Several of the environmental advocates and vaccine skeptics who helped propel Kennedy into politics have become impatient ...

Listen to more stories on the Noa app. As far as rock stardom goes, Grizzly Bear was never an obvious candidate. A Brooklyn-based band that formed in 2002, it specialized in subtlety—delicate riffs, ...

Throughout history, humankind has sought to manage collective affairs and resources in the most effective ways. These efforts evolved into various socio-political arrangements or systems that, while ...

Americans are raised to revere idealism, the civic religion of contemporary democracy. If patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, idealism may be the first. Permitting presidents to anoint ...

TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. About the Archive This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online ...

Warning: This graphic requires JavaScript. Please enable JavaScript for the best experience. In Philip Bump’s March 13 online column, “A quarter-century ago, we ...

Jared Mondschein does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond ...

As the presidential race enters the final stretch, politicians are recycling the usual scams to make people believe this election will be different. At last week’s Democratic National Convention, ...

In foreign policy, idealism can take you only so far. The dichotomy between idealism and realism can be traced back to the contrasting views of thinkers like Immanuel Kant and Thomas Hobbes. Kant, an ...

“Scratch any cynic and you will find a disappointed idealist.” George Carlin Source: Dustbin Baby/Wikipedia Commons It’s all too easy to miss the intimate connection between cynicism and idealism. And ...

Public opinion is a critical stakeholder in any democratic society. It determines who will be elected and what policies are likely to be successful. Biden has a numbers problem. This is bad news for ...

Being purpose-driven is demanding. It can feel like a Sisyphean task, driving toward a horizon that is always out of reach. Having an ambitious purpose can make us feel like what we are doing is never ...