Escalation Without Architecture
The United States is escalating a conflict it cannot fully describe, at a cost it has not fully explained, against a threat it has not clearly defined.
- Foreign policy
- Trump-era governance
- Civics unhinged
Civics Unhinged — A chronicle of American absurdity, written with a straight face and a sharp pen. Civics Unhinged — satire for those who still give a damn. — Page 4
When Governance Becomes Political Hostage Taking
Trump told his own party economic relief would wait until they delivered his election-law demands. That isn't coalition governance—it's leverage.
- Trump-era governance
- Democratic norms
- Civics unhinged
When the Applause Fades: What Declining Approval Does to Power
Everyone waits for the poll collapse that ends him. But a presidency built on spectacle doesn't retreat when applause fades—it escalates.
- Trump-era governance
- Democratic norms
- Civics unhinged
World Stage, MAGA Script: Coercion Without Credibility
American power was strongest when it didn't need to prove it. Now allies are planning for a partner they can no longer count on.
- Trump's second term
- Foreign policy
- Trump-era governance
World Stage, MAGA Script: Coercion Without Credibility
World Stage, MAGA Script: Willfulness as Governance
How impulse displaced architecture in American statecraft [This essay is Part 1 of a two-part series on Trump’s foreign policy method and its global consequences. Part 2, Coercion Without Credibility Publishes March 3.]
- Trump's second term
- Trump-era governance
- Civics unhinged
Everything Trump, Still All at Once
How the Presidency Became a Souvenir Shop
- Trump's second term
- Corruption & patronage
- Trump-era governance
When Courts Rule but Power Doesn't Listen
Why Judicial Power Now Turns on Compliance, Not Rulings
- Trump-era governance
- Democratic norms
- Civics unhinged
The Domestic Terrorist in the Oval Office
Trump and the Politics of Permissioned Violence
- Trump's second term
- Trump-era governance
- Democratic norms
When Governance Becomes Personalist Rule
Foreign Affairs took a decade to admit it: Trump governs not through institutions but through himself—appetite as strategy, grievance as doctrine.
- Trump-era governance
- Democratic norms
- Civics unhinged
The World Is Not a Real Estate Listing
Trump, Sovereignty, and the Politics of Cramping His Scene
- Trump's second term
- Foreign policy
- Sovereignty
About Civics Unhinged
Civics Unhinged is the new home for my long-form satire and political commentary — a place where essays can breathe without algorithms or paywalls. I write about the civic unraveling of our time: the absurdities of power, the decay of seriousness, and the endurance of humor as a last civic virtue. Dunnegin is a former senior federal official, policy analyst, and longtime political consultant who has advised members of Congress, federal agency heads, and corporate leaders. He has spent decades...
About Civics Unhinged
The Real Heirs of the Republic
Heritage, Myth, and the Power We Inherit
- Democratic norms
- Sovereignty
- Civics unhinged
World Stage, MAGA Script: Willfulness as Governance
How impulse displaced architecture in American statecraft [This essay is Part 1 of a two-part series on Trump’s foreign policy method and its global consequences. Part 2, Coercion Without Credibility Publishes March 3.]
- Trump's second term
- Trump-era governance
- Civics unhinged
History’s Exit Interview: Notes from the End of Progress
Somewhere between the ruins of Enlightenment optimism and the latest GOP fundraiser, History called it quits.
- Democratic norms
- Trump-era governance
- Civics unhinged
When Courts Rule but Power Doesn't Listen
Why Judicial Power Now Turns on Compliance, Not Rulings
- Trump-era governance
- Democratic norms
- Civics unhinged
The Domestic Terrorist in the Oval Office
Trump and the Politics of Permissioned Violence
- Trump's second term
- Trump-era governance
- Democratic norms
Subscribe to Civics Unhinged
A chronicle of American absurdity, written with a straight face and a sharp pen. Civics Unhinged — satire for those who still give a damn.
Thanks for subscribing.