Donavan McKinney and the Politics of Credibility

Donavan McKinney, a Michigan state representative running for a Detroit-area congressional seat, has become a small but telling case study in a much larger question: what the progressive wing of the Democratic Party is trying to become after 2024. That question is bigger than any one race. It is worth separating from it here, because Read More “Donavan McKinney and the Politics of Credibility”

The Quiet Company Challenging China’s Open AI Lead

Every so often a small, unglamorous fact arrives that tells you more about the character of a nation than any speech does. Last week, a company almost nobody outside a narrow community of software engineers had heard of released a piece of software that, on its own modest terms, may matter more than most of Read More “The Quiet Company Challenging China’s Open AI Lead”

Repair Is a Form of Belief

There are people in every neighborhood who seem to possess an unofficial jurisdiction over whatever has gone wrong. They know which plumber will answer on a Sunday. They know who has a pickup truck, who still owns a ladder tall enough to reach the gutter, and which church keeps a small fund for families whose Read More “Repair Is a Form of Belief”

The Architecture of Ordinary Goodness

Before the first child arrives, someone unlocks the school. Before the county office opens, someone answers a phone that has already begun to ring, and does it before anyone in the building has had enough coffee. Down a quiet hallway a floor gets swept. A medication gets checked against a chart. A pantry shelf gets Read More “The Architecture of Ordinary Goodness”