RealClearPolitics Articles

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...

Sen. Susan Collins represents an exceptional element in American politics: a true moderate who has outlasted her opponents and angered both political extremes in an increasingly partisan environment. Enough voters who otherwise support Democrats regularly elect Collins, allowing the GOP to hold a seat that would otherwise be unattainable. I made this argument after her shock 2020 victory, and the contrast between her and the political fringes is even more clear today. Voters actually like moderation and sanity. For LGBT Americans like me, nothing is more indicative of Collins’ ability...

To an expanding chorus of intensely antisemitic zealots, just 16 to 20 million Jews – roughly 0.2% of the world’s population – are behind almost all of the world’s evils. Jews have uniquely been the targets of this irrational invective for centuries. The hatred is raw and ignorant. It needs no logic or evidence. It just hates. Zohran Mamdani, mayor of the city with the world’s largest Jewish population, revoked orders that barred city agencies from boycotting Israel or engaging in antisemitic acts, terminated the respected head of his antisemitism office, and...

Boulder, Colorado, has spent decades wearing a nickname most towns would take as an insult: “The People's Republic of Boulder.” It’s a college town of roughly 100,000 people, where the politics climb about as high as … the elevation. But now Boulder wants to export its “Rocky Mountain High,” and it’s headed to the Supreme Court. At stake before SCOTUS is whether that town gets to set energy policy for the rest of America. That’s the real question in Suncor Energy Inc. v. County Commissioners of Boulder County, no matter how carefully supporters...

Democrats are nothing if not exceedingly inventive in their efforts to retain or regain power – up to and including pretending they aren’t Democrats at all. Of course, it’s not unusual for Democrats to back away from the more extreme examples of their party’s extremism such as Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed. His embrace by the even more extreme Hasan Piker, for instance, resulted in some Democratic politicians withholding their endorsement. Likewise, candidates in closely contested House races are shying away from inviting Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from...

The Supreme Court returns from recess Monday with a case that pits the fossil fuel industry against the public’s right to seek compensation for the widening toll of storms, drought, wildfires, and other disasters made worst by climate change. The court’s ruling in Suncor Energy Inc. v. County Commissioners of Boulder County could shape the ability of state and local governments to win restitution for expenses that threaten to overwhelm their capacity to cope with mounting climate costs and threats. On one side is the city and county of Boulder, Colorado. They have sued in state...

It’s seldom recalled these days, but when it is, the 1936 presidential election is best known for a stunning polling failure. Based on its massive mail-in survey, the Literary Digest magazine – the most accurate pollster of the time – predicted President Franklin Roosevelt would lose to Republican challenger Alf Landon. It didn’t turn out that way. Roosevelt swept to reelection and the Literary Digest, which erred by almost 20 points in predicting Landon’s victory, never conducted another poll. It remains a testament to election polling gone bad. Ninety years on,...

Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden was not required to pay a fine to the Senate Ethics Committee after disclosing a six-figure stock transaction made on behalf of his wife 465 days after it took place, according to his office. Federal law requires such transactions to be disclosed within 45 days. The transaction, listed as taking place April 30, 2025, appears to have been an exchange of stock tied to the merger of packaging companies Amcor plc and Berry Global, Politico Influence reported. Wyden disclosed it in a periodic transaction report filed Aug. 8, 2026. Wyden spokesperson Hank Stern told...

For the Republican Party, it’s not just Houston; it may be Dallas and the rest of Texas as well. Iowa, too. And maybe Ohio. New horserace surveys by the Fox News Poll continue to show tight Senate races in states Republicans took for granted when the 2026 election cycle began. In the Lone Star State, according the Fox poll, it may be getting worse. In July, Fox had Democrat James Talarico leading Republican state Attorney General Ken Paxton among registered voters by 3 percentage points. The latest survey, released Thursday at 6 p.m., has Talarico’s leading widening to 7 points...

Who knew we were so brave? Back in the 1950s and 1960s, Americans were freaking out over the threat of thermonuclear war. Books, newspapers, movies, TV shows, and songs warned of the grave threat, inspiring millions to take to the streets to demand peace and sanity. Suburbanites built bomb shelters in their backyards and taught kids to duck and cover under school desks if the A-bombs were coming – really! No cowering for us in the face of news accounts saying there’s a 10% chance AI will kill us all in a decade. We give, instead, an Alfred E. Newman shrug. What, me worry? Our...