It seems nearly everyone wants to give Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez a scolding. But what we should really do is give her a break.

Much of the criticism is driven by fear. The worlds of media and politics are largely controlled by old white men, and a 29-year-old Puerto Rican congresswoman from.. →

As many Americans have likely figured out by now, immigration is by far the most divisive issue in the United States.
In fact, in speeches, I often refer to it as the most divisive issue that Americans have had to contend with since slavery.
The immigration debate divides our country —.. →

Confronted with heart-wrenching images of children snatched from parents at the U.S.-Mexico border, good people will feel as if there is nothing one person can do to make their sliver of the world a kinder and gentler place.

Robert Kennedy understood that feeling. And yet at the University.. →

Why would so many migrants and refugees leave home, risk everything, and put their lives in danger to try to make it to the United States?
My readers — most of whom have never been either migrant or refugee — insist that it’s all for the “benies.”
You see, ever since the Germans.. →

Ever wonder what members of Congress get for Christmas?
I hope that Luis Gutierrez got a new set of manners. Because, based on how he conducted himself at a hearing a few days before the holiday, he doesn’t have any.
The Democratic representative from Chicago played Scrooge during.. →

For my father, it all started with a children’s book depicting a cat stuck in a tree.
Once a cop, always a cop. My dad was on the job for 37 years, and — although he’s now retired — he’ll remain a cop until he draws his last breath.
The book in question was from a series that.. →

I bet that all Julian Castro wants for Christmas is for former congressman Beto O’Rourke to stay retired.

And I bet O’Rourke — an Irishman who speaks Spanish and does a decent impression of a Latino Democrat — would probably just as soon not run against a real one.

But now that.. →

All hail, Queen Alexandria!
You don’t have to support a person’s politics, or agree with their worldview, or suppress skepticism about their skills to admit that they represent something important and valuable.
To paraphrase Buffalo Springfield, there’s happening here. And what it.. →

SAN DIEGO — The media is still buzzing about this week’s televised 17-minute confrontation between President Donald Trump and Democratic leaders over a possible shutdown if Congress doesn’t approve additional funding for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Yet, people are talking about.. →

In CA, the GOP is DOA.
The Republican Party in the Golden State has dissolved. For the last 20 years, my home state has been blue and then bluer. Statewide officials have almost always been Democrats, including both U.S. senators.
But there were still about a dozen or so members of Congress.. →