies remain staunch internationalists. Mr Trump's friends are nationalist-populists. Edward Luce, Financial Times, Jan. 6, 2019 © 2019 Kwiple.com
Trumpism  The sheep are leaving the shepherd. Edward Luce, Financial Times, June 7, 2018, on the effects of Trump's policies on America's long-standing allies  © 2018 Kwiple.com
Ukraine Biden has been overestimating Putin’s nuclear red lines from the start. As a result, Ukraine is still having to defend itself with one hand behind its back. Edward Luce, Financial Times, December 13, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Ukraine It is impossible to win a war — or make enough headway to reach a favourable settlement — if you are limited to fighting the invader on your own soil. Edward Luce, Financial Times, December 13, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Ukraine So why are Putin’s sympathisers making such inroads into the Republican party? Because Putin is Biden’s enemy, and the enemy of your enemy is your friend.  It is not much more complicated than that. There are genuine Putin backers on America’s hard right. But the bulk of his American fellow-travellers are dark opportunists, like Donald Trump. Anything that is harmful to Biden is good for them. Ukraine’s defeat would thus be good for Republicans.  Edward Luce, Financial Times, December 13, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Veterans Almost a fifth of those arrested for the assault on Capitol Hill this year were former US military personnel — more than 20 times their share of the population. Edward Luce, Financial Times, September 11, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
War In this country, “shared sacrifice” means putting a yellow ribbon around the oak tree an then going shopping. Alpha, an Air Force colonel attending the National Defense University, quoted by Edward Luce in Time to Start Thinking  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Wealth inequality American elites have stored more wealth than they can consume. This creates three problems for everyone else. First, elites invest their surpluses in replicating their advantages. … The second response to having such vast wealth is to create other kinds of scarcity [especially of nonmaterial goods like Ivy League acceptances]. … The third challenge is the hardest to fix. … Kids must study harder and for longer than their parents to find jobs that do not often repay the effort. Edward Luce, Financial Times, February 8, 2018 © 2018 Kwiple.com
Wealth inequality The world wealthiest subset – the 1426 richest individuals on the planet – are worth $5.4 trillion, which is roughly twice the size of the entire British economy and more than the combined assets of the 250 million least wealthy Americans. Edward Luce, The Retreat of Western Liberalism Average wealth of a 1426er: $5,400,000,000.000 / 1,426 = $3,786,816,269 Average wealth of a 250,000,000er: $5,400,000,000.000 / 250,000,000 = $21,600 $3,786,816,269 / $21,600 = 175,315 Average wealth of a 1426er = combined assets of 175,315 250,000,000ers © 2017 Kwiple.com
the West Here, then, is the crux of the West's crisis: our societies are split between the will of the people and the rule of the experts – the tyranny of the majority versus the club of self-serving insiders. Edward Luce, The Retreat of Western Liberalism  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Work You will be rewarded by not being fired. Shirley Tilghman, president of Princeton University, on the rewards to expect from hard work after graduating and entering the worforce, in her 2011 commencement address, quoted by Edward Luce in Time to Start Thinking  © 2017 Kwiple.com
 
Working class The working class has moved from making stuff to serving people. Edward Luce, The Retreat of Western Liberalism © 2017 Kwiple.com