Ryan Cooper

Ryan Cooper

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.

Articles by this author

Views
Saturday, February 08, 2020
American Democracy Is Dying
This past week was a litany of democratic disasters. First, on Monday, the Iowa Democratic Party catastrophically botched its caucus. Second, on Wednesday, President Donald Trump was acquitted in the Senate impeachment trial, after the Republican majority voted to hear no new witness testimony...
Read more
I, for one, have had quite enough of Buttigieg's glib turbo-wonk shtick. He simply is not being straight with the American people. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) Views
Wednesday, October 16, 2019
Pete Buttigieg's Disingenuous Attack on Medicare-For-All
In the Democratic presidential debate Tuesday night, once again Medicare-for-all was a major focus of discussion. Once again, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren defended the plan against all comers — most especially Pete Buttigieg , who had a number of slick arguments about how universal Medicare...
Read more
Trump's flailing, incompetent White House emerges quite naturally from basic aspects of Trump's personality—his vanity, his ignorance, his sloppiness, his cowardice, and above all his all-consuming narcissism. (Photo: Illustrated | SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images, JimLarkin/iStock, DickDuerrstein/iStock) Views
Friday, September 27, 2019
The Impeachment Story Proves It Again: Trump Is No Strategic Genius
The last week has seen the Trump administration more rattled than at any previous time in its existence. The developing story that Trump attempted to blackmail Ukraine into digging up dirt on the Biden family by withholding military aid prompted rare initiative from the Democratic Party in the form...
Read more
Views
Saturday, September 21, 2019
The Rise of the Entitled Millennial Politician
Millennials are getting old. Our bones are starting to creak, we get more random aches and pains, we get hangovers infuriatingly easily, and going to bed early increasingly sounds like a wonderful Friday night plan. On the other hand, we are also reaching the age of power and influence. And so the...
Read more
If he can be made to look hesitant, frail, and confused, that is likely to spark some fear in Biden supporters that he simply wouldn't be able to handle a gruelling campaign and presidency. (Photo: Shawn Thew/EPA-EFE/Rex) Views
Thursday, September 12, 2019
Can Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren Dent Biden's Electability Edge?
Thursday evening will feature another Democratic presidential primary debate, and praise be to a merciful God, this time there is only one night and one group of contestants. Finally all three of the major contenders in what is rapidly coalescing into a three-person race—Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders,...
Read more
One should avoid wrecking key ecosystems, but if the energy payoff is sufficiently high, it still might be worth doing, because if climate change is not stopped the ecosystem will be wrecked anyway. (Photo: Illustrated | Spencer Platt/Getty Images, Screenshot/The New Yorker) Views
Wednesday, September 11, 2019
What It Will Take to Actually Fight Climate Change
Ponder the onrushing disaster of climate change, and the towering task of getting greenhouse gas emissions down in time to avoid existential calamity, and one can be led very easily to an enervating political despair. The battle is basically lost, or so says the famed novelist Jonathan Franzen in a...
Read more
Biden has been notoriously gaffe-prone for his entire career. (Photo: Marc Nozell/cc/flickr) Views
Wednesday, September 04, 2019
This Is Joe Biden's Emails Problem
Joe Biden got in a spot of hot water last week over a heroic war story he has been telling on the campaign trail. An extensive Washington Post investigation found the following : "it appears as though the former vice president has jumbled elements of at least three actual events into one story of...
Read more
Trump has constantly funneled the White House budget into his own pockets. (Photo: Illustrated | Jeff J Mitchell - Pool /Getty Images, NATALIIA OMELCHENKO/iStock, javarman3/iStock, KittisakJirasittichai/iStock) Views
Wednesday, August 28, 2019
Donald Trump Is Picking Your Pocket
President Trump suggested a flagrant violation of the Constitution Monday, at the Group of Seven conference in France. At an appearance with Germany's Angela Merkel, he said the next conference might be held at his Trump National Doral golf resort near Miami. "We haven't found anything that's even...
Read more
The Kochs were also key players in the successful effort to beat back a cap-and-trade bill in 2010, the closest the U.S. government has ever come to any kind of emissions policy. (Illustrated | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images, Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images) Views
Friday, August 23, 2019
The Terrifying Legacy of David Koch
David Koch, one of the two infamous billionaire Koch brothers, died Friday at the age of 79. The Wall Street Journal is quick to point out that, in addition funding a vast conservative political network, Koch gave about $1.3 billion of his nearly-$60 billion fortune to various philanthropies. But...
Read more
If actually implemented, this would upend American political economy. (Photo: Illustrated | OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP/Getty Images, whyframestudio/iStock, Happy_vector/iStock) Views
Thursday, August 22, 2019
Bernie Sanders' Plan to Rebuild Labor Unions Would Be a Huge Win for Working Americans
David Portnoy, the founder of the fratty oaf website Barstool Sports , recently got national press attention for flagrantly violating labor law on Twitter. After sharing an article about how much he hates unions, he threatened that if any of his employees talked to a labor reporter, "I will fire...
Read more

Pages