Political Commentary

Most Recent Releases

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
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                            July 29, 2025Trump's Trade Lesson for Economists (and the World) By Daniel McCarthy
        If America is in a trade war, the question to ask is, are we tired of winning yet?

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                            July 25, 2025Are Ex-Presidents a Help or Hindrance? By Michael Barone
For a generation, Americans have had a historically large number of ex-presidents around, a possible source of counsel from one of only 45 people who have exercised the broad powers conferred by Article II of the Constitution.
July 24, 2025As Redistricting War Looms, Republicans Have More Plausible Gerrymandering Targets than Democrats By Kyle Kondik
KEY POINTS FROM THIS ARTICLE— President Trump pushing Texas Republicans to squeeze more seats out of the Lone Star State has led to the possibility of other states on both sides trying to draw new maps.
— California stands out as a state where Democrats could potentially get several extra seats through a gerrymander, but their path toward doing so is much more complicated than the Republican path in Texas.
— Looking across the entire country, Republicans appear to have easier opportunities for drawing new gerrymanders than Democrats. Ohio was already set to likely produce a better map for Republicans, and there are other options too.
— In states where Democrats control the state government and might want to draw themselves additional seats, there are often roadblocks that don’t exist in Republican-leaning states.

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                            July 23, 2025War on Capitalism By John Stossel
Capitalism gets a lot of hate. 
I expect it from the left. They blame free markets for racism, "horrifying inequality" and even, according to Economist Joseph Stiglitz, "accelerating climate change."

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                            July 23, 2025The End of Immortality in Washington By Stephen Moore
Over the last several decades, you could count on your fingers (and maybe a few toes) the number of government programs that have been canceled -- no matter how obsolete, inefficient or wasteful they were, and despite the fact that, in some rare cases, their missions were accomplished.

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                            July 22, 2025Whose Politics Canceled Stephen Colbert? By Daniel McCarthy
Stephen Colbert is at the center of a conspiracy theory.

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                            July 18, 2025Higher Education in Trouble: Political Repercussions By Michael Barone
   Nine months after the 2024 election, we've been graced with definitive dissections of the electorate and how it has changed since that escalator ride 10 years and one month ago. There's wide agreement in the analyses of the Associated Press/Fox News Vote Cast, the Democratic firm Catalist's What Happened and the Pew Research Center analysis.
July 17, 20252004 to 2024, Part Two: When Each State Was at its Most Republican By J. Miles Coleman
KEY POINTS FROM THIS ARTICLE— The “presidential lean” of a state can, over time, help us quantify its political trajectory.
— Much of the Heartland and Midwest has come to lean more to the GOP over the past two decades, though the Sun Belt has gotten more Democratic.
— By our “leans” metric, Donald Trump held up especially well in several swing states in 2020, even as he lost the presidency that year.
— Florida was the only state that was at its most Democratic in 2004, the earliest year that we consider, and its most Republican last year, showing a clear trend toward Republicans over two decades.

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                            July 16, 2025Big Green By John Stossel
Environmental groups are now rich.
In 2020 (the most recent data available), they collected $8 billion in donations.
$8 billion!

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                            July 15, 2025What Trump Knows About Superman By Daniel McCarthy
   The new "Superman" movie isn't an attack on Donald Trump's immigration policies, but it shows how alienated from America many liberals in Hollywood and politics now feel.

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                            July 15, 2025Trump Should Index the Capital Gains Tax for Inflation By Stephen Moore
   President Donald Trump should follow up on his historic "big, beautiful" tax bill with an extra booster shot for the economy by immediately indexing the capital gains taxes for inflation.
July 10, 2025Nebraska Senate: Osborn launches second run By J. Miles Coleman
KEY POINTS FROM THIS ARTICLE— In Nebraska, Dan Osborn, an independent candidate who held Sen. Deb Fischer (R) to a single-digit win last year, announced he’d challenge Sen. Pete Ricketts (R).
— Though Ricketts should be more formidable than Fischer, Osborn is still a credible challenger, so we are moving the race from Safe Republican to Likely Republican.
— We are also rating an imminent special election in TN-7 as Likely Republican. Republicans are still clearly favored to hold it but the dynamics of recent low-turnout special elections could make it more competitive than one might otherwise think.
— There will be a trio of special elections in some deep blue districts later this year. While Democrats are heavy favorites to retain them all, AZ-7 could represent an opportunity to see if the GOP’s recent gains with Latinos are sticking.

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                            July 9, 2025What Would the Founders Think? An Independence Day Reality Check By Brian Joondeph
As we lit sparklers and grilled burgers this Fourth of July, a new Rasmussen Reports poll provided a sobering dose of reality. Only 36% of Americans believe the Founding Fathers would see today’s America as a success. Forty-one percent (41%) think they’d view it as a failure, and the rest aren’t sure.

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                            July 9, 2025Labor Unions Kill Jobs By John Stossel
Progressives love unions.

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                            July 8, 2025A Big Beautiful Test of GOP Principles and Discipline By Daniel McCarthy
The Big Beautiful Bill -- a massive package of tax relief, more funding for immigration enforcement, and savings from entitlement reforms -- is now law, and it's a triumph not only for President Donald Trump but for the whole Republican Party.

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                            July 8, 2025The Biggest Conservative Victory in 30 Years By Stephen Moore
Everyone knows that the "big, beautiful" tax bill signed into law on the Fourth of July lowers tax burdens for families and businesses. It also averts a $4 trillion tax increase starting next year. That's enough reason to heartily celebrate.

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                            July 4, 2025What the 12-Day War Hath Wrought By Michael Barone
Not many people today remember the exhilaration so many Americans felt after Israel's victory in the Six-Day War in June 1967. The liberal folks around me at work and law school then had been frustrated and puzzled at the lack of progress being made in Vietnam by the 448,000 U.S. troops stationed there, and the sudden and astonishing success of the Israel Defense Forces, symbolized by the eye-patched Gen. Moshe Dayan, was a refreshing contrast. No talk then of Israelis as colonialist settler oppressors.
July 3, 20252004 to 2024, Part One: When Each State Was at its Most Democratic By J. Miles Coleman
KEY POINTS FROM THIS ARTICLE— The “presidential lean” of a state can, over time, tell us something about how it is trending.
— Though 2004 and 2024 produced similar topline national results, there has been some significant change in how individual states vote relative to the country.
— By this measure, Kamala Harris held up relatively well in Sun Belt Toss-up states, while it has been several cycles since the Rust Belt Toss-ups were at their most Democratic.

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                            July 2, 2025The Secret Sauce That Made America By John Stossel
Friday is the Fourth of July.

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                            July 1, 2025Democrats Need Populism, But Not Zohran's Sort By Daniel McCarthy
Zohran Mamdani is the latest sign establishment Democrats don't know how to handle a populist challenge.