Here’s what you’re missing if you haven’t perused the New York Times op-ed page, today…

The editorial board calls for an end to the Electoral College, an urgent national priority that did not seem to bother them before Election Day. David Leonhardt argues that Republicans win because they’re meaner and tougher and willing to rewrite the rules, and the only way Democrats will win is if they do the same. (Oddly, he doesn’t mention Harry Reid nuking the filibuster for presidential nominees.)


Desmond Lachlan argues that Trump’s trade policies will “lead to a significant widening of the budget deficit and to a corresponding decline in public savings.”

Mimi Swartz argues that Rick Perry and Rex W. Tillerson are ruthless Texans, and self-evidently terrible picks for the cabinet: “If you stop to consider a “Dancing With the Stars” contestant (Mr. Perry) making decisions about the nation’s nuclear arsenal, well, that way lies madness.”

Omri Boehm contemplates whether even a limited embrace of Trump by Jews represents a betrayal of Jewish values and concludes, “The comparisons between Trump and Hitler — more prevalent in pre-elections articles than today — will hopefully prove entirely exaggerated.”


Meanwhile, over on the op-ed page of the Washington Post, the editorial board calls for a special Congressional committee to investigate Russian mischief and propaganda efforts in the election: “Russian propaganda outlets and some organizations in the shadowy world of fake news also chipped in to erode Ms. Clinton’s candidacy.”


Richard Cohen writes that Trump’s nominee to be U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, is “a danger to peace in the Middle East, to American lives, to moderation and to civil discourse.”

Catherine Rampell writes that Trump’s nominee to be director of the Office of Management and Budget “seems poised to help Trump ignite another worldwide financial crisis.”

Michael Gerson writes “the president-elect seems to offer equal chances of constitutional crisis and utter, debilitating incompetence.”

Eugene Robinson writes that the incoming president wants America “working with Putin, who supports the continued rule of barbarous dictator Bashar al-Assad. Are you ready for that, Republicans? Have you seen the pictures from Aleppo?”


In short, everything on the op-ed pages of these major papers is about President-elect Trump in one way or another, and everything is arguing that he is wrong: wrong on economics, wrong on foreign policy, wrong on social policy, wrong in his appointments, wrong on ethics, and arguably wrongly elected.


I’m a longtime critic of Trump, and even I find this tiresome. Each one of these topics is fair to debate, but having the page filled with one variation of “Trump is just the worst” after another turns into a numbing drum-beat that’s very easy to tune out.