Remember when Joe Biden ran for president in what commentators called the "centrist" lane of the Democratic primaries? The idea was that a "moderate" like Biden, unlike rival Bernie Sanders, would not push radical plans to completely change American society. That would reassure non-progressive Democrats, and independents, too, that…

The Washington, D.C.-based Federal Bureau of Investigation has lost all credibility as a disinterested investigatory agency. Now we learn from a whistleblower that the agency was allegedly investigating moms and dads worried about the teaching of critical race theory in their kids' schools. In truth, since 2015, the FBI has been constantly in the…

President Joe Biden's plunging public approval rating isn't his problem. It is a reflection of his problem.  Biden held a big ceremony this week to sign the bipartisan infrastructure bill, the $1.2 trillion measure passed after months of wrangling in Congress. The public is well aware of it. And yet, in a new Washington Post poll, taken after…

"History will figure that out on its own." That is what Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) recently replied to Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. In a heated congressional exchange, Fauci derided the idea that the COVID-19 pandemic was due to the leak of a dangerous virus, engineered in the Chinese…

President Joe Biden returned the morning of Nov. 3 to a nation that no longer supports him or his party.  Virginia, which he carried 55% to 44% in 2020, has elected Republican Glenn Youngkin as governor, Republicans for lieutenant governor and attorney general, and recaptured a majority in the House of Delegates. Even more startlingly, in New…

There's been a lot of attention paid to President Joe Biden's falling job approval rating. And it is indeed going down, down, down. But along with confidence in the president, the public is also losing faith in the Democratic Party's ability to handle the issues that most concern voters today. It's been a long fall for both Biden and his party since…

In a controversial passage in Plato's "Republic," Socrates introduced the idea of the "noble lie" ("gennaios pseudos"). A majestic fiction, he says, could sometimes serve society by persuading uninformed citizens of something good for them. Ever since, many prevaricators have used the excuse that they lied for the common…

Democrats used to be the party of working people. Now, they sneer at people who work hard.  Democrats pushing to pass the Build Back Better bill want a single parent with two kids to be able to take home well over $31,000 in cash and noncash federal benefits a year, tax-free, without having to work. The handouts are even higher in states that…

More destructive than any specific policy item modern Democrats are pushing this year are the ideas they use to justify their agenda.  The $3.5 trillion bill that President Joe Biden and Democrats are now attempting to cram through Congress via reconciliation is meant to create a European-style cradle-to-grave welfare state here in the United…

Sheer chaos and anarchy on the border? Afghanistan – the most humiliating defeat in recent U.S. military history? A labor-starved supply chain in shambles and holiday shelves emptying out? The worst inflation in 30 years that seems soon ready to match Carter-era levels? Gas hitting $5 a gallon with winter heating fuels soaring?…

The disgraced former British spy Christopher Steele has kept a low profile in recent years. Understandably so, given that investigations revealed his dossier – the collection of anti-Trump stories he compiled to try to undermine Donald Trump's 2016 presidential candidacy – was filled with falsehoods and unverifiable…

Less than one year into his tenure, Joe Biden has already demonstrated a masterful reverse-Midas touch by driving public trust in government to unprecedented lows.   That creates a calamitous paradox for a man whose entire tax-and-spend agenda depends upon boosting government trust, not eradicating it.   Conversely, that dynamic…

In A.D. 286 the Roman emperor Diocletian split in half the huge Roman Empire administratively – and peacefully – under the control of two emperors. A Western empire included much of modern-day Western Europe and northwest Africa. The Eastern half controlled Eastern Europe and parts of Asia and northeastern Africa.…

It has become common in some circles to call the Jan. 6 Capitol riot an "armed insurrection." That leads to a few questions: How many rioters were armed? And what weapons did they have? What were the arms in the "armed insurrection"? The Justice Department maintains a website listing the defendants and the federal charges against…

Only a little more than half of the current world's 7 billion people are citizens of fully consensual governments. That lucky 50 percent alone enjoys constitutionally protected freedoms. Most are also Western. Or at least they reside in nations that have become "Westernized." Migrants, regardless of their race, religion or gender, almost…

Democrats are quarreling over the price tag of their Build Back Better bill, but the real problem is what's in it. The bill coerces workers to join unions, imposes racial preferences on every facet of life and redistributes money from workers to takers.  Fortunately, this bill is in limbo. Moderate Democrats such as Sen. Joe Manchin insist the…

Remember the media cheers for Sen. John McCain when he stopped the effort to repeal Obamacare? McCain was a Republican frustrating a Republican policy goal, which was enough to earn the highest praise in some media circles. "It was a stunning moment," The New York Times reported, "a flash of the maverick John McCain, unafraid of going…

There was a time not very long ago when political parties never would have entertained the idea of jamming through any massive, generational reform without some form of buy-in from the other party.  Today, Democrats argue that the filibuster's imaginary threat of "minority rule" has compelled them to use (really, abuse) the budgetary…

Remember when President Joe Biden stunned the political world by threatening to veto a bipartisan $1.1 trillion traditional infrastructure spending bill that he, Joe Biden, had just encouraged the Senate to pass? It was a bizarre moment, but Biden was accommodating House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who planned to use the bipartisan bill as a hostage to force…

Deterrence is the ancient ability to scare somebody off from hurting you, your friends or your interests – without a major war. Desire peace? Then be prepared for war. Or so the Romans believed. It's an easily understood concept in the abstract. But deterrence still remains a mystical quality in the concrete since it is only acquired…

President Joe Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer have based the future of the entire Democratic agenda on a trick. And now many Democrats are increasingly concerned – terrified, actually – that the trick won't work. Democrats have huge New Deal- and Great Society-style ambitions…

The scientific method used to govern much of popular American thinking. In empirical fashion, scientists advised us to examine evidence and data, and then by induction come to rational hypotheses. The enemies of "science" were politics, superstition, bias and deduction. Yet we are now returning to our version of medieval alchemy and astrology…

Two leading House Republicans, Reps. Steve Scalise and James Comer, are asking the Food and Drug Administration for documents that might relate to GOP suspicions that President Joe Biden has politicized the process of administering vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a letter to FDA Acting Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock, Scalise and Comer point…

Joe Biden’s catastrophic mismanagement in Afghanistan shouldn’t surprise anyone.  It merely extends his five decades of uninterrupted stubborn, curiously arrogant incompetence.   Consider the assessment of former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, which by now has become familiar to many Americans, but which nevertheless bears…

California once was run by conservatives and mostly centrist Democrats. True paleo-liberal governors like Pat Brown greatly expanded the welfare state. But they also believed in pushing integration and building freeways, dams, aqueducts and power plants, while preventing forest fires, directing the mentally ill into state hospitals, and ensuring that…

China's leaders must be trading high-fives as they watch the American left push policies that will cripple American competitiveness.  While China is cracking down on students wasting time on video games, America's racial equity warriors are trying to ban advanced placement math, competitive entrance exams and school honor rolls. Americans don…

It is the beginning of a never-ending bad dream. Joe Biden and the Pentagon have managed to birth a new terrorist haven, destroy much of U.S. strategic deterrence, and alienate our allies and much of the country. In the hours after the horrific deaths of 13 service members, we have been reassured by our military that our partnership with the Taliban…

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a guide last week for "Inclusive Communication," cautioning against using words like prisoner, smoker, illegal immigrant, disabled or homeless, which the agency says could imply blame or stigma.  The guide's opening line says, "We must confront the systems and policies that…

The casualties of Joe Biden’s incompetent Afghanistan debacle extend far beyond that nation’s borders.   Just seven months into his presidency, Biden’s ability to lead has evaporated both at home and overseas.  In terms of public trust, his approval rating has collapsed to 41% in a matter of days, and continues its…

For nearly two years, Americans have engaged in a great woke experiment of cannibalizing themselves. American civilization has invested massive labor, capital and time in an effort to constantly flagellate itself for not being perfect. Yet America's resilience and its resources are not infinite. We are now beginning to see the consequences of what…