Jonah Goldberg stories, Page 8

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...

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...

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...

“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...

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 —...

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...

“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...

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,...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Republicans are in a triumphalist mood. Last week’s red wave election has many in the GOP counting on a crimson tsunami come next year’s midterms and fueled even more confidence that Joe Biden will be a one-term president. Some skepticism is in order, though a little triumphalism is warranted as...

The first thing to know about the “Let’s go Brandon” thing is: It’s funny. Or at least, it started out funny. In case you don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s how it started. In September, largely or even entirely in response to the Biden administration’s botched handling of our...

World leaders are heading to Glasgow to come up with yet another plan to tackle climate change. Joe Biden had hoped to have a stack of climate-related legislative accomplishments to brag about. But they’re being held up and threatened in the fight over the price tag of the Build Back...

Here is a very basic fact: People tend to like getting stuff for free. Ask most people, “Do you want a fancy new Mercedes?” and they’ll likely respond, “Yes.” But ask them to pay full price for it and demand drops dramatically. Hold that thought. Sen. Bernie Sanders is very...

In 2020, many on the right had modest hopes for President Biden. The hope hinged on the not implausible theory that he would govern as a centrist because that’s how he campaigned. Biden did markedly better than Hillary Clinton’s 2016 performance with Republican-friendly constituencies. Indeed, 7% of 2016 Republican Trump...

Confession time: I’m open to raising taxes. As a lifelong conservative, making this case comes as easily as arguing for a weak national defense, or more United Nations funding. So please bear with me as I walk through why I’m open to the idea. One of the most important lessons...

If you’ve spent any time in Washington, you’ve heard stories about Joe Biden’s loquaciousness. Asked to give brief remarks, he’d famously meander for 30, 40 or more minutes about whatever came into his mind. But his verbosity is a symptom of his larger problem: a lack of situational awareness. After...

It’s one of the strange ironies of American politics. Few things are as politically polarizing as foreign policy, and yet it’s on foreign policy where the differences between the parties are often narrowest. Indeed, viewed from abroad, our allies and adversaries often think that the biggest problem with any new...

Maybe President Biden should handle covid-19 the way he’s handled Afghanistan. It’s a strange thought, given how badly he botched the U.S. withdrawal. But at least Afghanistan Joe had a clear idea about what we needed to do. Covid Joe has no such exit strategy. He’s making it up as...

I got back to the U.S. from my honeymoon on Sept. 10, 2001. My wife went straight home to Washington, D.C, to start her new job at the Justice Department. I went to Washington state, where we’d gotten married, to retrieve our dog Cosmo, whom we’d left with family. I...

In a major victory for constitutional norms, the Supreme Court overturned a lawless and essentially authoritarian policy of the Trump administration, and progressives are furious. You read that right. Let’s catch up. On March 27, 2020, Congress passed the CARES Act, and Donald Trump signed it into law. One provision...

President Biden’s inept execution of his — and his predecessor’s — policy of withdrawal from Afghanistan was a political gift to the GOP. It has made foreign policy, at least temporarily, a unifying issue on the right. For conservatives, whether you supported or opposed withdrawal, Biden’s shambolic implementation has something...