Posts by Jeff Proctor

Much ink and many pixels have been spilled over the news media industry’s contraction in recent years and likewise how this slow-motion disappearing act impacts American life: Democracy dies in darkness, corruption festers in shadow and so on and so forth. While I agree with the basic contours of this argument, I’m not here to linger on the problem which, by the way, is essentially intractable at…

James Madison was born 275 years and three days ago as I sit here now, wrestling with the tyranny of the blank page that confronts me. That was March 16, 1751, for those disinclined to do the math. Madison’s resume is stout: primary instigator of 1787’s Constitutional Convention, OG Bill of Rights scribe, fourth US president — you get the picture. But it…