Even at the end of a presidential election campaign, we have no way to know what Mitt Romney really believes.

Public policy in the twentieth century was about protecting and expanding the social compact, based on recognition that effective government at the federal level provides rules and services and safety measures that contribute to a better society.

The American Revolution and Declaration of Independence, it has often been argued, were fueled by the most radical of all American political ideas.

We are in the process of creating what deserves to be called the idiot culture. Not an idiot sub-culture, which every society has bubbling beneath the surface and which can provide harmless fun; but the culture itself. For the first time, the weird and the stupid and the coarse are becoming our cultural norm, even our cultural ideal.

Radical thought has inspired many of the great political and social reform movements in American history, from ending slavery to establishing the minimum wage.

I think all good reporting is the same thing - the best attainable version of the truth.

There's something totally crazy about this.