iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by David French

Kori Schake @kschake.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

"when Hegseth cuts off soldiers from reporters, he isn’t just silencing reporters, he’s silencing soldiers. He’s suppressing the stories of the most meaningful and dangerous and traumatic moments of their lives.” @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social

nytimes.com

Opinion | What Hegseth Is Hiding

Soldiers want to tell their stories, and we need to hear them.

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David French @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Transparency is part of the process of democratic governance. It’s irritating for leaders, but indispensable for democracies. It’s what permits the electorate to understand the truth about the wars they’re asked to support and to fight. And it’s what binds the people to the armies that serve them.

nytimes.com

Opinion | What Hegseth Is Hiding

Soldiers want to tell their stories, and we need to hear them.

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Reposted by David French

Dennis Lytton @dennislytton.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

My father's ancestors are mostly pre-revolutionary, my mother emigrated from the Philippines. Take inspiration from *and* be critical of your ancestors, French argues. The right's call for a kind of Herrenvolk country is against everything we should believe in.

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David French @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Gratitude, humility, responsibility: Those are the virtues our overlapping histories should instill. But the new right turns that upside-down. It replaces gratitude with a sense of entitlement, humility with arrogance, and a sense of duty with the will to power and the right to dominate.

nytimes.com

Opinion | JD Vance Has a Twisted Idea of What It Means to Be American

I am a “heritage American,” too. How should that guide my life?

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David French @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

The new right calls conservatives like me "supine beautiful losers." But when I look at the picture Bo French hates, I see something beautiful. I do not see anyone losing. I see a nation created by an idea — that all men are created equal — that serves as a magnet for people all over the world.

nytimes.com

Opinion | When I Look at the Picture Bo French Hates

Watching bigots erupt.

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David French @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

"The corrupt machinations of the Missouri case reveal that MAGA’s perfidy is limited only by its creativity. And while we keep dodging MAGA’s legal bullets, I fear that it is only a matter of time before one hits." www.nytimes.com/2026/09/13/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | The Fix Was Almost In

The midterms dodge their first MAGA bullet. It won’t be the last.

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David French @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

To the post-9/11 vets: You fought with honor. You defended the innocent. Time and again you confronted and defeated an opponent that could be every bit as evil as the Nazis your grandfathers vanquished. And you accomplished the one mission that is core to your identity — you kept America safe.

nytimes.com

Opinion | The War on Terror Did Not Fail

The U.S. military accomplished more after 9/11 than many Americans realize.

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Reposted by David French

Kori Schake @kschake.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

"The long-term threat is to the character and competence of the armed forces. They are becoming politicized, and the politicization of a military can both destroy its combat effectiveness and turn it into an instrument of domestic oppression.” @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social

nytimes.com

Opinion | Pete Hegseth Is a Wrecking Ball (Gift Article)

We are already paying a high price for the defense secretary’s purges and whims.

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David French @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

It is difficult to fathom the damage President Trump is doing to America’s national security. He is making our nation more vulnerable than it has been at any time since the cloudiest days of the Cold War. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/06/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | Pete Hegseth Is a Wrecking Ball (Gift Article)

We are already paying a high price for the defense secretary’s purges and whims.

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David French @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

"The idea that protecting provocative speech by visitors and immigrants renders the Constitution a “suicide pact” might be one of the most absurd examples of snowflakery I’ve ever seen in my life." www.nytimes.com/2026/09/03/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | Who’s the Snowflake Now?

Marco Rubio is taking the wrong approach to free speech.

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David French @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Why Dolly's death hit so hard: "It’s not because she was famous and successful and this was her home. Nashville is used to fame. It’s not because she never forgot her roots. A central theme of country music is “Don’t forget your roots.” It’s because she loved us. Unconditionally. Extravagantly."

nytimes.com

Opinion | What Dolly Did for Tennessee Is What She Did for the World

This is what she did for the written word. And medicine. And …

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Reposted by David French

Kettering Foundation @kettering.org · 28/08/2026

KF Senior Fellow @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social thought peak “wokeness” might spark a free-speech renaissance. Instead, he argues, the anti-woke movement embraced many of the same intolerant tactics it opposed. What happened? nyti.ms/4hW34fh

nytimes.com

Opinion | There Is a Sickness Worse Than Wokeness

The anti-woke movement’s “cure” was more intolerance and more repression.

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David French @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

A love of liberty cannot cloud our moral judgment. Nazis may have a right to march through Skokie, Ill., but they are still Nazis. Many in the anti-woke movement, however, changed this calculus. Rather than defend principles, they embraced and weaponized extremists. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/27/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | There Is a Sickness Worse Than Wokeness

The anti-woke movement’s “cure” was more intolerance and more repression.

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David French @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

"I’m convinced that every person — especially those of us who live in the world of ideas — should spend time in a place where he or she is a distinct religious or ideological minority, even when it’s hard. It can be among the most clarifying and rewarding experiences in life."

nytimes.com

Opinion | Go Ahead, Sean Duffy. Let Your Daughter Go to Harvard.

Four years at Harvard won’t corrupt your children.

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David French @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

"JD Vance doesn’t think our nation is Christian enough to be truly free. Your faithlessness has broken the social compact, and now it is time for the government to seize greater control." www.nytimes.com/2026/08/20/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | JD Vance Thinks You Are Not Christian Enough

According to the vice president, we are wasting our freedom.

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Reposted by David French

Corey Brettschneider @democracyprof.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

My discussion with @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social about why the founders are helpful in combating the New Right is taking off. Check It out! youtu.be/cwMbBHi1kIc

youtu.be

What the New Right Really Wants — with David French

YouTube video by The Oath and the Office

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David French @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

The initial American strategy failed, the war with Iran is consuming the region, Iran and Ukraine are risking a face-off, both Russia and China are escalating their military commitments, American munitions are dwindling and Trump is raging. Other than that, everything is fine.

nytimes.com

Opinion | World War Two-and-a-Half Is Breaking Out

Whatever is happening in Iran, it isn’t working.

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Reposted by David French

Corey Brettschneider @democracyprof.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

New episode! David French joins me on the postliberal right, birthright citizenship, and whether there is a path out of America’s democratic crisis. But first, @johnfugelsang.bsky.social and I look to the ideology behind Trump. @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...

podcasts.apple.com

What Trump and the New Right Really Believe | David French

Podcast Episode · The Oath and The Office · July 30 · 1h 16m

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David French @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

When many young people look at the church’s embrace of Trump, they’re not rejecting the church because they’re afraid to shed their sin and become better people. They’re rejecting the church because they refuse to embrace sin and become, well, worse people. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/30/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | Gen Z Thinks Religion Got Too Political

I wonder why that could be.

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David French @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

The 2020 playbook is unfolding now, and I’m concerned, to put it mildly, that Mike Johnson is no Mike Pence. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/23/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | How Trump and His Allies Can Corrupt the Midterms

Stop the steal before it starts.

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Reposted by David French

The UnPopulist @theunpopulist.net · 13/07/2026

Trump is testing how far unchecked presidential power can go. That's why, at LibCon2026, @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social, Bob Bauer, @lizagoitein.bsky.social, and @protectdemocracy.org's Justin Florence will ask: What would a presidency accountable to voters and the Constitution actually look like?

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David French @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

GOP devotion to the attorney general of Texas, Ken Paxton, is in some ways even more troubling than their continued support for Trump. Their enthusiasm for a another corrupt adulterer shows that Christian moral compromise is metastasizing. They love their corrupt politicians, so long as they fight.

nytimes.com

Opinion | Trump’s Corruption Stains, From Texas to Maine

Something is wrong if vice is all them and virtue is all you.

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David French @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Birthright citizenship is noxious to MAGA. They scorn it as relying on magic dirt — the idea that there is something inherent in American soil that makes a person an American citizen. Yet the same populists seem to believe in something like magic blood — that one’s lineage can make one superior.

nytimes.com

Opinion | MAGA’s Birthright Meltdown Is in Full Effect

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David French @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

The administration’s treatment of Donahue removes any remaining doubt that in Hegseth’s version of a meritocracy, there is no level of excellence that can trump politics, and it is difficult to overstate how much that principle will cripple a military in a democracy. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/28/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | The Purging of General Donahue Is a Breaking Point

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David French @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

What if we don’t actually have a competitive two-party system? What if our nation actually has two one-party systems, instead? And if the United States has two one-party systems, then that means voters are constantly confronted with the stagnation and corruption that disfigures single-party rule.

nytimes.com

Opinion | Two-Party System, One-Party Rule

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David French @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

When I’m in my more optimistic moments, I think we’ll look back at last year as the high-water mark of Trumpism, when the combination of arrogance after Trump’s victory and the inherent authoritarianism of the Trumpist project led to a unique period of state violence and legal corruption.

nytimes.com

Opinion | A Malicious Chapter in the History of American Justice

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David French @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

"In their arrogance, Trump and Netanyahu defied their predecessors in all the worst ways, and now they court a profound defeat when, not long ago, a meaningful victory, however partial, was well within their grasp." www.nytimes.com/2026/06/18/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | Trump and Netanyahu Have Really Stepped in It Now

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David French @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

Doomerism is indispensable to Christian nationalists, because it is only the downfall of democracy that makes the patriarchy palatable. But when you impose patriarchy back onto a society that has already embraced liberalism, you mainly remind people of why they chose liberalism in the first place.

nytimes.com

Opinion | Christian Nationalism’s Dark Forebears

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Reposted by David French

Christian F. Casper @cfcasper.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Absolutely the worst thing about being a parent right now

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David French @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

"When I was in college I learned about the great man theory of history. I didn’t quite buy it. And now, thanks to President Trump, I’d like to modify my objections." www.nytimes.com/2026/06/11/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | The Terrible Man Theory of History

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David French @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

Fascism on the right. Communism on the left. Ancient antisemitic conspiracies seemingly everywhere. Tariffs. War in Europe. Gilded Age corruption. So many bad ideas re-emerging all at once. Why? www.nytimes.com/2026/05/31/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | The Fire of Stupidity Cannot Be Contained

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Reposted by David French

Real Time with Bill Maher @realtimers.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

If you want to know what is ailing our politics, this is a big, big part of it. #RealTime @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social @realbillmaher.bsky.social

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David French @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

"At the moment, the United States is negotiating with a regime that President Trump claimed we had already changed, to open a strait that was supposed to be open last month, and to end a nuclear program that we said we had obliterated." No, things are not going well. Here's why:

nytimes.com

Opinion | The President Is Giving a Master Class in What Not to Do

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David French @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

Trump is circumventing Congress’s power of the purse. He’s circumventing the judiciary. By potentially granting settlements to people who possess no valid legal claim, he’s circumventing civil and criminal law. This is one of the most purely monarchical moments of a monarchical presidency.

nytimes.com

Opinion | There Are Scandals. There Is the Law. And Then There’s This.

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Reposted by David French

Voice4Justice @voices4justice.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

“Last Tuesday, the Republican majority leader of the South Carolina Senate, Shane Massey, stood before his colleagues and gave a speech that exemplified two virtues that can seem almost extinct in the Trump Republican Party: wisdom and courage.” @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social archive.md/2026.05.17-1...

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David French @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Healthy political parties make each other better. To defeat a viable opponent, a party has to rise to the challenge. It has to fix its failures. It has to innovate. Defeating a sclerotic rump of a party is no achievement. Instead, one-party rule enables corruption. It fosters stagnation.

nytimes.com

Opinion | The ‘Rabid Partisan’ Republican Who Defied Donald Trump

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David French @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

The history of political evangelicalism is riddled with the same kind of story: A powerful man gains a following by casting himself as the heroic warrior against the heretical, and when he uses his power to indulge his basest desires, he treats exposure as an attack and justice as persecution.

nytimes.com

Opinion | I Don’t Think You Can Even Call This Hypocrisy

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David French @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

"I don’t want politicians to be 'authentic.' I want them to be decent. I want them to be honest. I want them to be competent. And if they fail those tests, they don’t redeem themselves by opposing Donald Trump." www.nytimes.com/2026/05/10/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | The Platner Trap

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David French @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

From pardons to prediction markets, the transactional nature of the Trump administration is perhaps its most obvious characteristic. And transactional people often soothe their own consciences with the belief that everyone else is ultimately transactional as well — the only question is their price.

nytimes.com

Opinion | The Kind of Men Who Flummox Trump

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Reposted by David French

Kettering Foundation @kettering.org · 07/05/2026

America at 250: Where do things stand? KF Senior Fellow @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social speaks with Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch about the Constitution, the dangers of concentrated power, and the role of the courts in such a deeply polarized time. nyti.ms/4tVvDwh

nyti.ms

Opinion | Justice Neil Gorsuch on the ‘Miracle' of Agreement on the Court

David French and the Supreme Court justice discuss how the ideals of 1776 shaped -- and strain -- the country today.

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David French @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

Human beings are liable for the actions of the machines they create, and if the machines commit crimes or violate the rights of others, then the humans who built the machines should find themselves in profound trouble with the law.

nytimes.com

Opinion | There’s a 900-Year-Old Answer to Our Most Modern Problem

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Reposted by David French

Jay Nordlinger @jaynordlinger.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

Many thanks to @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social for writing this piece, for having thought the issue through. It is one of the most important issues of our time. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/26/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | Meet the New Leader of the Free World

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David French @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

"I don’t think Americans fully appreciate the extraordinary cost of Trump’s bluster. It should go without saying, but once you threaten to invade an allied country, you don’t just place the existence of the alliance in jeopardy; you raise the possibility of allies turning into mortal enemies"

nytimes.com

Opinion | Meet the New Leader of the Free World

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David French @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

The administration’s public prayers and religious memes are meaningless when that administration discards historic Christian teaching and reviles Christian leaders — all to support a brutal, dishonest man, a man who can’t articulate a legitimate basis for the war he launched on his own command."

nytimes.com

Opinion | There Is Much More to Pope vs. President Than Meets the Eye

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David French @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

When the church abandons its rightful role as the conscience of the state and instead seeks to curry favor with the state, there is a real-world consequence. If you take an already grandiose man and fill him with a sense of divine purpose, you can uncage a tyrant. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/19/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | I Missed the Part About the Divine Right of Presidents

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David French @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

"Putting it all together, and we’ve devised a grim reality for younger Americans. If you want to watch porn or place a prop bet, the wind is at your back. If you want to go to college or start a business, the wind is in your face." www.nytimes.com/2026/04/16/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | We Are Gambling Away Our Future

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David French @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

In the words of Isaiah, we have become a nation of smoldering wicks. We struggle to feel hope. We look at the world around us and ask: “Is this all there is? Is this really what it looks like to live in the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the history of the world?”

nytimes.com

Opinion | The Light That Changed My Life

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David French @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

"In that one moment you saw the contrast between the MAGA legal philosophy and the legal philosophy of most of the justices. MAGA wants specific results, the justices interpret texts. And when MAGA’s argument contradicts the constitutional text, it’s almost always going to lose."

nytimes.com

Opinion | Trump Went to the Supreme Court to Make It About Him

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