opinionWednesday, October 7, 2026
Today's opinion pages are less about policy and more about character. Rafael Behr's takedown of Zack Polanski is the sharpest piece of the day, questioning what happens when a leader goes quiet in a crisis. A quieter piece on liberal identity offers a contrasting vision of principled clarity.
The day's most consequential piece is a sharp critique of a leader who went missing when clarity mattered most.
Behr argues Polanski's silence during a toxic internal debate over anti-Zionism wasn't neutrality, it was a failure of leadership. The piece is getting wide coverage because it names a pattern, not just a person.
A personal manifesto offers a quieter counterpoint: a definition of liberalism rooted in autonomy and representation.
A straightforward definition-of-self piece that stakes out liberal democracy's non-negotiables: bodily autonomy, free speech, representation. It's a useful marker for where the center is drawing lines right now.
health roundup
environment roundup
finance roundup
business roundup
education roundup
science roundup
