Opinion

      Over the last three decades, there has been a growing cynicism toward government at all levels. It’s become fashionable to ridicule government as mendacious and inept. With a “starve the beast” mentality, 219 U.S. Representatives and 39 U.S. Senators have taken Grover Norquist’s No New Taxes pledge —their allegiance to this oath apparently…

   As odd as this must sound, progress and decline are increasingly connected in this country. Seemingly, we can’t have one without the other    What else explains the ramp-up of the stock market, the best in years, even as poll after poll of Americans shows disenchantment with the economy?     Why are we clearly not…