Author: Jonah Goldberg

Friedrich Nietzsche, that great sage of despair, asked, “What if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: ‘This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be […]

Conversations! Glorious conversations! What more can you ask for? The other day, former CBS News darling Katie Couric was speaking at an event organized by something called “TheWrap.” Specifically, at its “Power Women Breakfast” in New York. (That is exactly the kind of event I’d expect Couric to be at, and I don’t even know […]

Paul Ryan is a disappointment. That’s more difficult for me to write than it should be. My approach to politicians has generally been similar to that of lab researchers to their test animals: Do not get too attached. For scientists, it’s a lot easier to stick a guinea pig with a needle if you know […]

In these days of news cycles measured in minutes, if not seconds, the Katie Couric scandal may seem almost as stale as Katie Couric herself. But bear with me. It’s a big deal, and not just because she lied. But let’s begin with the lie. Serving as host and executive producer for an anti-gun “news” […]

Perhaps it’s time to bring back the American Liberty League. Forgotten by everyone save a few history buffs, primarily on the libertarian right and the Marxist left, the League was formed early in Franklin Roosevelt’s first term by John Jakob Raskob, a former head of the Democratic Party. Its leadership comprised mostly conservative small-government Democrats, […]

The State Department’s inspector general released a report this week concluding that Hillary Clinton is a breathtakingly brazen and consistent liar. No, that’s not a direct quote. Bureaucrats don’t talk that way under the best of circumstances — and this IG, Steve Linick, is an Obama appointee whose report is about the apparent Democratic nominee […]

Could Bernie Sanders put Mitt Romney in the White House? I haven’t gotten my 2012 and 2016 wires crossed; I have a theory that’s slightly more realistic than a Donald Trump presidency seemed a year ago. As it stands now, it seems almost inconceivable that Sanders could become the Democratic nominee — unless the FBI […]

The left has long claimed that it has something of a monopoly on scientific expertise. For instance, long before Al Gore started making millions by claiming that anyone who disagreed with his apocalyptic prophecies was “anti-science,” there were the “scientific socialists.” “Social engineer” is now rightly seen as a term of scorn and derision, but […]

Sell your Adam Smith ties, everybody, and smash your busts of Ronald Reagan. It’s all over. Why? Because we have entered a new era of “nationalism,” or “patriotism,” or simply “Trumpism,” and the GOP will never be a traditionally and ideologically conservative party ever again. That seems to be the conclusion of a vast and […]

Socialism is having a moment. I’m not just referring to Bernie Sanders’ surprisingly strong showing in the Democratic primaries. Various polls show that millennials have a more favorable view of socialism than of capitalism. And millennials generally are the only age group that views socialism more favorably than unfavorably. Some conservatives aren’t surprised. Schools have […]

“Let no one be mistaken: Donald Trump’s candidacy is a cancer on conservatism, and it must be clearly diagnosed, excised and discarded,” former Texas Gov. Rick Perry declared 10 months ago. Trump’s candidacy, Perry added, represents “a toxic mix of demagoguery and mean-spiritedness and nonsense that will lead the Republican Party to perdition if pursued.” […]

By conventional rules, Donald Trump should lose to Hillary Clinton in a landslide. But if God were enforcing the conventional rules, Trump would be brooding atop his midtown Manhattan aerie, wondering how he came in last behind James Gilmore. This has to terrify Clinton. She knows how to run against a normal Republican. Unfortunately for […]

Nationalism and socialism are in full gallop in America today while conservatives are without a horse. Donald Trump almost never uses the language of traditional American conservatism, with its emphasis on classically liberal notions of limited government, constitutionalism, individualism and free trade. He prefers to talk about “strength” and “winning” while vowing to restore the […]

Like most people, I never paid much attention to Ed Schultz. A loud, bullying, meaty man in the even meatier middle of the distribution when it comes to smarts, Schultz was your classic “lunch pail populist” as host of MSNBC’s “The Ed Show.” During his six-year run on the network, I don’t think anyone ever […]

Someone slap a photo of Mike Pence on a milk carton. The Indiana governor may not have been abducted, but he’s certainly missing in action on the central question facing the Republican Party: Are you with Trump, or against him? Pence is hardly alone on the sidelines, of course. But the crowd of wet-fingered politicians […]

What are political conventions for? If you’ve ever been to one, you might think the purpose is for attendees to schmooze, drink and drink some more. That holds true for both the delegates and the journalists who usually outnumber them by at least 3-to-1. But that’s not actually why political conventions exist. They’re sort of […]

Much has been written about the ignorance, impracticality and offensiveness of many of the Republican front-runners’ policy proposals. Not nearly enough has been written about the ignorance, impracticality and offensiveness of the policy proposals emanating from the Democratic side, some of which, unlike Donald Trump’s Mexican-financed wall and Muslim ban, could actually become law. Consider […]

Maybe the makers of “The Big Bang Theory” don’t watch “Meet the Press.” Hillary Clinton got into a bit of trouble earlier this month when she told “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd that “the unborn person doesn’t have constitutional rights.” Clinton was merely noting that some restrictions on abortions are permitted under the law. […]

I wouldn’t say that the GOP is falling in love with Ted Cruz, but maybe it’s falling in like. In arguably the most improbable political season of our lifetimes, this fact has to rank high on the list of things no one could have seen coming. If they gave out report cards for first-term senators, […]

There was an old “Saturday Night Live” fake movie trailer narrated by horror movie veteran Christopher Lee. John Belushi played a houseguest who couldn’t take a hint from a couple that just wanted to go to bed. The husband tells Belushi, “Look, I don’t want to be rude, but my wife is VERY tired!” Belushi […]

With apologies to Buffalo Springfield, there’s something happening here. What it is ain’t exactly clear. Here’s Bill Clinton in Spokane, Washington, making the pitch for his wife last week: “But if you believe we can all rise together, if you believe we’ve finally come to the point where we can put the awful legacy of […]

How can Donald Trump be stopped? For months, conservatives have debated what Trump represents and whether they can or should support him. While millions of voters still have time to make their choice (and still need to be informed about his baleful record), among those pundits, politicians, activists, donors and strategists who’ve been hashing this […]

“Ronald Reagan is dead, and he’s not coming back.” “I wish more conservatives could come to grips with this relatively simple fact. We are now in something like the fifth round of the pin-the-tail-on-the-next-Reagan game and it’s getting old. Catering to the conservative base, the GOP presidential candidates keep trying to put on the Reagan […]

Nominating Donald Trump will wreck the Republican Party as we know it. Not nominating Trump will wreck the Republican Party as we know it. The sooner everyone recognizes this fact, the better. Denial has been Trump’s greatest ally. Republicans and commentators didn’t believe he would run. They didn’t believe he could be an attractive candidate […]

Given the rancor and turmoil inside the GOP these days, even a bitter, partisan, hammer-and-tongs battle to the death over a Supreme Court justice seems almost quaint by comparison. The Republican-controlled Senate, which is empowered by the Constitution to offer both advice and consent to the president’s judicial nominees, has offered the following advice: Not […]

For the last few days the burning question among pundits has been: “How much blame does Donald Trump deserve for the violence at his rallies?” It’s a fair question, and the obvious answer is: a lot. On Sunday, the demagogue paid his usual lip service to social norms, rejecting “violence in any shape.” He then […]

The so-called Republican establishment is coming to the painful realization that Texas Sen. Ted Cruz may be its only hope to block Donald Trump from winning the nomination and Hillary Clinton from winning the White House. It’s not assured, of course. There are as many theories on how to emerge from this year’s Republican convention […]

What a short, strange trip it’s been for Donald Trump’s conservative supporters. Ever since the Goldwaterite takeover of the GOP, the party has tried to convert voters to conservatism. This orientation has sometimes led it to follow a “better to be right and lose” axiom — hence Goldwater’s disastrous defeat in 1964. Now we seem […]

When losing to the star of a reality TV show, is it really so crazy to resort to reality-show tactics to defeat him? I’m not referring to Marco Rubio’s decision to fight fire with fire with Donald Trump and return insult for insult. I, for one, thought it was wholly appropriate for Rubio to give […]