Political Commentary

Most Recent Releases

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
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                            May 17, 2024The World's -- and the Pacific Rim's -- Disastrous Population Implosion By Michael Barone
Will the world be better off with fewer people? For years that has been a hypothetical question posed to suggest an affirmative answer. Fewer people, it was claimed, would mean less depredation of natural resources, less urban overcrowding, more room for other species to stretch their (actual or metaphorical) legs. Mankind was a parasite, a blight, and overpopulation a disease. Fewer people would mean a better Earth.
May 16, 2024The State Supreme Court Skirmishes By Louis Jacobson
KEY POINTS FROM THIS ARTICLE— State supreme court elections are often ignored by the public and the media, but they can have a dramatic impact on public policy, especially in the post-Roe v. Wade era, when abortion policy is being sent back to the states.
— Numerically, 2024 is a very big year for such elections: They will be held in 33 states. And in several of those states, ideological control of the court could shift depending on the results.
— This year, Michigan, Ohio, Montana, North Carolina, Kentucky, Arizona, and Florida will be home to some of the most consequential supreme court elections.

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                            May 15, 2024Censorship: A Global Pandemic By John Stossel
   "Palestine will be free!" chant the protesters. "From the river to the sea.

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                            May 14, 2024Biden 2.0 -- Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid By Stephen Moore
   Could a second Biden term be more injurious to the economy than his first term? It seems unimaginable given the first three years gave us 20% inflation, a $2,000 loss in average real incomes for the middle class, 6 million added illegal immigrants, a war on American energy that has caused gas prices to rise by more than 40% to $3.64 a gallon, the collapse of our many major cities, another $6 trillion added to the national debt, the unaffordability of new homes, and the chaos on college campuses.

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                            May 14, 2024What Trump Sees in Doug Burgum By Daniel McCarthy
   Donald Trump knows how to run a talent show.

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                            May 10, 2024Moving Away From the Template of 'Oppressor vs. Oppressed' By Michael Barone
The violent campus takeover by protesters -- some of them students, many not -- has had the unintended effect of discrediting the premise underlying the protest. That premise is that the world is divided between oppressors and the oppressed, and that the oppressors are always evil and their victims already virtuous.

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                            May 10, 2024Polls Have Been Popping for Trump By Brian Joondeph
The 2024 presidential election is less than six months away. Corporate media outlets are calling it a “tight race.” It probably is, as have been most recent presidential elections, but what do the polls say?
May 9, 2024Districts of Change, Part Two: Looking Beyond the Straight-Party Districts By J. Miles Coleman
KEY POINTS FROM THIS ARTICLE— Most districts in the House, 379 of the 435, have exclusively backed nominees from only one of the major parties in presidential elections since 2008.
— This leaves 56 districts that have voted at least once for both parties.
— Districts that backed Barack Obama twice and then did the same for Donald Trump make up the most numerous non-straight party group, and most of those districts have Republicans in Congress.
— Democrats, however, hold four of the five “bellwether” districts that have backed the winners of the last four presidential elections.

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                            May 8, 2024'Drain the Swamp' By John Stossel
   Presidential candidate Donald Trump promised to "drain the swamp!"

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                            May 8, 2024That '70s Show -- Is Biden Taking America Back to the Age of Jimmy Carter? By Stephen Moore
   Everything that is happening in our fractured nation today seems so worrisomely reminiscent of America's last lost decade -- the 1970s.

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                            May 7, 2024The Vietnam Era Never Ended for Biden's Party By Daniel McCarthy
   "This may be Biden's Vietnam."

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                            May 3, 2024Campus Riots and a Chicago Convention: Deja Vu All Over Again? By Michael Barone
As the philosopher and baseball player Yogi Berra once (supposedly) said, it's deja vu all over again. Student protesters are occupying campuses of famed universities across the country. In New York, Columbia University protesters occupied administrative offices in Hamilton Hall and were cleared out by police, exactly 56 years to the day after student protesters occupied and were thrown out of that building in 1968.
May 2, 2024Districts of Change, Part One: How All 435 Congressional Districts Voted from 2008-2020 By J. Miles Coleman
KEY POINTS FROM THIS ARTICLE— One of the most useful tools that the Crystal Ball employs on a regular basis is Dave’s Redistricting App, which helps us make sense of redistricting and includes a plethora of data.
— Using some of DRA’s newly-released data, we are looking back at how the 2008 election compares to 2020 by congressional district.
— Despite doing several points worse nationally than Barack Obama did in 2008, Joe Biden performed better than Obama in nearly half (211) of the current 435 House districts.
— Our home state of Virginia illustrates several of the broader national swings that have taken hold since 2008.
— Most districts cast more raw votes in 2020 than they did in 2008, though there are some interesting exceptions.

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                            May 1, 2024'Make Government Work' By John Stossel
   President Joe Biden says, "I know how to make government work!"

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                            April 30, 2024Four Radical Reforms to Shrink the Federal Budget By Stephen Moore
   It was nearly 50 years ago that a liberal Congress completely dominated by Democrat big spenders passed a new set of budget rules -- the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974.

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                            April 30, 2024Nationalists of the World, Unite? By Daniel McCarthy
        The historian John Lukacs used to say all the old "isms" of politics were defunct.

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                            April 26, 2024A Turning Point for American Foreign Policy? By Michael Barone
        Was the passage by the House last Saturday and the Senate on Tuesday of the foreign aid package with money for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan a turning point in American foreign policy?

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                            April 26, 2024Is the GOP the Stupid Party? By Brian Joondeph
The Republican Party has the reputation and hence the name, “The Stupid Party." They nominate weak candidates, fight with each other in a circular firing squad, give good concession speeches and, if somehow elected, then govern against the will of the people they supposedly represent.

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                            April 25, 2024Capitalism Versus Racism By John Stossel
        Capitalism and racism go together?

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                            April 23, 2024Foreign Policy Splits the Parties By Daniel McCarthy
   In 2024, foreign policy doesn't pit Republicans against Democrats so much as it pits Republicans against Republicans and Democrats against Democrats.