Sheila Kennedy

The “Welcome Nazis” Administration It’s no longer possible for any sentient American to deny the virulent racism at the heart of MAGA and the Trump administration. The efforts to characterize DEI as “anti-White,” t…

The "Welcome Nazis" Administration sheilakennedy.net/2025/11/the-...

The President As Mob Boss Before I retired, I spent 21 years teaching Law and Public Policy to students who wanted to know about those topics, and I can confirm that even individuals with an interest in government often had…

The President As Mob Boss sheilakennedy.net/2025/11/the-...

Cultural Nostalgia Sometimes I read an essay or an op-ed that hits me–a sentence or paragraph or analysis that seems so on-target that I feel impelled to share it. That was my reaction to a recent op-ed by Fare…

Cultural Nostalgia sheilakennedy.net/2025/11/cult...

The Continuing War On Science AP had a recent headline warning that the numerous anti-science bills hitting America’s statehouses are stripping away public health protections that have taken over a century to pass. The he…

The Continuing War On Science sheilakennedy.net/2025/11/the-...

Trump: On The Wrong Side Of Everything One of the most annoying aspects of living under the Trump/MAGA regime is the sheer extent of its venality and stupidity. When I first began writing these daily observations, there would come times…

Trump: On The Wrong Side Of Everything sheilakennedy.net/2025/11/trum...

Indiana’s Embarrassing AG He’s at it again. I don’t know how many pixels I’ve wasted on discussions of Indiana’s ridiculous Attorney General, Todd Rokita. When I took a look at the history of this bl…

Indiana's Embarrassing AG sheilakennedy.net/2025/11/indi...

This Made Me Feel Better When I saw that eight “rogue” Democrats had bowed to Republican demands to end the government shutdown without a firm agreement to restore the ACA subsidies, I was depressed. And angry.…

This Made Me Feel Better sheilakennedy.net/2025/11/this...

The Equal Protection Of The Laws From day one, the Trump administration has made its disregard for the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment and its deep-seated racism too clear to ignore. Just a few examples will suffice:…

The Equal Protection Of The Laws sheilakennedy.net/2025/11/the-...

My Mother Was Right I was the product of a mixed marriage. My mother was a Republican and my father a Democrat–although they did hammer out their differences before most election days, in order to avoid, as my m…

My Mother Was Right sheilakennedy.net/2025/11/my-m...

Courage And Concession How many of us remember Charles Sumner from our American history courses? (Assuming those courses included information about Sumner and his principled opposition to slavery…) The author of &#…

Courage And Concession sheilakennedy.net/2025/11/cour...

Money, Trump And The Media The longer we suffer the agony of the Trump administration and its assaults on governance, science, logic and basic decency, the more I become convinced that our current information environment is …

Money, Trump And The Media sheilakennedy.net/2025/11/mone...

Those Election Results Each morning when I get up, my husband’s first question is: any news? (That comes right after his opening observation that “growing old is not for sissies.”) Yesterday, boy was th…

Those Election Results sheilakennedy.net/2025/11/thos...

Building Back Better There’s no avoiding the fact that U.S. citizens are currently experiencing a world of hurt. As one newsletter glumly reported, the federal government is now a subsidiary of Trump Inc. and the…

Building Back Better sheilakennedy.net/2025/11/buil...

Civil Resistance In a recent Substack, Paul Krugman shared a transcript of his interview/conversation with Erica Chenoweth, author of Civil Resistance: What Everyone Needs to Know. During Trump’s second term,…

Civil Resistance sheilakennedy.net/2025/11/civi...

Ignoring The Obvious America’s “legacy media” continues to downplay–or ignore–two of the most obvious sources of our current democratic crisis: Trump’s manifest mental disorders, and…

Ignoring The Obvious sheilakennedy.net/2025/11/igno...

This Is How You Keep ‘Em Down On The Farm… Republicans in Indiana are currently struggling to find enough votes to engage in a mid-cycle gerrymander that they believe would send one or two more Republicans to Congress. If enough members of …

This Is How You Keep 'Em Down On The Farm... sheilakennedy.net/2025/11/this...

MAGA’s Defender Of Christianity Trump’s base is disproportionately composed of Christian nationalists–people who tell you they support him because he is a defender of (their version of) the Christian faith. The notion…

MAGA's Defender Of Christianity sheilakennedy.net/2025/11/maga...

Political Attention Deficit Disorder The problem isn’t the message. It’s getting people to hear the message. While pundits and strategists wring their hands and insist that the Democrats have “a messaging problem,&#8…

Political Attention Deficit Disorder sheilakennedy.net/2025/10/poli...

Our Diverse History There’s a reason the Trump administration and its White Christian nationalist base are so intent upon replacing education–especially classes in history–with a wildly inaccurate, &…

Our Diverse History sheilakennedy.net/2025/10/our-...

A Visual Representation A recent newsletter focusing on a conversation between Charlie Sykes and Adam Kinzinger opened with a list of Trump’s  offenses against the rule of law (and arguably, sanity…) during ju…

A Visual Representation sheilakennedy.net/2025/10/a-vi...

There’s A Lesson Here A recent Vox article focused on a question–perhaps the question–that consumes most sentient Americans these days, especially the seven million of us who turned out for the No Kings prot…

There's A Lesson Here sheilakennedy.net/2025/10/ther...

Forget Dog Whistles In the ten-plus months of this horrific excuse for a federal administration, the racism that powers the MAGA movement has become impossible to ignore or minimize. Trump and his sycophants aren&#821…

Forget Dog Whistles sheilakennedy.net/2025/10/forg...

No News Is Definitely NOT Good News A friend recently sent me a link to Northwestern University’s “State of Local News.” It was incredibly depressing. It also provides an answer to the question so many of us repeate…

No News Is Definitely NOT Good News sheilakennedy.net/2025/10/no-n...

That Constitutional Ethic Thursday, I traveled to Hancock County, to speak at what their community foundation calls a “Collaboration Station.” My assignment was to address–or perhaps commiserate with&#8211…

That Constitutional Ethic sheilakennedy.net/2025/10/that...

Real Judges Judge The Supreme Court Those of us who follow the courts are seeing something unusual. District and appellate federal court judges are criticising a Supreme Court that has lost its constitutional moorings. They are mostl…

Real Judges Judge The Supreme Court sheilakennedy.net/2025/10/real...

Remember The Golden Mean? Remember the golden mean? Aristotle believed that virtue occupies a middle ground between deficiency and excess. He called that middle ground “the golden mean,” and it was a key concept…

Remember The Golden Mean? sheilakennedy.net/2025/10/reme...

The Monsters In The Closet There’s a difference between real monsters and imaginary ones. A recent essay in Lincoln Square made that point–and the further, not-so-obvious point that expending our energies fightin…

The Monsters In The Closet sheilakennedy.net/2025/10/the-...

Trashing The First Amendment Ten months into the Trump administration, the outlines of America’s cold civil war have become too stark to miss. MAGA is determined to remake the United States into a nation where White Chri…

Trashing The First Amendment sheilakennedy.net/2025/10/tras...

I Told You So Who really hates America? In the run-up to No Kings Day, Republican leaders hysterically described participants as terrorists–as people who “hate America.” Those charges were neve…

I Told You So sheilakennedy.net/2025/10/i-to...

What Can Be Repaired? What Can’t? Just a quick note before today’s post: my husband and I attended the No Kings protest in Indianapolis, and were blown away by the size, composition and positivity of the crowd. (I think my 93…

What Can Be Repaired? What Can't? sheilakennedy.net/2025/10/what...