Opinion Today: Who should govern California?
Here’s what we’re focusing on.
Opinion Today
May 19, 2026
A man wearing a graduation gown holds up a sign that says, “Who wrote your speech? ChatGPT?”
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Notable

America is too broken to handle A.I. “The irony is that the industry’s attempts to game the democratic system are a big part of its deep unpopularity.”

— Michelle Goldberg, Opinion columnist

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The power of Black colleges in a post-D.E.I. world. “They offer students something both radical and deeply ordinary: the chance to begin adulthood in a place where their lives are assumed to be central to the story.”

— Skylar Mitchell, a writer and communications strategist

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Three decades on the Supreme Court is too long. “Why aren’t term limits in place already? Because until recently there was no clear need for them.”

— Jesse Wegman, a contributing Opinion writer

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Spotlight

The New York Times; source photographs by Jae C. Hong/Associated Press and Pool/Getty Images

A Chaotic, Confusing Campaign: Who Should Be the Next Governor of California?

Times Opinion convened a panel of state experts to weigh in on the primary.

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ICYMI

This redistricting chaos must end. “The times demand a thorough response, because things that seemed inconceivable only a decade ago are now happening.”

— Eric H. Holder Jr., attorney general of the United States from 2009 to 2015

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Listen (or Watch)

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The New York Times

The Ezra Klein Show

How to End the Gerrymandering Doom Loop Forever

The political scientist Lee Drutman argues that we should switch to a system of proportional representation and put an end to our “trench warfare politics.”

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1 HR 14 MIN LISTEN

More in Opinion

A glimpse into an empty room through partially parted blue curtains.

Guest Essay

Is There a Door No. 3 for Democrats?

Is there anything Democrats can do to break free of a deeply polarized political system in which parties are constantly winning and then losing office?

By Thomas B. Edsall

A portrait of Suhaib Abualkebash.

letters

Palestinian Accounts of Rape by Israelis

Readers respond to a column by Nicholas Kristof. Also: Imposing religion.

In Your Words

Re: “We’ve Become Too Savage for ‘Lord of the Flies’

All I have to do is see ICE in action to know that Golding had it right and that we have not only not changed our hearts and minds, we have spread the disease of not caring for others and letting our fears of failing at life become weapons of mass destruction. — A comment by SFR from California

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

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