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I Watched the State of the Union Address: Everyone is “Winning” Except Child Care

I Watched the State of the Union Address: Everyone is “Winning” Except Child Care

A child putting a coin in a small piggy bank.

Trump Accounts: Who Benefits From the New Child Savings Accounts?

10 economic falsehoods debunked from Trump’s State of the Union speech

10 economic falsehoods debunked from Trump’s State of the Union speech

Disinformation Wins: Justifying ICE Murders through Transphobia

Disinformation Wins: Justifying ICE Murders through Transphobia

A tragedy in Mali, West Africa is a reminder of solidarity across difference and the work needed at home in the United States

A tragedy in Mali, West Africa is a reminder of solidarity across difference and the work needed at home in the United States

Leverage: Romney offers GOP plan to stop a Trump candidacy

Leverage is a new column to highlight, in real time, opportunities to put the U.S. electoral and governance systems on a functional track.

Leverage: Romney offers GOP plan to stop a Trump candidacy
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By David L. Nevins,
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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Debilyn Molineaux
Debilyn Molineaux

Debilyn Molineaux is the catalyst of JEDIfutures.org , a global initiative that helps people imagine and create just, equitable, dignified, and inclusive futures. She is best known for her pioneering work in civic innovation, having co-founded Bridge Alliance, Living Room Conversations, and National Week of Conversation. She formerly acted as co-publisher for The Fulcrum. Across these efforts, Debilyn has brought together unlikely allies to co-create solutions for democracy, governance, and social transformation.

Her work lives at the intersection of strategy, systems change, and spirit. A long-time practitioner of personal and collective growth, she brings a deep commitment to the inner dimensions of change that are often overlooked but essential to transformation. Debilyn speaks of the “interstitial spaces” — the connective tissue between people, institutions, and movements — where new possibilities take root.

She also hosts the podcast Terrified Nation, which helps audiences move from fear and despair into courage and action. Her voice is sought by impact investors, changemakers, and visionary leaders who want to align resources, imagination, and human growth toward a thriving future for all.

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Jul 25, 2023

Nevins is co-publisher of The Fulcrum and co-founder and board chairman of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund. Molineaux is co-publisher of The Fulcrum and president/CEO of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund.

Recognizing that Trump is adept at sweeping a field of candidates who oppose him (example: 2016 GOP primaries), it was reported yesterday that Senator Mitt Romney has a coherent plan to stop former president Trump from getting elected in 2024.

Reported by CNN and Politico, Romney is calling for a Feb. 26, 2024 deadline for Republicans to coalesce around one alternative candidate to former President Donald Trump for the GOP presidential nomination. This plan would leverage the GOP’s ability to unite and eliminate Trump’s advantage of a dispersed field. Trump is expert at picking off weaker candidates; less so against a stronger candidate. Romney has called on donors and others with big influence to put pressure on candidates to drop out on or before that date, before the March 5th Super Tuesday primaries. After that date, it would be too late to unify the party around anyone other than Trump. Additionally, this would mitigate some of the GOP rules changes made after the 2016 primary from proportional delegate count to a winner-take-all.

"Donors who are backing someone with a slim chance of winning should seek a commitment from the candidate to drop out and endorse the person with the best chance of defeating Mr. Trump by Feb. 26," Romney wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.

The contentious relationship between Romney and Trump is no secret and goes back to the election of 2022. In a speech at the University of Utah at the time Romney called Trump a “phony” and a “fraud.” Romney went on to say:

“Dishonesty is Trump’s hallmark: He claimed that he had spoken clearly and boldly against going into Iraq. Wrong, he spoke in favor of invading Iraq. He said he saw thousands of Muslims in New Jersey celebrating 9/11. Wrong, he saw no such thing. He imagined it. His is not the temperament of a stable, thoughtful leader. His imagination must not be married to real power.”

Today’s voters must educate themselves to see through disinformation, misinformation, outright lies and deception. Only voters can determine the best leader for our collective well being. We agree with Romney that Trump is not fit to be president of the United States and believe that the election of Donald Trump would be a significant danger to the rule of law and to the defense and protection of our Constitution. One has only to look at the 2025 Project, led by Trump acolytes to see the danger of dismantling our democracy itself.

Voters can signal their power at the ballot box. We need voters to leverage themselves and demand a higher standard from our elected representatives. A new paradigm of politics is needed based on civil political discourse, critical thinking and personal accountability to be demanded by the electorate of its leadership. We believe the most effective solutions to our nation's problems are found through rigorous engagement across differences with a shared result. If you are a GOP voter, we ask you to back Romney’s plan with your support.

The United States is at a crossroads. It is time for us to overcome our complacency, apathy, contempt and disgust of the way things are, politically. We the voters must set things right. This is one opportunity, available now.


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What War Powers?
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Photo by Darren Halstead on Unsplash

What War Powers?

This week the House has cut its session to just Weds-Thurs while the Senate has its standard Monday evening - Thursday schedule.

There's the usual mix in the House of some bills likely to pass with large majorities and and a couple that will probably be party-line or close to.

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(Photo by Contributor/Getty Images)

The spectacle of Operation Epic Fury

The U.S. and Israel’s joint military campaign against Iran, which rolled out under the name Operation Epic Fury, is a phrase that sounds more like a summer action film than a real‑world conflict in which people are dying. The operation involves massive strikes across Iran, with U.S. Central Command reporting that more than 1,700 targets have been hit in the first 72 hours. President Donald Trump described it as a “massive and ongoing operation” aimed at dismantling Iran’s military capabilities.

This framing matters. When leaders adopt language that emphasizes spectacle, they risk shifting public perception away from the gravity of war. The death of Iran’s supreme leader following the bombardment, for example, was a world‑altering event, yet it unfolded under a banner that evokes adrenaline rather than anguish.

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Analysis of Donald Trump’s second-term immigration crackdown, mass deportation plan, and ICE policies, examining human rights concerns, due process, and historical parallels.

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Are Trump’s Mass Deportations Leading to State‑Sanctioned Persecution?

For the past 14 months, Americans of all political persuasions have witnessed how Trump’s ICE-related actions have involved aggressive detention and demonization of immigrants and minorities. Historians have not observed this large-scale scope of discrimination behavior since 1953-1955, when President Dwight Eisenhower (R) deported ~1.3 million Mexicans from America, including U.S. citizens of Mexican descent and, in some cases, anyone of Mexican appearance, because agents assumed they were undocumented.

Actions by Mr. Trump and personnel within the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection, ICE, and the FBI have been widely criticized as violating the core American values of equal protection for all families and respect for basic rights. Across the political spectrum, many see these actions as targeting immigrants and minorities in ways that undermine our nation’s shared commitment to fairness, justice, and constitutional equality. Knowing Americans have witnessed two citizens being killed in Minneapolis and one person in Texas by ICE agents, we may be on the verge of systemic persecution and state‑sanctioned violence on a scale not seen in modern American life.

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Analysis of concentrated power in the U.S. political economy, examining inequality, institutional trust, executive authority, and the need for equal access and competitive markets.

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America: What We Want, What We Have, What We Need

Equal Access in an Age of Concentrated Power

The American constitutional system was designed to restrain power, not to pursue a single national mission. Authority was divided across branches, diffused among states, and slowed by deliberate friction. As James Madison wrote in Federalist No. 51, ambition was meant to counteract ambition. The design assumed competing interests would prevent domination.

For more than two centuries, that architecture has endured. The United States remains the world’s largest economy by nominal GDP, according to the World Bank’s World Development Indicators, with deep capital markets and a formidable innovation system.

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