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Columns

Guns and the ‘New Class’

Column: Why the debate over gun control is so polarized

22 Dead And 26 Injured In Mass Shooting At Shopping Center In El Paso


The pattern was established long ago. A killing spree happens. The Democratic Party and mainstream media erupt in calls for gun control. Republicans shy away from cable news for a few days. Various fixes to the background check and mental health systems are proposed, video games are criticized, and eventually our attention turns elsewhere, until another spectacular attack restarts the cycle. President Trump increases the volume and heightens the perceived stakes. The advocates of gun control, such as Elizabeth Warren, say he's a "white supremacist." Opponents of regulation say he's the only thing that stands between them and dispossession of their Second Amendment rights.

Resistance Inc.

Column: Why impeachment isn't going away


Trump supporters are right to feel vindication after Robert Mueller's testimony before Congress. At times the special counsel seemed unfamiliar with the contents of his own report. He came across as aloof and confused and often unable to answer both Democratic and Republican questions to the lawmakers' satisfaction.

He Persisted

Column: Benjamin Netanyahu becomes Israel's longest-serving prime minister


On July 20, Benjamin Netanyahu becomes Israel's longest-serving prime minister. His first tenure lasted from 1996 to 1999. This second stint began in 2009. Bibi has won five elections since. The most recent victory, in April, was Pyrrhic. He failed to form a government. An unprecedented rematch is set for September.

Pelosi’s House of Pain

Column: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez turns the 116th Congress into Thunderdome


Not so long ago—as recently as the cover of the March 2019 Rolling Stone, in fact—they seemed like the best of friends. I'm referring to Nancy Pelosi and the members of "The Squad": Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and (not pictured) Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley.

Joe Biden and the Great Awokening

Column: Can he survive the left-wing drift of the Democrats?


Joe Biden has led the national polls in the race for the 2020 Democratic nomination since last year. He's ahead in the first three contests, also, with leads ranging from 7 points (Iowa) to 13 points (New Hampshire) to 28 points (South Carolina). He's first in fivethirtyeight.com's endorsement primary. And though he didn't launch his campaign until the second quarter of 2019, at which point Bernie Sanders had raised the most money, his nonstop fundraising schedule, and great first-24-hours number, suggests that his second-quarter haul will be impressive. Going into tonight's Democratic debate, there was no reason to doubt Biden's status as the Democratic frontrunner.

The Beto Bust

Column: And a Booker bounce?


I'm not sure the first night of the Democratic debate had a winner, but it sure had a loser: Robert Francis 'Beto' O'Rourke. The former congressman found himself the target of Bill De Blasio, Cory Booker, Julian Castro, and John Delaney. And O'Rourke didn't fare well.

The 2020 Battle Begins

Column: And Donald Trump holds the high ground


The 2020 campaign begins in earnest next week in Florida, when Donald Trump officially launches his reelection bid. On June 26, 20 Democratic candidates and five moderators hold the first of two nights of debates. Where do things stand?

Trump’s Great D-Day Speech

Column: The president makes the case for national spirit, sovereignty, and strength

Trump D-Day


President Trump gave one of the best speeches of his presidency while many Americans were brushing their teeth. His remarks at the seventy-fifth commemoration of D-Day at the Normandy American cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, France, were gracious, moving, poetic, and delivered in a time zone six hours ahead of the East Coast. Which is too bad. The address deserves a wide audience not only for its content but also because it fits into the larger themes of this presidency. Speaking from what he described as "Freedom's Altar," Donald Trump once again made the case for reviving America's national spirit, sovereignty, and strength.

Making Sense of the New American Right

Column: Keeping track of the Jacksonians, Reformicons, Paleos, and Post-liberals

Cotton Rubio Lee Hawley


I like to start my classes on conservative intellectual history by distinguishing between three groups. There is the Republican Party, with its millions of adherents and spectrum of opinion from very conservative, somewhat conservative, moderate, and yes, liberal. There is the conservative movement, the constellation of single-issue nonprofits that sprung up in the 1970s—gun rights, pro-life, taxpayer, right to work—and continue to influence elected officials. Finally, there is the conservative intellectual movement: writers, scholars, and wonks whose journalistic and political work deals mainly with ideas and, if we're lucky, their translation into public policy.

America’s Best Defense Against Socialism

Column: It's our Constitution and our culture

socialists


The United States of America has flummoxed socialists since the nineteenth century. Marx himself couldn't quite understand why the most advanced economy in the world stubbornly refused to transition to socialism. Marxist theory predicts the immiseration of the proletariat and subsequent revolution from below. This never happened in America. Labor confronted capital throughout the late nineteenth century, often violently, but American democracy and constitutionalism withstood the clash. Socialist movements remained minority persuasions. When Eugene V. Debs ran for president in 1912, he topped out at six percent of the vote. Populist third-party candidates, from George Wallace in 1968 (14 percent) to Ross Perot in 1992 (19 percent) have done much better.