These are momentous days. A landmark Supreme Court ruling about presidential immunity. Far-right gains in France. A debate defined by President Joe Biden’s disastrous performance and Donald Trump’s serial falsities.

The tendency can be to rise or fall on those shifting tides of political momentum. And much of the news coverage will. But there must still be a place for clear-eyed steadiness, which kindles to action not through fear or favor, but through calm, right thinking. That’s what we aim to offer you today and in the months ahead.