Suzanne Fields

Donald Trump leading revolution of white working class

Everyone's looking for what Winston Churchill called a pudding with a theme. How did the likes of Donald Trump make it to the forefront of American politics? How did the British break their strong link with the Europeans just across the channel? The common denominator, so we're told, is "revolution, down with the elites, power to the people."

June 29, 2016

Hip-hop civics, as taught by Donald Trump and ‘Hamilton’

Race matters, but it's not all that matters. That's the lesson of "Hamilton," the Broadway musical that "everyone" is pulling strings to see. (My 17-year-old grandson and I lucked out.) "Hamilton" teaches a little history, using rap and music as the sugar to make the history go down.

June 22, 2016

Obama’s terror lecture misses the point of identifying the enemy

Tragedy brings out the best in people and the worst in people. When it's presented on stage we hold with Aristotle that it evokes pity, fear and the terrifying understanding that "there but for the grace of God, go I."

June 15, 2016

Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump promise epic presidential campaign

Two of the most famous people in the world are running for president of the United States from different directions. Like Muhammad Ali at the height of his fame as the champ, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump could knock on any door almost anywhere in the world and be recognized. Either might even be invited in for a cup of coffee.

June 8, 2016

SUZANNE FIELDS: The curse of the college campus

The members of the Class of '20 know now who they are, or soon will be. They've made the final choice of what college they'll attend, they've sent off their security deposits, and now they're wondering what their next life will be like.

June 1, 2016

SUZANNE FIELDS: Presidential race a new lease for the Theater of the Absurd

The Theater of the Absurd was the vogue of the '60s, when the cry was "anything goes," and everything did. Characters on stage, usually larger than life, invited audiences to reflect on the comedy of human existence, to shock them out of the complacency of everyday life.

May 25, 2016

SUZANNE FIELDS: Rowanne Brewer Lane, Donald Trump and The New York Times

"Donald J. Trump had barely met Rowanne Brewer Lane when he asked her to change out of her clothes."

May 18, 2016

SUZANNE FIELDS: Can Democrats, Republicans unify behind a presidential candidate?

"Unity" is all the buzz among both Republicans and Democrats. Can unity, where everyone is finally happy with a settled argument, ever be achieved? If so, how? Mr. Dooley, humorist Peter Finley Dunne's fictional party regular, always took brass knuckles to a Democratic unity meeting.

May 11, 2016

SUZANNE FIELDS: Hillary Clinton searches for wiggle room

Only yesterday Hillary Clinton was the beloved feminist destined to break through the glass ceiling over the Oval Office, there to triumphantly reprise the anthem of ferocious estrogen: "I am woman, hear me roar." Alas, the roar has become a nervous squeak in the wake of her not-so-terrific Tuesday in Indiana.

May 4, 2016

SUZANNE FIELDS: Andrew Jackson gets a second look

The inquiring mind of a young friend of mine, a junior at a Washington high school, wants to know: "What's the meaning of moving Andrew Jackson to the back of the $20 bill?" He doesn't discount the achievements of Harriet Tubman, celebrated in classrooms from kindergarten on.

April 27, 2016

SUZANNE FIELDS: Mixing politics and Passover

The clever presidential candidate tries to mix politics with Passover, eager to join the Jews in celebration of the triumphant exodus from Egypt — maybe the Chosen People will make him — or her — the Chosen One. But they had to work at not looking too clever by half. Lessons learned will be crucial as they enter the homestretch of the primary season.

April 20, 2016

SUZANNE FIELDS: Connecting with the young across ‘the generations gap’

The generation gap has morphed into a generations gap. Like everything else in our swoosh, swipe, snap and selfie-obsessed world, the gaps multiply and separate with the speed of sound. What used to make up meaningful moral conflicts between parents and children, a guide to the future, have proliferated into "process differences" between various age groups, abetted by changes in swiftly changing values.

April 13, 2016

SUZANNE FIELDS: A bare-knuckle brawl of a campaign

The presidential campaigns are scrambling in the wake of Wisconsin to manipulate images of women, forcing them into caricatures of whatever stereotype works. Spouses are thrust into a limelight they haven't sought, and everybody's looking for gaffe, grit (true and otherwise) and glamour.

April 6, 2016

SUZANNE FIELDS: From ‘Plato to NATO’ in a dangerous world

Tempers always run high in the run-up to choosing the candidates for president. Donald Trump, leading the Republicans, is accused of fascism, out to destroy hundreds of years of accumulated democratic values. Hillary Clinton, the Democrat most likely to succeed, is accused of breaching national security with a private email system of her own, rendering classified secrets open to hacking by alien governments, and could conceivably be indicted for felonies.

March 30, 2016

SUZANNE FIELDS: What to women voters want?

Women are a puzzle to men. Ask any man. Women think men are transparent and eager to figure it out. Everybody knows that. But when Sigmund Freud posed his famous question he confessed that he didn't have any idea what the answer was.

March 23, 2016

SUZANNE FIELDS: Voters between a rock and a hard place

Hand-wringing, exasperation, frustration, disbelief. When have Americans been so befuddled by a presidential campaign? Disillusioned voters can only channel ancient Ulysses confronting Scylla and Charybdis, like pilgrims suffering between the painful rock and the uncomfortable hard place.

March 16, 2016

SUZANNE FIELDS: Donald Trump faces little Republican opposition

The search continues for the key to chaos. Where's the catchy description to capture the zeitgeist, to encapsulate the anger, to illuminate the dreary landscape where puzzled voters look and listen to identify the proper leader when the leading Democrat and Republican post the lowest ratings for honesty, character and trustworthiness? This is surely the winter of our discombobulation.

March 9, 2016

SUZANNE FIELDS: The spectacular success of the Donald Trump flimflam

Success in presidential politics now is all about outrageous performance. We've been transitioning to this place since the 19th century, when P.T. Barnum captivated the public imagination with oddities and oddballs, many of them fakes and all of them unlikely, expanding what was acceptable to see in the human image.

March 2, 2016

SUZANNE FIELDS: Prying women out of the kitchen

John Kasich is Mr. Nice Guy, who tries never to offend and appeals to men and women who are content to live their lives in familiar territory. But he got a little egg on his face when he fondly remembered the women in Ohio who "emerged from their kitchens" to work for him early in his career.

February 24, 2016

SUZANNE FIELDS: The outrageous ordinariness of Donald Trump

Maybe we should look at the presidential campaign as vaudeville. Our grandparents loved vaudeville, so maybe we can learn to love it, too. (I'm not holding my breath.)

February 17, 2016