On the insanity of U.S. gun law.

In Colorado and beyond, a negotiated surrender in the war on drugs.

How America used to vote.

On Politico's brand of insider journalism.

“His seeming ease belies the anxiety and emotion that advisers say he brings to his historic position: pride in what he has accomplished, determination to acquit himself well and intense frustration.”

On the Clintons’ political future.

Why the flood of money in this election is just the beginning.

A tale-of-the-tape breakdown of the 2012 presidential debates.

“Redistricting today has become the most insidious practice in American politics—a way, as the opportunistic machinations following the 2010 census make evident, for our elected leaders to entrench themselves in 435 impregnable garrisons from which they can maintain political power while avoiding demographic realities.”

On a week spent immersed in right wing media.

On JFK and the 1960 Democratic National Convention.

How “grand metaphors” drive politics.

As a young community organizer in Chicago, Barack Obama concluded that to make a real difference, he needed to gain power. A look at how that plan has worked thus far.

The story of Donald Smaltz, an independent prosecutor run amok.

On Mitt Romney’s top strategist—a steroid-dabbling, screenwriting bon vivant.

How the former Bush advisor is “reengineering the practice of partisan money management in hopes of drumming Barack Obama out of the White House.”

What became of Annie Moore, the first person to arrive on Ellis Island?

Inside the political battle over reproductive rights in Texas.

A longtime Harper’s contributor considers America as he dies: “When I died, I died of many things: the failing systems; the weakening of age; the exhaustion of the long war against dying. Finally, I succumbed to the lack of ethics in a California hospital, killed by filth and neglect.”

A 7,000-word anatomy of the chaotic 9 minutes after the U.S. Supreme Court issued its health care ruling.

The Constitution and its worshippers.

The taming of the political reporter.

How Obama’s immigration enforcement policies got away from him.

On a movement divided.

Americans learn to love themselves.

The fifty-year battle over where we store our nuclear remains.

The education of a campaign manager.

The Watergate reporters look back.

In the course of his five-and-a-half-year presidency, beginning in 1969, Nixon launched and managed five successive and overlapping wars — against the anti-Vietnam War movement, the news media, the Democrats, the justice system and, finally, against history itself. All reflected a mind-set and a pattern of behavior that were uniquely and pervasively Nixon’s: a willingness to disregard the law for political advantage, and a quest for dirt and secrets about his opponents as an organizing principle of his presidency.

A profile of Univision’s Jorge Ramos.

How Chief Justice John Roberts pulled off Citizens United.

Alabama’s chemical-endangerment law was passed to protect kids from meth labs. But is the prosecution of about 60 mothers – and the definition of “child” extended to “unborn child” – pushing its boundaries too far?

The story behind the story that ended Dan Rather’s career.

Lessons learned about Washington from investigating how the “grand bargain” fell apart.

The inside story of the Affordable Care Act.

An obituary for Richard Nixon.

"I thought dying for your country was the worst thing that could happen to you, and I don't think it is. I think killing for your country can be a lot worse. Because that's the memory that haunts."

On February 25, 1969, Bob Kerrey led a raid into a Vietnamese peasant hamlet during which at least 13 unarmed women and children were killed.

An examination of Mitt Romney’s record on abortion.

On the Susan B. Anthony List, the anti-choice power broker:

In a year when 11 women are running for the U.S. Senate, including six pro-choice Democratic incumbents, the efforts of a group founded by second-wave feminists, named for a first-wave feminist, could once again be a major force in reducing female representation in Congress.

A profile of Maggie Gallagher, founder of National Organization for Marriage.

An interview with the former president about the upcoming election and American consensus.

Covering a presidential candidate and the people who cover presidential candidates aboard the press buses Bullshit 1 and Bullshit 2 on the 2000 John McCain campaign trail.

From The Longform Guide to the Campaign Trail on Slate.

A suburban dad. A fictional television blowhard. And now a political money launderer. How one funny guy became three.

On the American Legislative Exchange Council, a D.C. nonprofit with a library of more than 800 pieces of fill-in-the-blank legislation ready for state legislatures across the country.

On the strengths and limitations of the Republican frontrunner:

“The Mormon’s never going to win the who-do-you-want-to-have-a-beer-with contest,” concedes one adviser, while another acknowledges, “He’s never had the experience of sitting in a bar, and like, talking.”

Whoever wants to enchant America’s conservative base as well as independents looking for a steady hand amid economic upheaval must try to grasp what has carried Cain this far — what not only shields him from spectacular attempts at self-immolation but also, with each incident, seems to make him stronger. Why, with this candidate, do the laws of physics seem not to apply?

A discussion of the “limited but important” power of Occupy Wall Street’s open blog, “We Are the 99%.”

A profile of Elizabeth Warren.

Retracing the early economic steps of the Obama administration.

What makes Rick Perry run?

From the Econo-Lodge to the Porcupine Freedom Festival, on the campaign trail with former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson, the fringe candidate who doesn’t really seem he should be a fringe candidate.

In a campaign supported by the Koch brothers, Republicans are working to prevent millions of Democrats from voting next year.

Brandon Darby’s journey from revolutionary activist to FBI informant.

On the combined force of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife Virginia, a Tea Party stalwart.

Notes from the campaign trail in Nevada with Ron Paul.

One reason the Tea Party's patriotic political statements are so taupe is that they mirror the religious rhetoric, which is high on generalizations about God and low on nuance and complexity and conflict. Go ahead, replace "constitution" and "patriotism" with "God" and "faith" in some tea party speech sometime—it's not as wacky as it should be.

This is a litany to those of us in this field. “What more will the Negro want?” “What will it take to make these demonstrations end?” Well, I would like to reply with another rhetorical question: Why do white people seem to find it so difficult to understand that the Negro is sick and tired of having reluctantly parceled out to him those rights and privileges which all others receive upon birth or entry in America? I never cease to wonder at the amazing presumption of much of white society, assuming that they have the right to bargain with the Negro for his freedom.

A profile of David Yerushalmi, the little-known Hasidic Jew from Brooklyn leading the campaign casting Islamic law as the greatest threat to American freedom since the cold war.

What are the foreign policy views of Michele Bachmann, Tim Pawlenty, Rick Perry and Mitt Romney?

On a failed attack in Spokane and the fragments of homegrown terrorism in the United States.

Tucker Carlson on the Perot campaign.

A profile of California congressman Darrell Issa:

A few days after we met in Las Vegas, Issa called me. He was concerned about all my questions regarding his early life and didn’t see why they were newsworthy. The conversation was awkward.

The rise and dissolution of the magazine that nearly took down a president.

The first profile of Michele Bachmann.

A profile of GOP hopeful Jon Huntsman.

Deep Throat, unmasked.

This new strain of Republican is not one Wisconsin, nor the United States, has ever seen...The new Republicans are corporate wrecking crews, given a sledgehammer, a piece of legislation and a command to "make it fit."

A profile of Arnold Schwarzenegger written during his first year in office as Governor of California:

"You know, the thing I love about Mexican women is how furry their pussies are."

During her brief tenure as governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin was a genuinely effective, bipartisan legislator. What went wrong?

Doc moves quickly. He takes off his windbreaker, tosses his leather bag on the counter and unzips it. He pulls out a slate-blue polyester vest, V-necked, with six buttons. He raises his arms and jumps into it and then says, with an air of deep satisfaction, "Aah." Doc is proud of his bulletproof vest.

A profile of Maine’s two U.S. senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins.

On 30 years of Long Island politics.

A look at the legislative lobbying efforts of Michael Bloomberg’s $7 billion-per-year company. While the mayor has no specific day-to-day role at Bloomberg LP, he maintains “the type of involvement that he believes is consistent with his being the majority shareholder.”

Obama’s presidency may well be defined by whether or not he can curb unemployment. Step One: find a decent idea.

On the workings of Sarah Palin’s inner circle.

A report from Nevada, where an economy in crisis and a Tea Party upstart are threatening to topple Harry Reid, the most nationally powerful politician in the state’s history.

The story of how Washington blew its best shot to do something on climate change.

Taibbi on the Tea Party. “After lengthy study of the phenomenon, I’ve concluded that the whole miserable narrative boils down to one stark fact: They’re full of shit.”

The surreal world of Sarah Palin and her road show.

Why the U.S. Senate gets so little done.

Frank Rich on The Promise, Jonathan Alter’s book about the first year of the Obama administration.

The city of Boston, the Tea Party movement, and the rightful heir to the American Revolution.