Patty Limerick

In 2017, the complex legacies of historical figures are proving impossible to restrain in stone or confine with bronze. All over the nation, statues, memorials, and monuments are giving us big trouble.

In 2017, a well-staffed army of commentators, observers, and pundits work hard to remind us that we are citizens of a divided nation, starkly at odds in our beliefs, assumptions, and opinions. When it comes to vexing each other, we have emerged as artists of endless creativity.

The word “inappropriate” is perishing from fatigue.

With this column, I have created a historical “Lego” set, placing before us four facts about the year 1972 that we are now going to treat as pieces of a larger whole.

When the Republican congressional leaders realized they could not pass their long-promised revision of the Affordable Care Act, this defeat made them sad. More to the point, there was little evidence that defeat had improved their characters or clarified their thinking.

In an encounter with the makings of legend, a very famous cowboy and an entirely unknown schoolmarm met in a showdown between romance and realism in the American West.

Original article can be found at The Denver Post Originally published on February 19, 2017 By Patty Limerick Time’s a-wasting! Just as February winds down, I am at long last issuing my first two executive orders. Issued on Feb. 19, 2017, these orders rest on the authority vested in me...

Original article can be found at The Denver Post Originally published on January 14, 2017 By Patty Limerick In 2017, as the nation steps into the ring for yet another fight over immigration, the time has come to seek guidance from the people who have endured the most trying encounters...

Original article can be found at The Denver Post Originally published on November 19, 2016 By Patty Limerick After the presidential election of 2016, many good souls have declared that the building of bridges now registers as our most urgent national priority. Depending on the kind of bridges you have...

Original article can be found at The Denver Post Originally published on October 14, 2016 By Patty Limerick How is it possible that so few commentators have noted the match between Donald Trump’s lack of preparation for the presidency and the comparable deficiency that burdened President Warren Harding in 1920?...