Politics

The president can’t save an industry he doesn’t understand

One of every seven pickups sold in the U.S. is diesel—for good reason.

The astonishing resilience of the Department of Justice.

At a congressional hearing this week, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) asked an irate and not entirely comprehensible question about his granddaughter’s iPhone. The only problem, as the tech exec who was the hearing’s sole witness explained, is that iPhones are made by Apple but the tech exec was the CEO…

Not for the first time, Americans appear to be slightly confused about events in France. The mass demonstrations that began as a protest against President Emmanuel Macron’s “climate-change” taxes gave comfort to conservatives here, and not without reason. The new levies on gasoline and diesel…

The hot cause right now is prison reform, and even lots of conservatives are on board. The Heritage Foundation put out an article with this title: “How This Criminal Justice Reform Bill Could Make Our Neighborhoods Safer.” My reaction: Have supporters of the bipartisan reform bill now before the…

In most of the European Union, when the authorities hold a plebiscite and don’t get the result they want, they hold another, and another, until the voters see it their way. The English tradition holds democracy in greater esteem than that. Or at least it used to, before the Brexit mess.

The Scrapbook has had occasion to complain from time to time about the way in which journalists in the mainstream news media use the terms “conservatives” and “Republicans.” “Conservatives” hold this loathsome opinion, they might write, or “Republicans” are doing that bizarre thing, but when you…

New information from the Census Bureau confirms that the Swamp is still the Swamp. Between 2013 and 2017, the five wealthiest areas in America by median income were Loudoun County, Virginia; Fairfax County, Virginia; Howard County, Maryland; Falls Church City, Virginia; and Arlington County,…

New information from the Census Bureau confirms that the Swamp is still the Swamp. Between 2013 and 2017, the five wealthiest areas in America by median income were Loudoun County, Virginia; Fairfax County, Virginia; Howard County, Maryland; Falls Church City, Virginia; and Arlington County,…

The Scrapbook has a weakness for hardcover collections of essays and columns. Not many people like them, judging by how well they sell, but we boast several shelves full of collections by William F. Buckley, Joseph Epstein, George Will, Gertrude Himmelfarb, Christopher Hitchens, and many others.

For two years we’ve watched as highly educated liberals come up with one reason after another for Hillary Clinton’s loss in the 2016 election. Russian trolls and hackers, James Comey’s memo, hopelessness among white opioid addicts, Donald Trump’s sophisticated use of a metaphorical “dog whistle,”…

Donald Trump is frequently faulted, and rightly so, for attempting to take credit for things he had nothing to do with. With Trump, though, you get the feeling it’s the habit of the real-estate mogul and showbiz kingpin talking. He doesn’t actually think (does he?) that the stock market goes up…

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The American left, as we’ve had occasion to remark in these pages before, suffers from a paucity of new ideas. Or maybe it’s truer to say it suffers from a surfeit of old ones. In any case, one old idea making the rounds among Democrats these days goes by the moniker “Medicare for All.” The…

Theresa May retains office but hemorrhages power.

On today's Daily Standard Podcast, frequent contributor Adam J. White joins host Charlie Sykes to discuss the latest with the Mueller probe, Michael Cohen, and the National Enquirer.

In this latest episode, the Substandard discusses the new Avengers trailer, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, and the Netflix gambit. Sonny loves Office Space, JVL shares theories about the Avengers, and Vic shows off his Rainbow Loom bracelet—plus a possible connection between gout and salad?

The outgoing U.N. ambassador sounds a lot like someone running for something.

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

Transcripts.

It's not just for Brett Kavanaugh.

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

The gene editors can’t be trusted to self-regulate.

Politically, Democrats are better off not pursuing impeachment. But they may not have a choice.

High-ranking public officials have resigned for less than what these documents allege.

High-tech dominance won’t be solved with tariffs.

The caravan is overwhelmingly made up of young men looking for work—not women and children.

A recent piece in New York magazine caught our eye: “Michael Avenatti’s Campaign Failed Because Democrats Don’t Want Their Own Trump.” Avenatti, as readers may wish to forget, is the trash-talking attorney and left-wing bad boy who made himself famous by representing the adult film actress Stormy…

How Edwin Meese saved originalism.

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

Elections aren’t immune from the human tendency to bend the rules and cheat.

This is the saga of Jason Lewis. For a quarter-century, the Minnesota congressman was a talk-radio host. He started in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolis and did a spell in Charlotte before returning to the Twin Cities. I was a guest on his show a few times. As best I recall, they were frisky…

To his credit, President Trump rose to the occasion on the death of George H. W. Bush. Among other things, his immediate response—on Twitter, of course—was a generous and eloquent tribute, mindful not only of the late president’s distinction but of his own obligation to the office he now inhabits.…

California’s politicians dream of ecotopia, but fire victims just want to rebuild.

Subsidies and fuel efficiency standards are terrible ways to effect change.

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

Support for a war powers resolution has increased among both parties since March.

The 2020 campaign has begun and Cory Booker is in it to win it.

The 2020 campaign has begun and Cory Booker is in it to win it.

Rand Paul is a grandstanding obstructionist whose chief joy seems to be blocking the few bills on which there is wide agreement.

The president does not seem to understand the difference between democracies and autocracies.

An attempt to think a little more clearly about the Democratic presidential primary.

Hosted by Chris Deaton.

Theresa May’s Brexit deal means the end of sovereignty and democracy.

Trump will struggle to win Michigan again.

Looking back at the performance of TWS’s First Forecast Model

I used to write a fair amount about West Germany and report on the federal elections. Like most American journalists, historians, political analysts, and politicians—and most Germans, for that matter—I could not imagine the collapse of the Soviet empire and the unification of the two Germanies.

Ex-NFL receiver Anthony Gonzalez’s impressive political debut in the suburbs of Cleveland, Akron, and Canton.

George H.W. Bush and the legacy of the Greatest Generation

An intra-Democratic fight over border security portends a power struggle in the upcoming Congress.

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

President Trump is in deeper political trouble than he thinks. And I’m not talking about whatever special counsel Robert Mueller has up his sleeve. Trump has real-life re-election trouble.

A quiet leader, and a good one.

It would make dangerous and violent criminals eligible for early release.

Not by his critics but by his closest advisers.

Did you miss any of these details?

What is 'vote harvesting,' anyhow? And why did Arizona ban it?

On November 25, Russian military forces opened fire on three Ukrainian ships off the coast of Crimea, rammed one of them, and seized all three. The ships were manned by 23 crew members. Ukrainian authorities say between three and six were injured.

Facebook has had many moments of supposed reckoning in recent years. Is this one different?

It’s not his style to let someone else take his platform to victory, which makes his 2020 run all the more likely.

The group comes out against equal treatment before the law.

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The votes counted after Election Day have been rough for the GOP.

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

A recent Washington Post report on the exploding market for school security equipment and services caught our attention. It’s now a $2.7 billion industry, a figure that doesn’t include the millions spent on armed campus security officers. Metal detectors, facial recognition software, pepperball…

The president suggests a new round of tariffs to conceal the damage of the last.

On November 28, Democrats officially nominated Nancy Pelosi to be the next Speaker of the House. No one ran against her; she received 203 yeas against 32 nays. Democrats who vowed during the campaign to vote against the former speaker were always a small group. Their opposition—largely rhetorical,…

The stories we tell ourselves about politics are making America lousy.

Conservatives play an essential role as gatekeepers. Vetting some of the left's perspectives and ideas, even in this polarized environment, could resonate with their base.

Local decisions make for better citizens.

His position seems to cover any bill (or person) imaginable.

Defense Secretary James Mattis and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will deliver a briefing on the conflict Wednesday.

Negotiating with terrorists won’t bring peace to Afghanistan.

Plus, the hero America needs.

New court filing alleging lies to the special counsel comes just ahead of report that Trump’s campaign manager met with Julian Assange in 2016. But there are several possible explanations.

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

The Republican plan to ram through NAFTA 2.0 before the Democrats take over is falling apart.

In 1918, Henry Ford ran for the Senate and lost. Did he concede? Are you kidding?

Federal forest (mis)management is high on the list of reasons.

What happens when the president's son and one of his closest allies spar over criminal justice reform?

Florida counts the number of ways to screw up a machine recount

Plus, when Mission Impossible meets Paddington Bear.

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

Two Republicans decry the nationalization of politics and offer up potentially complementary solutions.

Actually, AOC is a perfectly typical late-20s Millennial. And that's a good thing.

With Gary Hart, political journalists went from covering “the issues” as a public service to servicing the public with prurient material.

The GOP can’t even win in Orange County.

One is hard put to see how a government commissioned to negotiate in good faith for independence could have come up with a deal quite this bad.

Noemie Emery on the year that all the political nightmares came true.

He that hath knowledge spareth his words,” says the biblical proverb. All of us can profit from these words, but perhaps Donald Trump needs to hear them more than most. His helter-skelter, self-exculpatory statement on his administration’s relationship with Saudi Arabia was Trump at his logorrheic…

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Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

An unlikely outcry over a U.K. government architecture committee.

Since most political journalism tends to be wishful thinking, most of the post-midterm analysis this year followed predictable paths.

Personal politics don't work against a movement.

Election Day is still here, people!

Intelligence community has high confidence that Mohammed bin Salman was responsible for the killing.

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

A new report details the U.S. military is ill equipped to meet the threats of the next decade.

Tolerating scoundrels is a bipartisan weakness.

Are you running for president?” For aspiring presidents who haven’t fully committed to running, the question is almost impossible to answer in a way that sounds genuine. “I haven’t given it much thought” means “I’ve been planning to run since I was a teenager but haven’t decided if this is the…

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

Republican Will Hurd will serve a third term.

How to Make America Good Again by challenging Trump.

Stacey Abrams’s contemptible non-concession.

The debate over gun control in America, if “debate” is the right word for it, has become stale and predictable to the point of parody—but a sad, bitter parody, not a funny one. That’s true largely, if we may be permitted to generalize, because the measures gun-control supporters propose after mass…

A university named for George Washington and Robert E. Lee wrestles with its traditions and heritage.

Michael M. Rosen on border barriers and the human future—a review of ‘The Age of Walls’ by Tim Marshall.

Albert Louis Zambone reviews ‘Blue-Collar Conservatism: Frank Rizzo’s Philadelphia and Populist Politics.’

Unless political peace breaks out, the only way Democrats and Republicans can meet interest payments is to let inflation rip, devalue the dollar.

Betsy DeVos can issue new rules, but it’s no guarantee that she can change the cultural climate.

Last week, a group of anti-“fascist” or antifa thugs posted online the home address of Fox News host and former Weekly Standard writer Tucker Carlson. They then gathered outside his Washington residence and terrorized his wife, who was home alone at the time. Maybe these menacing shenanigans were…

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

Let’s be honest: The administration loves having CNN’s White House reporter in the spotlight.

Media love lets AOC punch above her weight class.

It's about 2020, stupid.

In two phone chats after Democrats won the House in the midterm election, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell and likely House speaker Nancy Pelosi broached the subject of bipartisanship—or as McConnell put it, “ways we might be able to find a way forward.”

For a full year, maybe more, Americans who follow national politics were subjected to the unabating use of a single metaphor: the “blue wave.” Would there be a blue wave? If so, how big? What would the blue wave, if it turned out to be a wave, mean for the Trump administration?

The last two years have seen a great deal of handwringing about the future of democracy. Scores of commentators, left and right, have claimed America’s democratic institutions are under siege. Some, mostly on the left, advocate a variety of changes to the Constitution in order to make our electoral…

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Plus, why Alan Greenberg's memos were great.

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

The retiring senator is threatening to block advancement of judicial nominees.

Republicans and Democrats have almost stopped winning on the others’ home turf.

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

Leadership races have much lower stakes now that the GOP has lost the House.

Those who enjoy the city life should not stop others who want to experience the same thing.

Office of Legal Counsel says Whitaker’s designation “comports with the terms of the Vacancies Reform Act.”

Step 1: Propose something ridiculous. Step 2: Cause chaos but don't deliver it. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Lots of books on politics come across The Scrapbook’s desk, and most, if we may speak with brutal honesty, aren’t to our liking. Often we can’t even make it past the titles. You know the ones we mean. Grand Theft: How a Band of Know-Nothing Media Magnates Is Stealing Your Liberties—and What You Can…

National Landing just made a huge mistake.

The new House Democrats have to figure out how to square opposition to Trump with skepticism about free trade.

Plus, will teens ruined 'boxed Tide?'

Trump can maybe eke out victory in 2020 by trading suburban votes for greater rural turnout, but that doesn’t solve his House problem.

Political power brokers must learn that candidate quality is vastly more important than campaign cash.

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

What data from 2016 and 2018 tell us about 2020.

Better eye droppers could save a lot of money on prescription drugs.

A federal judge finds a way.

My attention was caught last week by an op-ed piece in the Washington Post written by Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger III. Mr. Sullenberger, of course, is the pilot who skillfully maneuvered his disabled airliner to safety on the Hudson River, saving all 155 of its passengers and crew. His essay…

The Scrapbook assumes most of our readers stay well away from the New York Times Style section. That abstention is usually a wise one, but reading the Style pages has its joys, too. We think especially of the long, glowing profiles of rich people. These pieces are satisfying, not because their…

The Obama administration’s decision in 2014 to trade five imprisoned Taliban fighters for Bowe Bergdahl, the deserter captured by Afghan insurgents, continues to spawn ill consequences.

This Election Day, like every Election Day, I entered the sanctum sanctorum of the voting cubicle, searched my conscience, remembered that I’d left it in the car, then voted for my own amusement. This time, I pulled the lever for a state-senatorial longshot named Jesse Peed. It felt exciting and…

The congressman disputed a story we reported. We stand by it.

If the president wants to do deals with the Democrats, he probably can.

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

National party dynamics seemed to drag incumbents over the finish line

Republicans lost the House but held the Senate in the midterm election. That puts Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell in the catbird seat.

A 60-count federal indictment was only a slight impediment to reelection. Whether he serves out his term is another question.

That is the lesson of the midterms

Not perfect, but nonetheless impressive.

The winners and losers of 2018.

Iowa’s worst congressman ekes out a victory.

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

The real reason Jeff Sessions was fired.

Political gravity, 2020 and the shape of the new House.

The illusory dream of democratic socialism lives again.

If Trump wanted to "solve" abortion, he'd want people like Mia Love around.

Matthew Whitaker has called for Robert Mueller to limit his investigation into 2016 election interference.

As expected, they took the House and some governorships. But the winners were largely anonymous.

The special counsel investigation is now under the purview of acting AG Matthew Whitaker.

Her complaints about "crazy Democrats" and alignment with the president on the migrant caravan came off as cynical.

The winning women Tuesday were mostly anti-Trump Dems.

The data did a pretty good job in 2018.

Russian operatives may be feeding preposterous fictions to gullible Americans on Facebook, but at least our countrymen don’t believe in “statuesque superhuman blonde Baltic snipers in tight white outfits.” In his invaluable daily digest, Windows on Eurasia, the Russia scholar Paul Goble reminds…

He just doesn't realize it yet.

Hurd has represented the swing district since he was elected in 2014.

And what's next.

All the face of the world is changed.

There are questions as to whether she will serve the entire six years.

Rick Scott, Ron DeSantis defy predictions to win Senate, gubernatorial races.

King's son to Des Moines Register: “We are not granting credentials to the Des Moines Register or any other leftist propaganda media outlet with no concern for reporting the truth.”

Another suburban Republican goes down.

A dent in Democratic efforts to flip the Senate.

Tennessee Republicans had a good night, clinching both of the marquee statewide races and further dimming Democrats’ hopes of getting control of the U.S. Senate. In the governor’s race, Republican businessman Bill Lee has defeated Democrat Karl Dean, the former mayor of Nashville. Lee will be the…

The district has been trending toward Democrats in recent years.

Stewart’s alignment with far-right figures likely depressed his chances of statewide appeal.

The Iowa Republican appears to have made a veiled jab at Mexicans at a campaign stop.

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

No.

Data-driven projections in all three categories.

Could blockchain help?

One of the most underreported asininities of modern American politics is the existence of political “consultancies” that rake in money from candidates, fail to get those candidates into office, then go on to rake in even more money from other candidates. Consider:

Do customers resist businesses that #Resist?

Plus, one easy way to kill a platform.

A look at a red-state senator’s difficult dance to the center.

A Democratic strategist weighs in.

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

The possibility that the country of five million could be a peace broker.

Democratic wave or Republican surprise? Americans are going to pass judgment on President Trump.

It’s no longer Voltaire’s Europe.

On the interment of Matthew Shepard at the National Cathedral.

In the days since Robert Bowers murdered 11 congregants inside the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Americans have contemplated and debated the most urgent questions in our common life. There has been mercifully little discussion of gun laws. Observers on both sides have grasped that these…

Seventeen candidates, a Mega Millions lottery winner, disappearing harassment charges—California's wild 39th District has it all.

The Trump administration is directing transaction network to cut off Iranian banks.

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

As a confirmed "Never Trumper," I would be thrilled, if there were no other considerations, to see Donald Trump’s Republican Party get blitzed in these elections and Trump therefore be humiliated.

The shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue—11 dead, 6 wounded—was especially shocking: It was the most lethal attack on Jews in American history. At the same it reminded us how disconcertingly commonplace mass violence has become. In February, 17 people were gunned down at a high school in Florida, and…

Democrats look to Dan McCready to help them flip the House.