Author: Mona Charen

I first became aware of Donald Trump when he chose to make cheating on his first wife front-page news. It was the early ’90s. Donald and Ivana Trump broke up over the course of months. Not that divorce is shocking, mind you; among the glitterati marriage seems more unusual. Nor is infidelity exactly novel. But […]

“I trust in the good judgment of the American people.” So said a radio host I admire (not one of the screamers) about six months ago when the rise of Trump was still notional. At this moment, looking at both parties, you have to ask whether judgment is being applied at all or whether we’re […]

“Burn it down.” That’s the slogan of faux conservatives who now rejoice that the Republican Party is being smashed by a slick, howlingly transparent grifter. The urge to destroy has a kind of pornographic appeal to a certain personality — but it’s a shock to find it so widespread. The Republican Party is choosing an […]

Mitt Romney made a compelling and urgent case for why the Republican Party’s soul is at stake in this election cycle. And speaking of Romney, his experience in 2012 illustrates why those who are shrugging that it is too late to stop Donald Trump are mistaken. Attempting to stop Trump is not some underhand effort […]

The latest CBS poll suggests that the Donald Trump juggernaut continues to roll, with 35 percent of Republicans supporting him. Ted Cruz, his nearest rival, garners 18 percent. Jeb Bush, the candidate who should have been the obvious choice if conventional wisdom about money and politics was even remotely true, is dead last with 4 […]

As the results of New Hampshire’s primary were coming in Tuesday night, some commentators on Twitter were jubilant about the “disruption”: that is, the victories of an inane socialist demagogue and a foul-mouthed nationalist demagogue and what they represented to the “establishment.” Yes, mobs are disruptive. Madame Defarge enjoyed a good shakeup herself. Sen. Bernie […]

Dear Gov. Bush: There are many ways to express your love of country. One is to serve as president. In your case, that path seems closed. Since April, you spent the better part of $15 million in Iowa, yet you came sixth, winning just 2.8 percent of the vote and one delegate. At this rate, […]

What is a political party? By the intensity of internecine conflict among Republicans, you might conclude that it’s a church. Sen. Ted Cruz is among the leading voices of a faction that wants to treat the Republican Party as a confession — singing to the choir, denouncing heretics and damning sinners to hell. This appears […]

A new movie that touches upon the election prospects of one female candidate for president debuts this week. Will “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi” provoke thousands of angry viewers to march on Hillary Clinton’s home with torchlights and pitchforks? Doubtful. The film is somewhat oblique. Hillary Clinton’s name is not mentioned. The infamous […]

At a time and day — 8:30 a.m. on a Saturday — when most Americans are sleeping in, the Kemp Forum on Expanding Opportunity convened in the capacious Columbia, South Carolina, convention center. Even at 8:15, it was tough to find a seat. South Carolina’s important primary is Feb. 20, and doubtless some of the […]

Are you opposed to “common sense” gun laws? These are what liberals like Hillary Clinton are always proclaiming their support for. In their telling, expanding background checks, closing the “gun show loophole,” and restricting Internet sales will, in the words of liberal columnist E.J. Dionne, “(limit) the carnage on our streets, in our schools and […]

About 15 years ago, on Christmas Eve, our family departed from the traditional American Jewish observance of the holiday (ordering Chinese takeout) and elected to find an open restaurant. We drove to the local city center (or what passes for it in suburbia) and were stunned to find that not only were all of the […]

In December 2011, the candidate who led in the Iowa polls was not Rick Santorum (who ultimately squeaked out a victory there), nor Michelle Bachmann (who had driven Gov. Tim Pawlenty from the race by winning the Iowa straw poll earlier in the year), nor Mitt Romney. No, the leader was Ron Paul, with 23 […]

There are few more repugnant spectacles among the liberal elites of this country than the festival of smugness that follows any comment by a conservative public figure that can be twisted into a racial slight. This week it is Justice Antonin Scalia’s turn. In an oral argument over affirmative action, Scalia said: “There are those […]

The dictionary defines “bogeyman” as “an imaginary evil spirit, referred to typically to frighten children.” Hello, Donald Trump. It’s not clear whether he set out intentionally to elect Hillary Clinton, but there is little question that he could not be fulfilling the role of Republican bogeyman to greater effect. As Commentary’s Jonathan Tobin noted, during […]

In the aftermath of Paris and before San Bernardino, Hillary Clinton articulated the forced catechism of the left: “Let’s be clear: Islam is not our adversary. Muslims are peaceful and tolerant people and have nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism.” What happens when a major political party becomes so wedded to political correctness that it […]

“Who is happy?” asks a sage in the great Jewish wisdom compendium “Sayings of the Fathers.” Answer: “He who is contented with his lot.” And how, this Thanksgiving Day, do you acquire contentment when you are constantly barraged with evidence that others have more beautiful possessions or are better looking, more talented, healthier, more admired, […]

Throughout the last third of George W. Bush’s presidency, opinion leaders were obsessed with the question of mistakes. Among most members of the press and among Democratic officeholders (even, or perhaps especially, those who voted to approve the Iraq War), the appetite was strong to hold President Bush in a half nelson until he admitted […]

There was a much-beloved quote circulated among leftists, often attributed to Sinclair Lewis, that “when fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” In light of recent episodes of mob action on American campuses, the quote needs updating: When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in […]

“My mother was a smoker,” Chris Christie told a New Hampshire audience in a video that has gone viral. Though she tried everything — gum, patches, hypnosis — nothing worked. When she was diagnosed with cancer, he continued, “No one came to me and said, ‘Don’t treat her, (because) she got what she deserved.’ No […]

Jeb Bush’s campaign may be mortally wounded. Limping in the polls despite his massive war chest, he stooped (almost literally if you check the body language) to attacking Marco Rubio in an attempt to revive his fortunes. Rubio’s response, suggesting that Bush had been “told” to attack him, seemed like a bull’s-eye. Jeb Bush is […]

“It’s about what these women will let guys get away with.” You may not expect to hear commentary like that at your garden-variety think tank panel discussion, but it got pretty lively at the American Enterprise Institute discussion on the topic “Do Healthy Families Affect the Wealth of States?” Megan McArdle of Bloomberg View is […]

Think of today’s Democratic Party as the little village of Hamelin. A piper called Bernie Sanders toots his socialist tune, and all the little Democrats skip along behind him to … where exactly? According to the medieval legend, the Pied Piper of Hamelin led the children away and drowned them. “Socialist” was once an epithet […]

The Justice Department has announced that it will begin releasing 6,000 “nonviolent” inmates from federal prisons starting at the end of this month. Welcome to the era of de-incarceration. At a conference named for former New York Mayor David Dinkins (who presided over the city at a time of runaway crime), Hillary Clinton decried the […]

The bride, Edda, was 20, glamorous and well connected. The groom came from a prominent family. Their wedding was Italy’s social event of the year in 1930. If the occasion was marred in any way, it was through the inability of the bride’s father to part gracefully with his first-born daughter. He was so distraught […]

Dear Republican Members of Congress: Consider this an intervention. You guys do not understand how to hold a decent hearing. Hillary Clinton danced away from your Benghazi questions like Muhammad Ali. Your threats to hold more hearings on Planned Parenthood and Benghazi are about as frightening as President Obama’s warnings to Vladimir Putin that “doubling […]

“A pope that mentions Dorothy Day is a pope that rocks,” tweeted Neera Tanden of the left-leaning Center for American Progress. Tanden might have wished to reel back that praise if she had known that Day, though a prominent pacifist and socialist, was also a fervent opponent of abortion, birth control, Social Security and the […]

The question dogs any woman who writes about politics: “Don’t you want to see the first woman elected president of the United States?” The unstated premise, always obvious, is that you are some sort of traitor to your sex if your hand isn’t itching to pull the lever for someone with the correct chromosomes. My […]

The Democratic Party has been weak-minded on defense for decades, but with the Iran capitulation, they’ve achieved a new threshold of cowardice and treachery. While it’s true that an honorable handful of Democrats have resisted the president’s pressure, the overwhelming majority have chosen to go over the cliff with Barack Obama, a president who never […]