Best of "Can We Still Govern?" in 2024: Personal Favorites

Last week I shared my most-read stories of 2024. I also wanted to share stories that, for whatever reason, I took some personal pride in. In no particular order, here are six favorites. If you like this work, please share or subscribe.

The first impeachment provides a series of deep insights into how Trump’s time in office reshaped his views of how to use political power.

One of the themes of the Trump era has been the use of terror and intimidation against public employees. I think this will get worse, and include purges of those deemed to be disloyal. Such purges seem most dangerous in the military.

One of the phrases of the year was “unelected bureaucrats” — with the implication that unelected means unaccountable. With Don Kettl, I explain that they are actually much more accountable than you think, certainly more than the government appointees who are now tasked with reforming the bureaucracy.

This was just sort of a silly piece that provided a chance to consider how human aesthetics can be represented in public spaces. It started with some incredible “I voted” stickers in Michigan (I snagged a bunch of those), and considers the cautionary tale of Boaty McBoatface.

Whether Chris Rufo will be part of a second Trump administration remains to be seen, but his tactics of bad-faith attacks on individuals and institutions will be there. He succeeds partly because his audience take his claims at face value. This piece picked apart one especially bad faith attack.

I write mostly about government, but sometimes sneak in a short place about somewhere I traveled to. With this post I combined both, writing about the wonders of the Swiss public transportation system.