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Political Commentary

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December 8, 2023

For True Evil, Look Not to Israel or America but to Communism By Michael Barone

For those dismayed at how many college and university students and faculty, even, or especially, at selective and prestigious institutions, have been cheering Hamas' Oct. 7 atrocities and calling, in only slightly veiled language, for the destruction of

Israel and genocide of Jews, the question is how this vicious line of thought gained hold in American secondary and higher education.

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December 7, 2023

Notes on the State of Politics: Dec. 7, 2023 By J. Miles Coleman

KEY POINTS FROM THIS ARTICLE

— The pending resignation of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R, CA-20) and Rep. Patrick McHenry’s (R, NC-10) retirement announcement are notable developments, but they do not precipitate rating changes.

— With New York’s George Santos (R, NY-3) expelled from Congress, a special election in his district will be held in February.

— A recent special election in Utah’s 2nd District stood out as something of an exception: a special election where Republicans overperformed.

— Though Georgia Republicans were ordered to draw a new congressional map, the plan that they produced maintains the state’s existing 9-5 Republican split.

December 6, 2023

How Private Is Private? By John Stossel

The Fourth Amendment secures our right to be secure against unreasonable searches, right?

December 5, 2023

Biden Looks Doomed -- But Is He? By Daniel McCarthy

Gavin Newsom is so eager to run for president that he even campaigns to insist he's not running.

December 5, 2023

Green Groups Are No Longer Promoting a Cleaner Environment By Stephen Moore

The late, great humorist P.J. O'Rourke used to quip that everyone wants to save the world, but no one wants to wash the dishes.

December 1, 2023

Orwell and Monroe Got It Right By Michael Barone

George Orwell, call your office. That's my initial and slightly out-of-date response to news stories about the Biden administration's efforts to stamp out "misinformation." It's an interesting irony that covert censorship should be

undertaken enthusiastically by those who call themselves "liberal" or "progressive" and who claim the opposition would threaten the survival of liberal democracy.

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November 30, 2023

Putting Biden’s Troubles with Young Voters in Perspective By Kyle Kondik

Youngest voters have been strongly Democratic in recent elections, but the president also has clear weaknesses with that group.

KEY POINTS FROM THIS ARTICLE

— Recent 2024 presidential polling has shown President Biden performing poorly with young voters.

— The 18-29 voting bloc has been reliably Democratic leaning for at least the last several presidential elections.

— Biden’s weakness with young voters is not new, despite doing well among the group in the 2020 general election.

November 29, 2023

Smearing Capitalism By John Stossel

You must be lonely. The media say loneliness is everywhere in America.

November 28, 2023

A Test for Trump and His Rivals By Daniel McCarthy

A little more than six weeks before the Iowa caucuses, the race for the Republican presidential nomination looks like it's over before it's begun.

November 28, 2023

Dems Have Now Officially Rejected President John F. Kennedy's Legacy By Stephen Moore

There's a political cartoon going around that shows John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy sitting on a couch watching a speech by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The two hold their palms to their heads and moan that their legacy is being twisted and ruined.

November 22, 2023

You Can't Say That By John Stossel

My first Stossel TV Fellow, Trevor Kraus, initiated this column.

November 21, 2023

When Inequality Is Fatal for Men By Daniel McCarthy

Equality has always been an American preoccupation, right from the words "all men are created equal" in the Declaration of Independence.

November 21, 2023

Will New York Politicians Tax Wall Street Out of Existence? By Stephen Moore

Let's face it. Anyone who works in, or just visits, the Wall Street area of Manhattan can't deny the aura of power and money isn't what it was 20, 30 or 50 years ago.

November 17, 2023

Memo to Hamas: Settler Societies Aren't Evil By Michael Barone

In the nauseating demonstrations celebrating Hamas' slaughter of Israelis, one hears repeated, again and again, the refrain that Israelis are "settlers" and "colonists" -- and therefore, in the catechism inculcated in universities in recent decades,

oppressors not deserving of mercy or sympathy when tortured and murdered by those who deemed themselves the oppressed.

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November 16, 2023

Notes on the State of the 2023 Elections By Kyle Kondik

VA 2023 looks a lot like 2019; ads might help explain a PA oddity; Beshear and disaster relief.

Virginia result looked a lot like four years ago

Vote counts in Virginia are nearly final but not yet certified. There were no late changes to the topline result that seemed likeliest the morning after the election: Democrats won their barest possible majorities in both chambers: 51-49 in the state House of Delegates and 21-19 in the state Senate.

November 16, 2023

Republicans Need to Figure Out the Abortion Issue By Brian Joondeph

Abortion continues to be a political hot potato 50 years after the controversial Roe v. Wade decision where the U.S. Supreme Court “legislated” a Constitutional “right” to abortion.

November 15, 2023

Government Deceit By John Stossel

"Experts" were confident that they knew what America should do about Covid. They were wrong about so much.

November 14, 2023

By the Time Abortion Makes the Ballot, the Battle's Over By Daniel McCarthy

The fight over abortion in America is as much a religious contest as a political one.

November 14, 2023

The Nat Cons Are Dead Wrong: Middle-Class America Is Much Better Off Today Than in the Past By Stephen Moore

In the last several months, I have debated some of the intellectual leaders of a group called the "national conservatives."

November 10, 2023

Young Voters Spring (Contradictory) Political Surprises By Michael Barone

What's with young voters? It's a question prompted by two surprising and perhaps contradictory developments that are out of line with conventional wisdom and prevailing expectations among political observers.