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Politics

Democrats Losing Their Hold on California and California Losing Its Hold on America

From the Right / Michael Barone /

Last week's Super Tuesday results ensured the renominations of former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden, barring some unanticipated adverse health events. So, who's going to win in November?

Polls give us clues. Trump continues to have the small but persistent lead in public polls he has maintained since November 2023 -- in ...Read more

Are Voters Recoiling Against Disorder?

From the Right / Michael Barone /

The headlines coming out of the Super Tuesday primaries have got it right. Barring cataclysmic changes, Donald Trump and Joe Biden will be the Republican and Democratic nominees for president in 2024.

With Nikki Haley's withdrawal, there will be no more significantly contested primaries or caucuses -- the earliest both parties' races have been ...Read more

Some Idiosyncratic Observations of the Elections So Far

From the Right / Michael Barone /

Herewith some idiosyncratic, perhaps eccentric, observations on the electoral contests so far in this presidential cycle.

1. Turnout is down. In the first five contests -- the Iowa and Nevada caucuses and the New Hampshire, South Carolina and Michigan primaries -- Republican turnout was down from 2016, the most recent cycle with serious ...Read more

Biden Open-Door Policy: Some Facts and Historical Context

From the Right / Michael Barone /

What's been missing these past couple of months from the coverage of and debate over the failed immigration bill? Some important basic facts and lots of historical context.

First, basic facts. Coverage in left-leaning newspapers and even in the conservative Wall Street Journal editorial page has suggested that without new legislation, the Biden...Read more

America's Dysfunctional Overclass

From the Right / Michael Barone /

What does America's overclass think of the rest of us? The short answer is "not much." They think ordinary people's splurging on natural resources is destroying the planet and needs to be cut back forcefully. And that the government needs to stamp down on ordinary people enjoying luxuries that, in their view, should be reserved for the top ...Read more

Toward a Demotic Republican Party

From the Right / Michael Barone /

What happens when a political party becomes demotic? Before answering the question, note that the word in question is not demonic, from the Greek word daimon, meaning a deity (remember that the Greek gods were notoriously jealous and greedy), but demotic, from the Greek word demos, meaning the people -- the same root as democratic.

My question ...Read more

Systemic Lying Corrodes Once-Great Institutions

From the Right / Michael Barone /

The last six or seven months have been a couple of tough seasons for public policies based on lies. Two examples come to mind. One is the Disinformation industry, which has eroded the credibility of the public health establishment. The other is the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion industry, which has infected American higher education with a culture...Read more

DeSantis Withdrawal Paved the Way for Likely Trump-Biden Rematch

From the Right / Michael Barone /

What went wrong with Ron DeSantis' presidential campaign? You can list many arguable mistakes, as you can with any campaign, and you can add, as some reporters have, that the candidate was not likable or good at retail campaigning -- which mostly reflected reporters' personal dislike of DeSantis or resentment at his refusal to schmooze what he ...Read more

No Gary Hart Bounce for DeSantis or Haley

From the Right / Michael Barone /

Forty years ago, when Walter Mondale won 49% in Iowa's Democratic caucuses, far ahead of Gary Hart's 16%, the media spotlight nonetheless immediately focused. With the help of a brilliant spot by consultant Ray Strother showing him tossing a hatchet into a tree, Hart went on to win the New Hampshire primary eight days later, 37% to 28%, and he...Read more

Democracy Not at Risk, but Not Operating Optimally

From the Right / Michael Barone /

Is democracy at risk this election year?

Yup, is the answer given by President Joe Biden in his speech last Friday, ahead of the third anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the United States Capitol as both houses of Congress were assembled to receive the electoral votes for the November 2020 election.

He argues that if Donald Trump is ...Read more

Our Inevitably Negative Politics

From the Right / Michael Barone /

To explain the latest young generation's pessimism, Washington Post opinion writer Taylor Lorenz took to what was then called Twitter last February to lament "the fact that we're living in a late stage capitalist hellscape during an ongoing deadly pandemic w record wealth inequality, 0 social safety net/job security, as climate change cooks the ...Read more

Startling Surprises in Latest Census Numbers

From the Right / Michael Barone /

How's America doing? Government statisticians provide mounds of data that provide useful clues, and none more so than the Census Bureau's estimates of population, announced in the holiday weeks at the end of each calendar year. The latest numbers measure the estimated population of each state as of last July 1 as compared to the constitutionally...Read more

The Politics of Incumbent Rejection

From the Right / Michael Barone /

At a time when voters have rejected the party of the incumbent president in the last two elections, and in which current polling has the incumbent trailing, both parties seem bent on nominating two men who have served as president and about whom substantial majorities of voters have negative feelings. What gives?

You could argue that each party...Read more

 

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