The federal bureaucracy wields vast power—why are their leadership positions appointed instead of elected?

From the New Orleans DSA brake light clinic to benevolent associations in the Jim Crow South to a disaster relief supply “heist” in Puerto Rico, Cate Root explains mutual aid and its relationship with power.

How did cartoonist Scott Adams go from Dilbert to MAGA and what does the Cold War have to do with it?

Revisit this 2019 sitdown between Current Affairs editor-in-chief Nathan J. Robinson and founder and editor-at-large of Vox, Ezra Klein. Together, they debate (in a very friendly manner) the successes and failures of the Bernie Sanders campaign, incremental change versus radical change, and whether Nathan was justified in writing mean things about Vox in 2016.

Jason Adam Katzenstein peers into his multiverse scrying glass to bring us some possible election outcomes. With illustrations!

Trump has bragged about killing an activist without any due process. That’s terrifying.

When the richest and most powerful women say “as a woman…”, they alienate more than they include.

The Right gets ’em while they’re young.