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 2

The Price of the Performance State

As inflation rises, war costs mount, and trillion-dollar defense spectacles dominate the political stage, Trump’s second presidency reveals something larger than fiscal irresponsibility. Public money is increasingly being transformed into political theater, where national grandeur matters more than civic sustainability, and citizens are treated less as stakeholders than as the audience for an endless performance.

• Trump's second term
• Trump-era governance
• Loyalty economy

George Washington's Letter to the American Presidency

When Authority Is Mistaken for Possession

• Trump-era governance
• Democratic norms
• Sovereignty

The World’s Greatest Expert

When Certainty Collides with Responsibility

• Trump's second term
• Trump-era governance
• Foreign policy

Gold Leaf Governance

Trump's gilded renovations aren't a matter of taste. They're a disclosure about how he understands power, ownership, and permanence.

• Trump's second term
• Corruption & patronage
• Trump-era governance

The Loyalty Economy

How Trump Turned Trade Policy into a System of Favor

• Trump's second term
• Trade & tariffs
• Corruption & patronage

The Projection Gap

Trump governs by projection. The gap between what he claims and what he achieves is finally widening—at home and abroad.

• Trump-era governance
• Democratic norms
• Civics unhinged

Duty, Honor, Country: Concepts Too Complex for Donald Trump to Grasp

A soldier who lived beside Arlington on what sacrifice actually means—and why a man who called the fallen "suckers" was never going to grasp it.

• Trump-era governance
• Democratic norms
• Civics unhinged

Different Actions, Same Story

How Modern Political Analysis Flattens Difference

• Trump-era governance
• Democratic norms
• Civics unhinged

The Table Was Never Set for Peace

Twenty-one hours of talks produced no agreement—because the table was set for affirmation, not negotiation.

• Loyalty economy
• Trump-era governance
• Civil service

When Authority Follows Action

Tariffs, DOGE, and the courts look unrelated. They share one method: act first, locate the authority afterward.

• Trump's second term
• Trump-era governance
• Democratic norms

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...

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