If, as I believe, a large part of Donald Trump’s appeal to his supporters is based on his flouting of the canons of political correctness, it will be interesting to see if that appeal survives what the Wall Street Journal describes as "Donald Trump’s MoveOn.org Moment." MoveOn is of course that eminently politically correct org. which…
Number me among those who think that the Trump phenomenon is very largely a revolt against "political correctness" — especially if you count (as you should) as a manifestation of p.c. the disastrous, pacifist-inspired foreign policy pursued by the Obama administration under both Hillary Clinton and John Kerry. I don’t think I would go as…
Why should anyone suppose that the media have standing to censure Donald Trump’s manners when they are so ill-mannered themselves? — From The New Criterion of January, 2016
The media’s "narrative" of American politics and its contribution to rampant partisanship and systemic breakdown — From The New Criterion of December, 2015
Everybody noticed the conspicuous presence of one word in President Obama’s address to the nation on Sunday — in fact, it was almost the only thing about it that was worth noticing. But besides that word, "terrorism," there was another word that you have rarely heard the President utter, at least in the context of foreign wars:…
On the scandal of those who disagree with the progressive agenda — From The New Criterion of November, 2015
Commenting on President Obama’s press conference in Turkey on Monday, Jonathan S. Tobin of Commentary wrote this: For all of his manifold talents, President Obama’s chief shortcoming remains a dogged refusal to ever consider the possibility that he might be mistaken. To an objective observer, the course of the war in Iraq and Syria, as…
Way back in 2012 in the pages of The New Criterion, I wrote an essay (see "Lexicographic Lies" in The New Criterion of October, 2012) on the subtle re-definition of the word "lie," which has had a much more profound impact on our public life even than I realized at the time. Briefly stated, the…
Nobody’s story belongs to himself anymore; it belongs to the media, who must tell us what it means — From The New Criterion of October, 2015
It’s unlikely to make much difference in the long run, but the controversy over Hillary Clinton’s characterization of the Defense of Marriage Act, signed by her husband as President back in the days when the Defense of Marriage was politically popular and therefore not the act of a bigot, tells us something interesting about what…
The most interesting thing about Joe Biden’s non-campaign speech yesterday was not so much its criticism of Hillary Clinton — who, however, was not named — as what he chose to criticize her for, which was her identifying the Republicans in last week’s Democratic debate as "enemies" she was proud to have made. The Vice…
A way to look at dueling, then and now — From The Weekly Standard of October 5, 2015
