The Luxury of Failing Forward
Civil rights laws didn't inflict mistreatment on white Americans. They withdrew an entitlement—and that is the whole grievance.
- Trump-era governance
- Democratic norms
- 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 5
The Cost of Saying It Late
A democracy fails when the institutions tasked with describing reality decide that saying it too plainly might seem unseemly.
- Trump-era governance
- Democratic norms
- Civics unhinged
An Opening Message for 2026: Against the Fashion of Despair
Despair has become fashionable—and like most fashions, it flatters the people selling it.
- Democratic norms
- Trump-era governance
- Civics unhinged
The Strongman Who Mistook Civilization for Decay
Trump calls Europe "decaying" because it stopped behaving like Trump—a worldview last held earnestly by the generals of 1914.
- Trump's second term
- Trump-era governance
- Democratic norms
The Year the Guardrails Were Removed
Democracies rarely fall with sirens. This one is being dismantled politely, on schedule, with applause.
- Trump-era governance
- Democratic norms
- Civics unhinged
Margin of Terror: Why America Keeps Betting on Bad Numbers
America trusts polls the way gamblers trust systems—and democracy keeps paying the house.
- Trump's second term
- Trump-era governance
- Democratic norms
What Trump Understood About the Republican Party
Trump didn't hijack the Republican Party. He drove off in a vehicle already idling, keys in the ignition and a "For Sale" sign in the window.
- Trump's second term
- Democratic norms
- Civics unhinged
The Speaker Who Gave Up His Voice
Mike Johnson found the one way to lead the House by refusing to let it lead—and called the silence holy.
- Trump-era governance
- Democratic norms
- Civics unhinged
The Real Foreign Invasion
How MAGA Opened the Gates to the Empire It Pretends to Fear
- Foreign policy
- Sovereignty
- Civics unhinged
The Real Heirs of the Republic
Heritage, Myth, and the Power We Inherit
- Democratic norms
- Sovereignty
- Civics unhinged
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
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A chronicle of American absurdity, written with a straight face and a sharp pen. Civics Unhinged — satire for those who still give a damn.
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