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As Pressures Mount, Trump Faces the Most Precarious Moment of His Presidency

As Pressures Mount, Trump Faces the Most Precarious Moment of His Presidency

People voting at voting booths.

The Quiet Campaign That Could Rewrite the 2028 Election

The Minneapolis Shooting Is Not an Aberration — It’s a Warning of What Comes Next

The Minneapolis Shooting Is Not an Aberration — It’s a Warning of What Comes Next

Vance’s Claims on ICE Shooting Don’t Match the Evidence

Vance’s Claims on ICE Shooting Don’t Match the Evidence

Can Things Get Even Worse for Mike Johnson?

Can Things Get Even Worse for Mike Johnson?

The silence is deafening

The silence is deafening

Justin Nelson, joined by fellow members of the Dominion Voting Systems legal team, speaks to members of the media outside the Leonard Williams Justice Center in Wilmington, Delaware, on April 18, 2023. - Vote machine maker Dominion and Fox News settled a defamation case over falsehoods about the 2020 presidential election aired on the conservative TV network, a US judge announced Tuesday.

Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images
David L. Nevins
By David L. NevinsApr 19, 2023
David L. Nevins
David L. Nevins serves as publisher of The Fulcrum. Additionally, Nevins serves as co-founder and Board Chairman of the Bridge Alliance. Nevins brings business acumen, vision and a tireless this-must-and-can-be-done zeal to the burgeoning movement to bridge divides to transform the political process. As a business leader, Nevins excels at building bridges between people and organizations from the right, left and center for civilized conversation and then action. He co-founded the Bridge Alliance because, as he says, “No matter how well managed and how well funded anyone organization is, significant political reform will not happen without an alliance to further collaborative interactions. Together we can and will raise the collective impact of all.” He is a member of the Aspen Institute Society of Fellows, with a focus on the Aspen Rodel Fellowship in Public Leadership, he established and continues to work with The Nevins Democracy Leaders program at Penn State University. Nevins graduated with honors in economics from Penn State in 1969 and received an M.B.A. in finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1971.
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Nevins is co-publisher of The Fulcrum and co-founder and board chairman of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund.

At first when I heard the news of the unprecedented settlement in the Fox News defamation case of nearly $800 million I hoped this was a victory for democracy.

This is the first time anyone has been held accountable for the lies and deception that has resulted in 70% of Republicans believing that the presidential election of 2020 was a fraud and that Donald Trump actually won.

Yet despite the financial accountability, costing nearly $800 million and the innocuous statement that Fox News made as part of the settlement deal stating that, “We acknowledge the Court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false,” they are not required to make any retraction or apology, much less exhibit any remorse. Thus it is unlikely that the Fox News marketing strategy of spinning news to what their audience desires will change.

At 4:00 p.m. shortly after the settlement announcement, all the other networks and the news websites, not affiliated with Fox News reported on the settlement in great detail as the lead story. It wasn’t until several hours later that in what amounted to roughly 6 minutes of coverage that it was even mentioned on Fox News. At 4:00 p.m., The Five show on Fox News in one full hour didn’t even mention the settlement. At 5:00 p.m. during Bret Baier’s one hour show on Fox News the story was still not mentioned. It wasn’t until four hours after the announcement that Fox.news.com finally made mention of the settlement.

Fox News is the top-rated cable network, averaging 2.5 million viewers in prime time, yet these viewers will hear virtually nothing in what is a critically important story that impacts the future of our democracy. Unless, of course, they watch other news, too.

By definition failing to tell the full story about the largest public defamation case of all time, a settlement that paid Dominion six times the current value of the company, while technically not a lie, is a lie of omission with serious consequences for the future.

It is important for Americans to understand that there is no America without democracy, no democracy without voting, and no informed voting without respectful debate. Unfortunately, unless advertisers stop supporting Fox News a vast swath of the American public will not learn the truth about the election of 2020 and our democracy will suffer.

During this trying time for our democracy, The Fulcrum takes our responsibility more seriously than ever to keep our audience informed so they can collectively learn and then act to repair our democracy and make it live and work in our everyday lives. The people and organizations we cover represent all walks of life, political parties, races, identities, and religions. It is our responsibility to raise the voices of Americans who believe that what we have in common is stronger than what separates us, and to encourage them to act with conviction.

We, the people, are stronger if we work together with the full understanding that we won’t agree on everything. And that’s the point. Democracy is a process for managing disagreements, sharing power and providing consent of the governed. Fox News owes their viewers more.


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Zohran Mamdani’s call for warm ‘collectivism’ is dead on arrival

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his wife Rama Duwaji wave after his ceremonial inauguration as mayor at City Hall on Jan. 1, 2026, in New York.

(Spencer Platt/Getty Images/TNS)

Zohran Mamdani’s call for warm ‘collectivism’ is dead on arrival

The day before the Trump administration captured and extradited Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, many on the right (including yours truly) had a field day mocking something the newly minted mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, said during his inaugural address.

The proud member of the Democratic Socialists of America proclaimed: “We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.”

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The Lie of “Safe” State Violence in America: Montgomery Then, Minneapolis Now

Police tape surrounds a vehicle suspected to be involved in a shooting by an ICE agent during federal law enforcement operations on January 07, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

(Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

The Lie of “Safe” State Violence in America: Montgomery Then, Minneapolis Now

Once again, the nation watched in horror as a 37-year-old woman was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis. The incident was caught on video. Neighbors saw it happen, their disbelief clear. The story has been widely reported, but hearing it again does not make it any less violent. Video suggest, there was a confrontation. The woman tried to drive away. An agent stepped in front of her car. Multiple shots went through the windshield. Witnesses told reporters that a physician at the scene attempted to provide aid but was prevented from approaching the vehicle, a claim that federal authorities have not publicly addressed. That fact, if accurate, should trouble us most.

What happened on that street was more than just a tragic mistake. It was a moral challenge to our society, asking for more than just shock or sadness. This moment makes us ask: what kind of nation have we created, and what violence have we come to see as normal? We need to admit our shared responsibility, knowing that our daily choices and silence help create a culture where this violence is accepted. Including ourselves in this 'we' makes us care more deeply and pushes us to act, not just reflect.

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Two groups of glass figures. One red, one blue.

Congressional paralysis is no longer accidental. Polarization has reshaped incentives, hollowed out Congress, and shifted power to the executive.

Getty Images, Andrii Yalanskyi

How Congress Lost Its Capacity to Act and How to Get It Back

In late 2025, Congress fumbled the Affordable Care Act, failing to move a modest stabilization bill through its own procedures and leaving insurers and families facing renewed uncertainty. As the Congressional Budget Office has warned in multiple analyses over the past decade, policy uncertainty increases premiums and reduces insurer participation (see, for example: https://www.cbo.gov/publication/61734). I examined this episode in an earlier Fulcrum article, “Governing by Breakdown: The Cost of Congressional Paralysis,” as a case study in congressional paralysis and leadership failure. The deeper problem, however, runs beyond any single deadline or decision and into the incentives and procedures that now structure congressional authority. Polarization has become so embedded in America’s governing institutions themselves that it shapes how power is exercised and why even routine governance now breaks down.

From Episode to System

The ACA episode wasn’t an anomaly but a symptom. Recent scholarship suggests it reflects a broader structural shift in how Congress operates. In a 2025 academic article available on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN), political scientist Dmitrii Lebedev reaches a stark conclusion about the current Congress, noting that the 118th Congress enacted fewer major laws than any in the modern era despite facing multiple time-sensitive policy deadlines (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5346916). Drawing on legislative data, he finds that dysfunction is no longer best understood as partisan gridlock alone. Instead, Congress increasingly exhibits a breakdown of institutional capacity within the governing majority itself. Leadership avoidance, procedural delay, and the erosion of governing norms have become routine features of legislative life rather than temporary responses to crisis.

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America’s Two Economies - Soaring Stocks and Slashed Food Stamps

As 2026 begins, the U.S. economy is splitting in two—booming corporate profits and stock gains for the wealthy, deepening hardship for working families.

America’s Two Economies - Soaring Stocks and Slashed Food Stamps

The close of the 2025 holiday season has revealed a stark divide in the U.S. economy. As 2026 begins, the United States appears to be operating in two financial realities: record corporate profits and soaring stock values for the wealthy, alongside deepening hardship for millions of ordinary households. For many Americans, Christmas was overshadowed not by celebration but by economic strain, compounded by the rollback of key federal assistance programs.

The year’s economic data offered mixed signals. Online sales surged to $11.8 billion on Black Friday, and overall holiday spending is projected to exceed $1 trillion for the first time. Yet nearly half of all national consumption now comes from high-income households, whose spending on luxury goods and premium travel masks the growing struggles of families at the lower end of the income scale.

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