Author: Jonah Goldberg

Is the Iraq war to blame for the mess we are in? Now, I should qualify that question by explaining “mess” and “we.” By “mess,” I mean the dawn of Barack Obama’s second term, the predictably catastrophic rollout of Obamacare, the exploding debt and deficit, the stimulus boondoggles, etc. By “we,” I mean conservatives (particularly […]

Almost exactly 20 years ago, Barbara Dafoe Whitehead wrote a controversial essay for The Atlantic titled “Dan Quayle Was Right.” In case you forgot (or never knew), let me fill you in on what Quayle was right about. There once was a popular sitcom called “Murphy Brown.” The title character, played by Candice Bergen, was […]

Just because things can be put on the same list doesn’t mean they are necessarily similar. My attic contains within it thousands of comic books, an inflatable bed, some jigsaw puzzles, some family pictures and a “Frampton Comes Alive!” album. These things are, roughly speaking, in the same location, but they’re hardly of equal value, […]

“At CPAC, the Future Looks Libertarian,” read a dispatch on Time magazine’s website. “CPAC: Rand Paul’s Big Moment,” proclaimed The Week magazine. Meanwhile, the New York Times headlined its story about the annual conservative political action conference “GOP divisions fester at conservative retreat.” George Will, a man who actually knows a thing or two about […]

While many have long seen America as the global bad boy, everybody likes Canada. If Uncle Sam tucks his pack of Marlboros under his T-shirt sleeve and plays by his own rules, the Canadian moose — or whatever their Uncle Sam equivalent is — always wears his blue blazer and school tie and does his […]

I hope I’m not too late to the fight. Last week, freshman Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) held an old-fashioned filibuster against the nomination of John Brennan to head the CIA. Paul’s stated reason for taking to the floor and talking for 13 hours was that the Obama administration wouldn’t give him a straight answer on […]

One thing nearly everybody agrees upon is that the “sequester” is a silly sideshow to the real challenge facing America: unsustainable spending on entitlements. Ironies abound. Democrats, with large support from young people, tend to believe that we must build on the legacy bequeathed to us by the New Deal and the Great Society. Republicans, […]

“What we’ve learned through the course of this program is that this is really not a sensible way for the health care system to be run.” That was Gary Cohen, director of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight. He was talking about the apparently surprising need to […]

What can you do with a man like Chris Christie? The answer, according to many with the conservative movement: Throw him overboard. And while we’re at it, let’s toss the gays over the side too. The popular governor of New Jersey has certainly angered many conservatives, including this humble scribe. During the crucial final days […]

I can only hope that the scourge of racism is finally purged from Stewartstown and Pinkham’s Grant. These are two of 10 New Hampshire towns covered by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which requires local officials to get permission, or “preclearance,” on any changes to their election laws. Stewartstown has just […]

We are just days away from a cataclysm of biblical proportions. The cuts foretold in the Budget Control Act of 2011 are young as far as prophecies go, but apparently they are every bit as terrifying as rivers of blood and plagues of locusts. Any day now we can expect White House spokesman Jay Carney […]

Amid the umpteen conferences, panels, meetings and informal conversations in the wake of the presidential election, this idea has been a near constant among conservatives who feel like the country is slipping through their fingers. Mitt Romney and the Republican National Committee combined raised just more than $1 billion, and all we got are these […]

One of the great things about American politics is its capacity for punishing hubris. For the ancient Greeks, hubris didn’t merely describe god-like arrogance. It was a crime, usually defined as taking too much pleasure in the humiliation of your foes. In its modern usage it usually means the pride that comes before the fall. […]

In an earlier era, Dr. Benjamin Carson’s speech before the National Prayer Breakfast last week would have been a really big deal rather than mere fodder for a brief squall on Twitter and cable news. Born in crushing poverty to an illiterate single mother dedicated to seeing her children succeed, Carson became the head of […]

Ever since Mitt Romney lost the presidential election, there’s been a lot of talk about how the Republican Party needs to “rebrand” itself. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal wants, among other things, for the GOP to stop being “the stupid party.” Rep. Paul Ryan has concluded that the watchword for the Republican Party needs to be […]

Not long after President Obama proclaimed in his second inaugural that “an economic recovery has begun,” we learned that the U.S. economy actually shrank in the last quarter. Many economists believe this is a temporary setback. This recovery may be the weakest in American history, but the economy isn’t cratering either. Still, you can bet […]

The Republicans are doomed. Conservatism is over. President Obama is conducting a mop-up operation at this point. That’s the basic consensus in places like New York City, Washington, D.C., and other citadels of blue America. And let’s be fair, liberals have every reason to gloat — a little. The GOP has its troubles. Long-term demographic […]

What if, during the presidential campaign, Mitt Romney had accused President Obama of wanting to let servicewomen serve in combat? After all, Obama had hinted as much in 2008. What would Obama’s response have been? My hunch is that he would have accused Romney of practicing the “politics of division” or some such and denied […]

A lot of people in Washington apparently forgot how good Hillary Clinton is at not telling the truth. Wednesday, in her testimony before both the Senate and, later, the House, Clinton brilliantly fudged, dodged and filibustered. Of course, she’s a pro. Clinton was slow-walking depositions, lawyering up and shifting blame when many of her questioners […]

Dear Socially Liberal Fiscal Conservative Friend, That’s pretty toothy, so I’m going to call you Bob. But whatever specific name you go by, Bob, you know who you are. You’re the sort of person who says to his conservative friends or co-workers something like, “I would totally vote for Republicans if they could just give […]

It’s hard for a lot of people, particularly on the right, to recognize that the conservative movement’s problems are mostly problems of success. The Republican Party’s problems are much more recognizable as the problems of failure, including the failure to recognize the limits of that movement’s success. American conservatism began as a kind of intellectual […]

“As the president said, if your actions result in only saving one life, they’re worth taking,” Vice President Joe Biden declared on Wednesday as he previewed what his commission on gun violence might actually do. “There are executive orders, there’s executive action that can be taken. We haven’t decided what that is yet. But we’re […]

It’s official. President Obama has named former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) as his nominee for secretary of defense. Hence, we may be in store for the worst defense secretary nomination fight since George H.W. Bush’s failed appointment of Sen. John Tower (R-Texas) more than 20 years ago. The interesting question is, why? Why waste the […]

By all accounts, President Obama won the fiscal cliff showdown. Why anyone would take much pride in this kind of “win” is beyond me. It’s a bit like being the least filthy toddler in the mud pit. One of the main reasons Obama won, according not only to Obama but an at times cheering press, […]

One of my New Year’s resolutions is to work harder to persuade ideological friends and foes alike that the way to reduce partisanship and maximize happiness in America is to embrace federalism — the view that we should push as many decisions as possible to the lowest local level feasible. Federalism reduces partisanship by shrinking […]

When will liberals stop living in the past? Specifically, when will they accept that they aren’t all that stands between a wonderful, tolerant America and Jim Crow? I was in the room when, during the Democratic convention, civil rights hero John Lewis suggested that Republicans wanted to “go back” to the days when black men […]

On Friday, in his moving and heartfelt statement in response to the horrific shooting in Newtown, Conn., President Obama said, “As a country, we have been through this too many times. … And we’re going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics.” There’s […]

To understand why Republicans have a “branding problem,” you first need to understand how the system is rigged against conservatives. Such is the schizophrenic dysfunction of our politics: We constantly demand “conviction” politicians who will “do what’s right” and then condemn them, often in the same breath, for being unwilling to put aside their conviction […]

In the scramble to make the GOP more diverse, a lot of people are looking at Asian Americans, whom many believe are a natural constituency for the party. I would love it if Asian Americans converted en masse to the Republican Party, but the challenge for Republicans is harder than many appreciate. President Obama did […]

When, at long last, will people understand that the left is boring? The question came to mind as I was dipping in and out of Oliver Stone’s miasmic 700-plus-page tome. I’ll never read the whole thing, and not because it’s a left-wing screed full of slimy distortions about the evils of the United States (though […]