I became a conservative for the first dozen years of my professional life in Berkeley, Calif., and it was a reaction against political correctness, so I get it.

I think the Republicans are trying to learn from their mistakes about attacks on women because the women's vote will backfire.

We who reject Trump's bankrupt leadership must heal old wounds, reorient ourselves, and embrace common goals. And if there is one thing on which we can all agree, it's this: we cannot concede any ground.

I'm comfortable on the progressive side. But I'm still more pitched at fighting the Right than I am about building a progressive platform for the future. It's fair to say that that conversation doesn't interest me as much.

While we use American power to fight hard for democracy against extremism on both left and right, our critics seem suspicious of any assertion of United States power or influence against any government or group that claims to be on the left.

You don't read many positive things about Iran in the press, which is depressing, but when I go back to my grandparents' house in the hills, and I'm sitting by the pool, sipping a bootleg Turkish beer, watching a pirate DVD, eating my grandma's cooking... you realise there is a real bridge between politics and country and people.

When something really comes from the soul, I think it has a truth that you cannot find in politics.

I am in politics because every day, I get to work to make the world a little better - for my kids and for yours.