Commentary by Michael Barone

Most Recent Releases

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
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                            January 16, 2026What's the Matter With Minnesota? By Michael Barone
   Minnesota? Somalis? Nine billion dollars in alleged welfare fraud?

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                            January 2, 2026On Immigration and Citizenship, Listen to George Washington By Michael Barone
        As news reports proliferate of multimillion-dollar -- and possibly billion-dollar -- fraudulent diversions of government funds involving Minnesota's Somali immigrant community, it may be time at one year's end and the next one's beginning to take a longer look at America's experience with immigration, and to seek the guidance of the first and one of its two greatest presidents.

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                            December 19, 2025We Have Reached the Emily Litella Moment on Climate Change By Michael Barone
   It's been a cold winter so far in the Midwest and much of the Northeast, early-in-the-season snow even in Washington, D.C., and temperatures falling to freezing and below in much of the South. Come to think of it, North America's 2024-25 winter was pretty cold too. It's gotten to the point that "polar vortex" is a phrase on just about everyone's lips.

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                            December 5, 2025Closing the Door on Immigration? Not Yet. By Michael Barone
   Can the United States come up with an immigration policy that will prove sustainable? Two writers whom I respect and take delight in reading, despite their widely differing views, Tyler Cowen, who favors more immigration, and Christopher Caldwell, who favors less, have their doubts. Both, incidentally, are writing for The Free Press, Bari Weiss' eclectic startup.

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                            November 27, 2025Dick Cheney: Always Unintimidated By Michael Barone
        The word that best describes how former Vice President Dick Cheney, who wielded the responsibilities he undertook in public affairs over a long career, began improbably early in life and extended into years of repudiation by his fellow partisans, is "unintimidated."

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                            November 21, 2025Enforcing Immigration Laws Is Not the Moral Equivalent of the Holocaust By Michael Barone
        Whence cometh the conviction, in America and even more in Britain and Europe, that open borders is the only moral immigration policy? Of course, not everyone believes that, and many who do stop short of saying so. But the contrast between the rhetoric and policies of the first two decades of the century and those that have prevailed since President Donald Trump's election is unmistakable.

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                            November 14, 2025The Threat of an Overproduced Elite By Michael Barone
   Success breeds failure. Policies and practices well suited to society at one juncture in history are often poorly suited to the world they have beneficially transformed. If you carry a good thing too far, it can turn out not to be a good thing anymore.

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                            November 7, 2025Bad News for Republicans, Warnings for Both Parties By Michael Barone
        Virginia and New Jersey, the two states that voted for governor in 2025, both voted for then-Vice President Kamala Harris over then-candidate Donald Trump by 52%-46% margins in 2024. Democrats ran significantly better in both states on Tuesday. One reason is that Trump Republicans, as an increasingly downscale party, see their turnout sag in off years than when the presidency is up. But that wasn't their only problem this time.

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                            October 31, 2025Democrats Want Open Borders; Most Americans Don't By Michael Barone
        Who said this? "If you don't have any borders, you don't have a nation." The speaker went on, "Trump did a better job. I don't like Trump, but we should have a secure border. It ain't that hard to do. Biden didn't do it."

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                            October 24, 2025The Trends in New Jersey and Virginia By Michael Barone
        No two states voted more alike and closer to the national average in last year's presidential election than the two states that have gubernatorial elections in this odd-numbered year: New Jersey and Virginia. New Jersey voted 51.8% for Kamala Harris and 45.9% for Donald Trump. Virginia voted 51.8% for Harris and 46.1% for Trump. Aside from the seven target states and Democratic underperformance in New Hampshire and Minnesota, these were the two closest states in the country.

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                            October 17, 2025Trump Defies Conventional Wisdom ... So Far By Michael Barone
        "What all the wise men promised has not happened, and what all the damned fools said would happen has come to pass." That was the mordant comment of Lord Melbourne, Queen Victoria's first prime minister, on the failure of a liberal reform to achieve the results promised with great assurance by the articulate liberal eminences of the day.

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                            October 10, 2025Are Democrats the Party of Murder? By Michael Barone
        Why are so many Democrats fond of wishing death on their opponents? That's a question raised by two astonishing developments early this month. On Oct. 3, National Review's Audrey Fahlberg revealed texts Jay Jones had sent, perhaps mistakenly, to Virginia state Del. Carrie Coyner, bemoaning the cordial remarks then-Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert, a Republican, was delivering after the death of a Democrat.

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                            October 3, 2025Donald Trump: Energy in the Executive By Michael Barone
        Whatever else you want to say about him, President Donald Trump has what Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 70 called "energy in the executive." Announcing a peace plan for Israel and Hamas, ordering the dispatch of federal troops to protect immigration enforcement personnel in "sanctuary" states, authorizing his budget director to use reorganization powers available after Senate Democrats shut down the government, and announcing a pediatric cancer initiative.

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                            September 26, 2025Democratic Party Isolation Is Getting Worse By Michael Barone
        We Americans, it seems, continue to live in two separate countries. Consider two items in the news this week and the inconsistent responses they evoked.

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                            September 12, 2025Recovering From the Insanity of Summer 2020 By Michael Barone
        What a difference half a decade makes. This summer's prevailing ethos, zeitgeist, vibe -- call it any fancy name you want -- was sharply different from the summer, just five years ago, of COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter.

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                            September 5, 2025Britain, Land of the Unfree By Michael Barone
        When the Irish comedian Graham Linehan arrived at London Heathrow Airport this past weekend, he was greeted by five armed British police officers who arrested him for -- get this -- three rude tweets.

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                            August 29, 2025Governance by Threat, Not Constitutional Order  By Michael Barone
        The Constitution of the United States lays out a complex scheme of governance that has mostly worked for the 237 years since it became effective with the ratification of the ninth state, New Hampshire, in 1788.

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                            August 22, 2025Will Trump Help Ukraine Stop Russia's Westward Drive? By Michael Barone
        The extraordinary pair of meetings in the past week -- the Trump-Putin summit in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday and Donald Trump's hosting of the leaders of Ukraine, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Finland, as well as the NATO alliance and the European Commission -- were prompted by the latest iteration of a continuing source of instability over hundreds of years.

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                            August 15, 2025Redistricting in Historic Perspective By Michael Barone
In assessing the current controversy over Texas Republicans' proposed redistricting of the state's U.S. House seats, two historic facts should be considered.

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                            August 8, 2025Learning From America's Immigrant Past By Michael Barone
        When debating current issues, it's helpful to avoid inaccurate depictions of past policy, especially on immigration, in which both opponents and advocates of President Donald Trump's policies have views based on not altogether accurate renditions of the past.