Opinion Today: Democrats fret over the electability of women
Here’s what we’re focusing on.
Opinion Today
October 22, 2025
The Capitol Dome seen through a grove of surrounding trees.
Aleksey Kondratyev for The New York Times

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Notable

Congress shouldn’t be a retirement home. We need term limits. “Greater turnover would mean more politicians invested in the interests of their constituents — and the nation as a whole — over those of entrenched and influential advocacy groups.”

— Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, and David Trone, a former congressman

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Democrats need to chill about the electability of women. “New Jersey is a Rorschach test for a party in full freakout.”

— Molly Jong-Fast, contributing Opinion writer

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Trump’s new world disorder. “It is a stunning act of superpower suicide: Never before has the world’s reigning superpower intentionally dismantled a system designed to sustain its own leadership, particularly while those trappings were returning enormous benefits.”

— Rebecca Lissner, senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations

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Spotlight

14 ‘Wellness Voters’ Talk Parenting, MAHA and Social Media

How hard it can feel to be taken seriously by doctors and how hard it is to make choices — whether as a parent or as your own person — in the age of social media.

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ICYMI

Taylor Swift’s new album: fitting for the Trump era. “Singing about how ‘when I said I don’t believe in marriage that was a lie,’ or expressing a newfound desire to ‘have a couple kids, got the whole block looking like you’ — or for that matter, celebrating male endowment in a song called ‘Wood’ — is inevitably conservative-coded, even if the singer undoubtedly voted for Kamala Harris.”

— Ross Douthat, Opinion columnist

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More in Opinion

A black and white photograph of a microphone.

letters

The Costs of Protecting Campus Speech

Readers respond to a guest essay by Danielle Sassoon about her experience at N.Y.U. Also: A crackdown on science; a plea to the former presidents.

Zohran Mamdani speaking to a camera; a partial reflection of his face is to the left.

Bret Stephens

Why Mamdani Frightens Jews Like Me

A candidate who stands out for his monomania, double standards and affinity for extremists.

By Bret Stephens

In Your Words

Re: “Trump Posted a Video of Himself Dumping Excrement on Our Cities. It’s a Glimpse of His Deepest Drives.

Sometimes a joke is just a joke. He’s trolling us and we keep falling for it. — A comment posted by Sf from Santa Monica

Read more comments on the story here and check out our Letters to the Editor.

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