Ron Elving
NPR
Washington, DC, United States
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Past articles by Ron:
Woodward's taped time with Trump reveals much about both the author and his subject
We hear the former president striving to court Woodward's favor, praising him as "a great historian" and "the great Bob Woodward." Yet these interviews veer often into disagreements and even debates. → Read More
How Loretta Lynn, country music and a rural Republican tide changed U.S. politics
At the peak of her fame in the 1960s and 1970s, Lynn was part of a key change in the politics of country music — a change akin to the shifting partisan leanings of the music's most loyal fans. → Read More
New Trump tome 'The Divider' offers most comprehensive chronicle of his term to date
The book by veteran journalists Peter Baker and Susan Glasser is a rushing torrent of anecdotes and recollections. A reader may plunge in at any point and pull up a pail of Trump at full tilt. → Read More
Two books dig into the 1990s for the roots of the Trump-era Republican Party
Two veteran observers of American politics, a journalist and a historian, argue that former president Trump is not responsible for the GOP of our day but, instead, exploited it as he found it. → Read More
'Thank You for Your Servitude' casts harsh light on GOP's shift and its motives
Although Donald Trump remains an eminence throughout, Mark Leibovich's true subject here is Trump's stable of enablers and the transformation they have wrought on their party and themselves. → Read More
The Jan. 6 committee has learned some lessons from previous televised hearings
The most telling testimony against the Republican former president has come from Republicans he appointed or who supported him and voted for him (and, in some cases, say they would do so again). → Read More
In a time of national division, polarizing primaries are part of the problem
It is said the best medicine for what ails democracy is more democracy. But what does more democracy mean? If it just means more of the kind of politics we have now then it hardly offers a remedy. → Read More
In new edition of classic Watergate expose, Woodward and Bernstein link Nixon, Trump
50 years on, the authors profess amazement that another president came along willing to jettison whatever conscience he had, and whatever respect for the rule of law, in an effort to stay in office. → Read More
Watergate Committee hearings may be both an inspiration and a hard act to follow
Fifty years from now, when Americans look back on the riotous break-in at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, will it have as much impact as memories of the Watergate scandal continue to have today? → Read More
The draft Roe ruling is a reminder that religion's role is older than the Republic
The question arises: Since when did so much of our politics have to do with religion? And the answer is, since the beginning — and even before. → Read More
The leaked abortion decision blew up overnight. In 1973, Roe had a longer fuse
The reaction to Roe vs. Wade was immense, but not immediately so. It took months and years for the anti-abortion movement to fully form, to organize and gain political power. → Read More
McCarthy embodies House GOP's post-Trump dilemma and post-Gingrich history
Shakespeare observed that "uneasy lies the head that wears a crown." Something similar seems to apply to the title of Republican leader in the U.S. House of Representatives. → Read More
From Nuremberg to Darfur, history has seen some war criminals brought to trial
Responsibility is difficult to prove conclusively in a war zone, and evidence might have to link such acts to national leaders far from the battlefield. But it has happened. → Read More
Biden is the latest president to go off script on Russia
Biden was far from the first U.S. president to say what he thought about Russia or its leaders — or to pay a price for it. → Read More
Zelenskyy's plea to Congress recalls Churchill and others who fought for democracy
Other addresses to Congress by foreign leaders have paled compared to Winston Churchill welding with his words the alliance that overcame Adolph Hitler, until Volodymyr Zelenskyy's this week. → Read More
Surging gasoline prices bring back memories of past energy wars
American gas stations displaying high prices this summer and fall will matter more than all the campaign billboards put together in affecting the November midterm elections. → Read More
Surging gasoline prices bring back memories of past energy wars
American gas stations displaying high prices this summer and fall will matter more than all the campaign billboards put together in affecting the November midterm elections. → Read More
Trump's attorney general sends a letter from No Man's Land
In One Damn Thing After Another, Bill Barr alternates between castigating and exonerating. He catalogs Trump's offenses yet casts him as the latest victim of dishonest media and "the radical Left." → Read More
It's a cliché to call an election-year Congress do-nothing. The history doesn't match
There's no law against making laws in an election year. There are special challenges, but the hurdles may loom larger in lore than in reality. → Read More
This won't be the first State of the Union speech given during a crisis
Even when under maximum pressure, presidents have viewed the speech as a unique opportunity to make their case to the rest of the government, to the nation as a whole and to the wider world as well. → Read More