Jonah Goldberg stories, Page 8
Jonah Goldberg: It’s not easy to predict U.S. politics in a post-Roe world
The late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a passionate advocate for abortion rights, but she was also one of Roe v. Wade’s most effective critics. “My criticism of Roe is that it seemed to have stopped the momentum on the side of change,” she said, explaining that abortion...
Jonah Goldberg: Twitter used to correct the narrative. Now it writes the narrative.
“What is the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull?” the president of the United States asked 10 years ago at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. “A pit bull is delicious.” Of course, to echo E.B. White: Explaining a joke is like dissecting a frog. You understand it...
Jonah Goldberg: The right-wing mob gets its pound of Mouse flesh from Disney — or does it?
“Freedom is awaking from its coma today because of a huge, huge, huge Supreme Court decision — huge,” Rush Limbaugh declared in 2010. “I cannot tell you how big this is.” What, pray tell, had roused freedom from its slumber? The Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision,...
Jonah Goldberg: Ukraine, Russia and the moral clarity of ‘good guys’ vs. ‘bad guys’
One of the silver linings of the very large dark cloud of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is the clarity it provides. This is, broadly speaking a contest between good guys and bad guys. A lot of people who fancy themselves foreign policy realists roll their eyes at talk about...
Jonah Goldberg: France’s election shows how political parties can fade away
Perhaps the most interesting thing about last weekend’s French election isn’t who won, but who lost — and what it might mean for America. French President Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen of the National Rally party won enough of the vote — 27.8% and 23.2% respectively — to head...
Jonah Goldberg: Could wedge issues be the cure for polarized politics?
Conan O’Brien recently tweeted: “Well, I’ve officially lived a long life because people are excited Germany is rearming.” I had a similar feeling recently listening to the 538 politics podcast that discussed “wedge issues.” The conversation between the host, Galen Druke, and two prominent political scientists was illuminating, but the...
Jonah Goldberg: Biden’s gaffes should not drive U.S. policies on Russia
An enormous amount of effort and planning went into crafting a single coherent message, and in one instant it was all for naught. I’m not talking about Will Smith slapping Chris Rock during Sunday night’s Oscars, but President Biden’s similarly unscripted call for regime change in Russia. In Warsaw on...
Jonah Goldberg: In today’s media, attacks from the left benefit its right-wing targets — and vice versa
You know who benefits the most from liberal media bias? Conservatives. I spent much of the last 25 years writing about liberal media bias. Heck, I grew up on the stuff. My father, a longtime editor, used to joke that he “worked behind enemy lines.” He’d often tutor me about...
Jonah Goldberg: Let’s not confuse the Cold War of the 1950s with what’s happening today
It’s hard to pick up a foreign policy journal or even turn on the TV without encountering someone predicting, recommending or lamenting a “new Cold War” with Russia, China or both. This is entirely understandable and even justifiable, if you mean a new period of strategic competition, pressure and geopolitical...
Jonah Goldberg: Trump’s power worship of Putin is repugnant — and predictable
“I went in yesterday and there was a television screen, and I said, ‘This is genius.’ Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine, of Ukraine, Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful,” Trump explained on a radio show the day after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his unprovoked...
Jonah Goldberg: Putin has forced the West to change how it views its role in the world
In “The Sun Also Rises,” Ernest Hemingway famously answered the question “How did you go bankrupt?” “Two ways. … Gradually, then suddenly.” The last week suggests that getting out of bankruptcy works the same way. It’s difficult to exaggerate the suddenness and significance of the change in attitudes — and...
Jonah Goldberg: Putin’s wish and the consequences he can’t control
Vladimir Putin announced Monday that he had decided to recognize two regions in eastern Ukraine as independent breakaway “republics” and immediately ordered Russian troops into those territories to carry out “peacekeeping” functions. A better term would be “tornaway republics” since Putin has been waging war there for years. It remains...
Jonah Goldberg: American reactions to Canada’s trucker protests shows how much our politics have changed
On Monday, Canadian Prime Minster Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act in order to clear out the trucker protests in Ottawa. From the beginning, I’ve remained quietly fascinated by the whole spectacle. Quietly, because I’ve struggled to figure out what I think about them, fascinated because they are a window...
Jonah Goldberg: RNC’s idea of ‘legitimate political discourse’ shows how far gone it is
My first question: What about the feces? I don’t mean figuratively, as in “Wow, the Republican National Committee really stepped in (fill in the blank)” or other colorful idioms. I mean it literally, what about the poop? I should back up. The RNC, the greatest agglomeration of hacks ever seen...
Jonah Goldberg: Ukraine’s president may be our only hope
One can only sympathize with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Vladimir Putin has a dagger aimed at the heart of Ukraine. For months he has mobilized troops along the Ukrainian border. The recent deployment of troops to Ukraine’s almost undefended border with Belarus raises the possibility of a blitzkrieg strike against...
Jonah Goldberg: Joe Biden could learn a lot from Bill Clinton
“You and my husband think so similarly when it comes to politics,” Hillary Clinton once told Joe Biden. “You guys were almost separated at birth.” It’s interesting to think about how Biden’s first year as president would have gone differently if this were in fact true. The easiest way to...
Jonah Goldberg: How an enduring myth about voter turnout distorts our politics
I have long opposed making voting mandatory, an idea that pops up every few years. I still don’t like the idea. But it’s become more attractive, at least as a thought experiment. The arguments against compelling people to vote — as Australia and a handful of other countries do —...
Jonah Goldberg: Just meeting with Putin is a concession — U.S. should be wary of giving more
On Monday, Russian president-for-life Vladimir Putin explained that the “peacekeeper” paratroopers he sent to Kazakhstan to help quash civil unrest were part of his larger policy of preventing “color revolutions” in former Soviet-bloc countries. Putin made his remarks at a meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, which the New...
Jonah Goldberg: As political satire, ‘Don’t Look Up’ fails in more ways than one
“Don’t Look Up,” Adam McKay’s dark comedy released on Netflix just before Christmas, has gotten an enormous amount of attention, despite the fact most film critics tend to agree it doesn’t hold together too well artistically, even as some welcome it for its propagandistic value. As you’d expect from the...
Jonah Goldberg: Defeat for the Build Back Better plan might not be total disaster for Biden
You know that old tale about the guy stranded on a rooftop during a flood who beseeches God to rescue him? A neighbor in a rowboat comes and offers to rescue him. “No, I’ve asked God to save me,” the man says. Then a police boat makes the same offer,...
Jonah Goldberg: Trump’s clout with Republican voters seems to be slipping away
Like a lot of people, I get a ton of thirsty emails from Donald Trump. On Saturday, he sent this note: “See you in Sunrise, FL, in a little while and tomorrow, Orlando. Big crowds!” He was referring to the first installment of his road show with former Fox host...
Jonah Goldberg: When ‘Vice President Harris’ became inevitable, trouble was sure to follow
Things have not gone well for Vice President Kamala Harris. Not only is she less popular than her boss, but according to one recent poll, she even broke Dick Cheney’s record for most unpopular sitting vice president. But it’s worse than that. Cheney — fairly or unfairly — was unpopular...
Jonah Goldberg: The tax-cut hypocrisy of Democrats’ ‘Build Back Better’ bill
For the first five years, the single most expensive item in the House version of the Democrats’ “Build Back Better,” or “human” infrastructure, bill is a gigantic tax cut for millionaires and billionaires. This provision would lift the cap from $10,000 to $80,000 on income tax deductions for state and...
Jonah Goldberg: Tucker Carlson’s ‘Patriot Purge’ was final straw
I quit Fox News after more than a decade as a contributor. So did my business partner and friend Steve Hayes. We explained our reasons on the Dispatch, a media company we founded. The decision was a long time in coming. Like Ernest Hemingway’s description of bankruptcy, it came gradually...
Jonah Goldberg: Inflation and CRT have something in common
How is inflation like critical race theory? A lot of voters have a hard time explaining how either works, but they know they don’t like it when they see it. Obviously, it’s a silly comparison on the merits. For starters, some voters actually like critical race theory while nobody likes...
