Jonah Goldberg stories, Page 11
Jonah Goldberg: For Democrats, filibuster is only malevolent when Republicans wield it
I get the idea of curses or bad karma. The house where a triple murder took place is going to sell for less than the one next door no matter how much you scrub the stains. I wouldn’t want to use Hannibal Lecter’s dishware no matter how much you cleaned...
Jonah Goldberg: America’s patriotism deficit
Well, that didn’t go well. Last week, China and the United States met in Anchorage for the first high-level talks between the two governments since Joe Biden was elected president. It was supposed to begin with a photo op and brief opening statements from each side. Instead, we got a...
Jonah Goldberg: GOP’s sudden embrace of earmarks is worrisome
A decade ago, one of the first things Republicans did after taking back the House of Representatives was get rid of earmarks. For those of you who don’t recall, “earmark” is the term of art for when members of Congress bring home the bacon to their district. The GOP was...
Jonah Goldberg: Parties have taken wrong lessons from 2020 election
You wouldn’t know it from how Republicans and Democrats are talking, but the 2020 election was actually a success. During a pandemic, we had a national election with record-breaking turnout. The presidential candidate receiving the most votes in both the Electoral College and in the popular vote was rightly declared...
Jonah Goldberg: How long will President Biden remain immune to satire?
There’s a difference between saying something can’t be done and recognizing that you can’t do it. For instance, I can’t run a marathon — at least not without some profound lifestyle changes. But that doesn’t mean marathons can’t be run. Happens all the time, just not by me. Likewise, when...
Jonah Goldberg: Bipartisan dysfunction is fueling reckless spending sprees
After the Senate passed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, President Joe Biden came out to take a bow. This measure came “not a moment too soon,” he said. “For over a year, the American people were told they were on their own.” This is the kind of thing presidents...
Jonah Goldberg: The problem with following the science
In our increasingly secular age, being on the side of science is similar to being on the side of God — a way to settle an argument by not actually making an argument. Just enlist an unassailable authority and move on. That’s how Joe Biden campaigned for president, vowing to...
Jonah Goldberg: CPAC shows there’s no Republican civil war
Greater Orlando, Fla., hosts several of the most visited theme parks in the world. At the Magic Kingdom you can dress up like a princess, pretend you’re a pirate or just act like you’re a kid again. Universal’s Islands of Adventure lets diehard Harry Potter fans pretend they’re students at...
Jonah Goldberg: ‘Return to normalcy’ isn’t really what Biden’s base wants
Joe Biden ran for president on a “return to normalcy.” His challenge is that there are three competing definitions of normalcy for him to contend with. Biden didn’t actually use the slogan “return to normalcy.” But as numerous political observers (including yours truly) noted during the campaign, that was both...
Jonah Goldberg: McConnell, Graham are emblematic of the GOP’s dysfunction
The Republican Party is broken. If Mitch McConnell were just another Republican senator, I’d say he was the eighth bravest. The seven bravest are the ones who voted to convict Donald Trump. For weeks I’ve been saying that if you honestly believe the Constitution forbids the Senate from convicting a...
Jonah Goldberg: Impeachment a reminder that branches of government aren’t ‘coequal’
The House impeachment managers state in their brief: “Our constitutional system simply cannot function if the President, acting to extend his own grasp on power against the expressed will of the people, prompts an armed attack against a coequal branch that prevents it from performing its core constitutional responsibilities.” I...
Jonah Goldberg: Impeachment trials aren’t about proving criminal behavior
After three presidential impeachments, I’ve seen enough to conclude that one of the worst things about them is the lawyers. Even among some of my favorite legal commentators the problem is the same. They say something like: “Of course impeachment trials aren’t criminal proceedings. Impeachment is a political process.” And...
Jonah Goldberg: Biden unwisely following party-line lead of 2 predecessors
As an American, I wish President Joe Biden every success in defeating the pandemic and getting the economy moving again. But when it comes to the dysfunction of our political system and the polarized climate generally, it’s becoming clear he’s part of the problem, not the solution. I don’t think...
Jonah Goldberg: GOP is all too happy to accommodate QAnon
Warning: Disturbing stuff ahead. There’s a conspiracy theory called Frazzledrip. Even for QAnon types, it’s pretty fringe, which is saying something. Recall that the central belief in Q-world is that there’s a secret cabal of Satan-worshiping, sex-trafficking pedophiles running the government. Frazzledrip is worse. It’s the name of an imagined...
Jonah Goldberg: For Democrats, a Senate conviction of Trump isn’t the point
The debate over whether to hold Donald Trump accountable for his role in the events that led to the siege of the U.S. Capitol has slipped into partisan farce. Let me say up front I think it’s an open-and-shut case that Trump committed numerous impeachable acts, and in a healthy...
Jonah Goldberg: Biden needs to set even more ambitious vaccination goals
We are far from the destination, but the return to normalcy has begun — and so have the normal games presidents play. President Donald Trump said many times that covid-19 would just “disappear,” as if it were so much fake news ginned up to help Democrats. At one campaign stop,...
Jonah Goldberg: Both sides need to ditch whataboutism and condemn bad actors
As many feared, after President Joe Biden was inaugurated, a mob unleashed destruction. They stormed the Democratic Party headquarters. They spray-painted “ Biden!” and smashed the Democratic HQ’s windows. One sign read, “We don’t want Biden, we want revenge!” Federal law enforcement used tear gas to repel the gangs...
Jonah Goldberg: Giuliani’s descent from America’s mayor to Trump’s dark knight
“You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain,” Harvey Dent, the heroic district attorney of Gotham, proclaims in “The Dark Knight.” The fatalistic idea being that one can only do so much good in the world before you start balancing out the scales...
Jonah Goldberg: Parler’s lawsuit against Amazon is destined to fail
I have never been a free speech absolutist. I am, however, somewhat closer to being a First Amendment absolutist. Many free speech absolutists don’t like this distinction because they think the First Amendment should guarantee the ability to express yourself in virtually any manner you like, in any setting. But...
Jonah Goldberg: Violence at Capitol was horrific, but don’t lose sight of attempted theft
An attempted bank robber who doesn’t hurt anybody is still guilty of attempted bank robbery. If someone gets hurt, though, the penalties are greater even if the robber didn’t intend harm. This is how I think about what Donald Trump did last week. Of course the violence makes everything worse....
Jonah Goldberg: It’s a fallacy that Trump supporters haven’t been heard
The president of the United States incited a mob. It was a disgraceful, inexcusable, impeachable act. Donald Trump’s defenders offer any number of excuses in order to shave off the shame. The media didn’t condemn riots last summer by left-wing groups, and therefore this was inevitable or just desserts or...
Jonah Goldberg: Veep gambit puts some GOP legislators on stupid side of history
A lot of stupid things are said about history. For example, there is no “right side” of history, if by that you mean events are destined to play out in some sort of preordained way. But there is such a thing as being on the stupid side of history —...
Jonah Goldberg: Listen to science — but listen carefully
Behold science, the sword and the shield of progressivism. Over the course of the pandemic (and before that, in debates over climate change, stem cells, etc.), liberals have insisted that we must listen to science and heed the scientists. It was a cornerstone of President-elect Joe Biden’s campaign and a...
Jonah Goldberg: Ted Cruz shows why the GOP isn’t going back to Reaganism
Throughout Donald Trump’s captivity of the GOP, many Republicans have held fast to the hope that after he leaves office, the party can return to the sunny Reaganism of the Before Times. Of course, Trump’s bitter-enders have made it clear that they’d be happy to tear down not just the...
Jonah Goldberg: Cold War approach won’t work with China
It’s easy to miss, given how polarized our politics are, but there is a growing consensus around a very big issue: China. Foreign policy experts, military leaders and politicians across the ideological spectrum all tend to agree that a new era of confrontation with China has begun. Many on the...
