Thomas F. Schaller
Thomas F. Schaller is a professor of political science at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and author of "Whistling Past Dixie." His column appears Wednesdays in The Sun.
- What I didn't know as a child — most adults I meet are similarly oblivious — is that L. Frank Baum's book "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," upon which the movie is based, was a political allegory for American politics at the dawn of the 20th century.
- The sad truth is that there are no perfect solutions to the lone wolf terrorist. Even if we ramp up public campaigns to increase public tolerance; even if law enforcement infiltrates and monitors hate groups of every stripe; and even if we place special emphasis on dissuading disgruntled young men who fit some set of profile from giving into their darker instincts — the fact is that it only takes a few individuals to carry out grandeur-deluded acts of vigilante terrorism.
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- Our political system remains polarized and divided between the two major parties, but in our present era of division the Republicans benefit from what I call four interconnected and mutually-reinforcing "structural asymmetries." Allow me to unpack each.
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- Maryland's Ben Carson may run for president in 2016. The conservative Republican ought to think better of it, pocket the royalties from increased sales of his book and stay out of the contest.