Essays Without the Noise

These essays are written with one goal in mind: more signal, less noise. Here you will find historical perspective, medical and policy analysis, and measured commentary on the presidency, healthcare, medicine, and public life—written to illuminate rather than inflame.

When Bigger Is No Longer the Answer
Civic Leadership, Civic and Constitutional Issues Paul G. Schmitz, M.D. Civic Leadership, Civic and Constitutional Issues Paul G. Schmitz, M.D.

When Bigger Is No Longer the Answer

Government intervention helped rescue Americans during the Great Depression and later expanded healthcare, education, civil rights, and opportunity. But after nearly a century of growth, the harder question is whether more government can solve what an already enormous system has failed to fix—and where purpose must come from instead.

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No Kings, But Plenty Of Thrones: Protest, Power, And The Problem Of Entrenched Rule

No Kings, But Plenty Of Thrones: Protest, Power, And The Problem Of Entrenched Rule

Americans have always protested presidents. But the deeper question is whether protest clarifies where power actually sits. The United States has no king, yet power can still become entrenched through career politicians, safe seats, party machinery, courts, agencies, donors, and bureaucracies that outlast elections.

“No Kings” is a powerful slogan. But if we take it seriously, the question should not be limited to the presidency. A republic can reject monarchy and still build thrones.

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The Electoral College and the Federal Bargain

The Electoral College and the Federal Bargain

The Electoral College remains one of the most debated features of the American constitutional system because it sits at the intersection of democracy, federalism, and history. Created as part of the founding compromise between national popular rule and state-based political power, it was designed to preserve a meaningful role for the states—especially smaller states—in choosing the president. That same logic helps explain both its strengths and its frustrations today.

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The Resilience of American Democracy
Civic and Constitutional Issues Paul G. Schmitz, M.D. Civic and Constitutional Issues Paul G. Schmitz, M.D.

The Resilience of American Democracy

For nearly 250 years, American democracy has been tested by conflict, crisis, distrust, and overheated political rhetoric. Yet the republic has endured in large part because its governing structure is unusually layered: divided among branches, dispersed across 50 constitutional states, and sustained by courts, elections, civic institutions, and public argument.

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