On her blog, Nancy Nall Derringer explained why an ill-fated Idaho petition drive to roll back same-sex marriage is nonetheless significant: “I’m thinking this is the velociraptors testing the electric fence.” (Vince Patton, Portland, Ore.)
In The Rutland Herald, of Vermont, an unsigned editorial summarized our new president’s fusillade of executive orders: “Donald Trump just decided to slam the nation up against the locker and demand that we all play his game — or else. That’s not leadership. That’s a shakedown.” (Rebecca Bartlett, Brattleboro, Vt.)
In The Times, Jamelle Bouie homed in on Trump’s attempted pause of trillions of dollars of federal grants, loans and other assistance to programs that might not reflect MAGA values “while the president’s apparatchiks chased down the specters of their fevered imaginations, confident that they’d find the source of their cultural alienation in the disbursement of funds to a veterans’ suicide hotline or free lunch for low-income schoolchildren.” (Liz Brown, Oakland, Calif., and Loretta K. Notareschi, Wheat Ridge, Colo.)
Also in The Times, David Brooks defined certain stretches of the 19th century in America as the “golden age of braggadocio,” noting, “There’s no confidence like adolescent confidence, for a person or a country.” (Matt Cass, Denver)
Maureen Dowd marveled at how much like teenagers the preening, feuding tech gods she encountered in Silicon Valley could be: “They were the richest, most potent men in the world, with a visceral high school vibe. They were the bitchiest, weirdest mathletes in history.” (William Harrison, Kelowna, B.C., and Toni Berres-Paul, Portland, Ore., among others)
