RealClearPolitics Articles

Twenty years ago, Democrat politicians had a reason to be queasy over making an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press." Back then, host Tim Russert asked pointed questions, often relying on research to bring up potentially embarrassing statements and actions. Even Barack Obama knew he was going to get a serious probe of his past statements and policy positions. The current host, Kristen Welker, is no Tim Russert. On Oct. 11, she interviewed Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed. The first question was Russertesque, quoting El-Sayed from 2012 criticizing Obama, who is now about to join him on the...

When a member of Congress opens a legal defense fund, it usually makes national news. Reporters dig into the donors, and ethics experts ask whether federal rules allow the lawmaker to spend donor money to fight specific types of legal battles. Investigations into state legislators is hit or miss when it comes to media scrutiny. In California, where citizen journalists and federal probes have uncovered a series of high-profile fraud and corruption cases this year, Democratic state Sen. Susan Rubio’s defense fund has drawn virtually no public attention. The lack of scrutiny has continued...

The consequences are downstream, but responsibility begins upstream. Something deeply troubling is happening in the way we talk about immigration enforcement. After an ICE operation in New York City, the rush to condemn the agent has been striking. Before the facts were fully established, Mayor Zohran Mamdani called the shooting an outrage, demanded an end to ICE enforcement in the city, and declared that ICE must be abolished. The use of force deserves scrutiny, but why are so many leaders so quick to condemn the agency before an investigation establishes what happened? What happened to due...

The American experiment in ordered liberty assumes that elections will come and go but that amid changing circumstances the nation’s fundamental principles will endure – providing continuity, ballast, and guidance – and citizens will persist in exercising their rights and performing their duties reasonably. Yet today’s left and right increasingly fear that the other’s victory in the next election spells doom for the nation. The partisans tend to overlook the role that restoring a shared appreciation of the nation’s founding dedication to blending liberty...

In our recent Bowling Green State University/YouGov poll my colleagues and I surveyed Americans on a number of issues. Like most polls, we asked whether respondents approve of the president, favor one party over another, or think the country is headed in the right direction. Like other polls, we found Americans are not particularly thrilled with President Donald Trump or many of his policies, Democrats currently hold an advantage on the generic congressional ballot heading into the midterms, and most believe the country is on the wrong track. But we also asked something different. We asked...

One month out, discerning consumers should be looking into the polls, not simply at them. When you do, a much more nuanced picture of November’s midterms emerges. While Democrats are undoubtedly leading, the landslide some outlets are headlining may not be coming. The broadest view of generic ballot polling (respondents being asked which party they prefer) less than a month away from Nov. 3 shows Democrats with a seemingly commanding lead. According to RealClearPolitics’ Oct. 6 average of national generic polls, Democrats lead 50.4%-42.2% – an 8.2-point...

Three in four registered voters sat out this year’s primaries, something analysts typically chalk up to voter apathy. It’s not a crazy assumption. In fact, that’s the most common reason non-voters gave for not voting in the latest RCINI/Emerson College Polling survey, sponsored by Unite America: They were busy or forgot. But this isn’t the entire story. Some 15% of non-voters, including 28% of independents who didn’t vote, gave a different answer: They said they weren’t eligible to participate. While this might seem like a relatively small number, it is...

Vice President JD Vance vowed Thursday to shut down a key pipeline immigrant workers use for permanent status. Flanked at a White House press conference by FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson, Attorney General Todd Blanche, Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling, Labor Inspector General Anthony D’Esposito, and senior adviser to the president Stephen Miller, Vance said the government will block major companies like Microsoft and Adobe from applying for permanent status for hundreds of thousands of workers in the country on H-1B visas. “The H-1B visa program is meant to allow companies to bring...

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is challenging the popular perception that her state is unfriendly to business. On the campaign trail, the governor has pointed to a seemingly straightforward fact: She has not raised New York’s income or corporate tax rates since taking office in 2021 following Andrew Cuomo’s resignation, Spare us the talking point. Hochul was right to resist calls for another tax increase, including pressure from New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. But avoiding a higher headline tax rate does not suddenly make New York a low-cost place to live, work, or build a...

Even before Donald Trump’s confusing gaffe Monday night in Nebraska about Iran bombing Los Angeles and San Diego, the president was looming large over nearly every hotly contested California election campaign. In one Southern California race, Trump’s long shadow produced a disjointed two-step. Rep. Ken Calvert is attacking fellow Republican Rep. Young Kim for her anti-Trump stances, even as a Calvert-aligned PAC sent Democratic voters in the district mailers playing up her support for and from Trump. Confused? That’s understandable. Under the new map, Calvert’s 41st...

Somewhere there exists a woman who could see that disgusting group chat urging others to come and get in on some “free pussy” and “whip it out, boys” at that Cornell Chi Phi frat party and assume after the most perfunctory possible investigation that the whole thing was consensual. But I don’t think I know her. Women aren’t outraged because we hate men – hadn’t heard that one in a while – or because we don’t believe in due process. It’s because #MeToo came and went, and yet here we are again.  Or rather, here we...

You just have to love it, while these Democratic candidates are out there tweeting and chirping and criticizing President Trump and the GOP on the issue of affordability. Hahaha. In the first place, Mr. Trump way back in 2016 invented the term affordability, amidst much derision as he successfully ran in his first term.  Now with a temporary gasoline spike from the Iran war, Democrats have latched on to the term affordability as some kind of midterm election life raft. I don’t believe it’s going to work. Republicans are reminding voters that it was the big government...

CHICAGO—A problem of our modern age is that there are no adverse consequences for people who believe things at odds with reality: An LGBT activist in Chicago who marches under the “Queers for Palestine” banner never has to answer for what happens to actual queers in Gaza – or reconcile the fact that Israel is the only truly safe space for gay people in the entire Middle East. Our overly cosseted society buffers us from the world’s harsh realities. As the cost of delusions – beliefs at odds with observable reality – falls to zero, it’s no...

When President Xi Jinping visited Washington, it cast a new spotlight on who is going to win the AI race: the U.S. or China? Most of us think it’s the right question. But, at our own peril, most of us are looking at the wrong scoreboard.  America could lead the world in chips, computing power, and cutting-edge models. But couldn’t we still lose if AI leaves millions of Americans displaced, distrustful, and unprepared for what comes next? What happens if AI replaces human talent – even just in some roles and industries – putting people out of work? Joblessness...

If the investigation of the Cornell Seven results in indictments, they will be tried in a court of law where they are entitled to a fair trial. Sadly, that's not true for the hundreds of college students each year accused of sexual assault who fall into the clutches of college disciplinary panels. Students and their parents need to know these campus proceedings generally are rigged for the female accuser. They're kangaroo courts dispensing lynch law to college boys. On Sept. 26, coincidentally the same day prosecutors reopened the Cornell case, President Donald Trump's Department of Education...

Latin America is turning right, and it's a vindication for President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. In some ways, the Cold War never really ended in the Western hemisphere: Socialism has haunted the nations of Central and South America long after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the same Cuban regime the Soviet Union propped up for decades remains in power to this day. The hard left thought it had cemented control over Venezuela, too, thanks to Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro -- until American forces snatched Maduro right out of his bed back in January and took him to New...

Every year, RealClear Media Fund presents the Samizdat Prize – the “Sami” for short – an award for individuals who have courageously resisted censorship and stood for the principles of the First Amendment. Why do we do this? Because we get the future that we praise today. We are pleased to announce one of 2027’s honorees: Gad Saad, professor, evolutionary behavioral scientist, and author of the new best-selling book “Suicidal Empathy: Dying to Be Kind.” Gad, originally from Lebanon, is a long-time Canadian professor, having taught at...

The “Dumbocrats” Narrative A long list of prominent conservatives have referred to leftists and Democrats as dumb, stupid, incompetent, crazy, and insane. In 2007, Ann Coulter wrote the book “If Democrats Had Any Brains, They’d Be Republicans.” Both Rush Limbaugh and President Trump regularly referred to Democrats as “Dumbocrats.” More recently, the leader of the House Freedom Caucus called Democrats “the crazy party,” and JD Vance framed the contrast between the parties as “common sense vs. crazy.” Matt Margolis titled a piece...

Washington rarely agrees on much. But the Chinese Communist Party’s infiltration of American infrastructure has a way of focusing minds, Republican and Democrat alike. The bipartisan consensus that is forming on Capitol Hill around the risks posed by Chinese ownership and control is overdue, but welcome. The CCP’s strategy is never to confront the United States head-on. Beijing is too smart for that. Instead, they take the patient route: embedding themselves in our commercial ecosystem, our technology supply chains, and our critical infrastructure over years and decades. By the...