Some Free Advice for the Democratic Party by Michael Barone
Herewith some unsolicited free advice for the Democratic Party. Whether it's worth more than the price I leave up to Democrats to decide.
Commentary by Michael Barone
Most Recent Releases
December 13, 2016
December 9, 2016
The Collapse of the Political Left By Michael Barone
It's been a tough decade for the political left. Eight years ago, a Time magazine cover portrayed Barack Obama as Franklin Roosevelt, complete with a cigarette and holder and a cover line proclaiming, "The New New Deal." A Newsweek cover announced, "We Are All Socialists Now."
December 6, 2016
Ditching Electoral College Would Allow California to Impose Imperial Rule on a Colonial America by Michael Barone
They're still counting the votes, going on four weeks after the election, in California. In Brazil, a nation with much more challenging geography, they manage to do it in five hours.
December 2, 2016
Donald Trump and the Outstate Midwest Redraw the Partisan Lines by Michael Barone
Would any Republican besides Donald Trump have beaten Hillary Clinton and been elected the 45th president? It's an interesting question, not susceptible to a definitive answer but with consequences for politics going forward.
November 29, 2016
Will Donald Trump Do for Infrastructure What He Did for Wollman Rink? by Michael Barone
In May 1986, a 39-year-old Manhattan real estate developer named Donald Trump promised to get Wollman Rink in Central Park up and running -- something the city government, despite spending $13 million, had failed to do for six years. Trump delivered, ahead of time and under a $3 million budget.
November 24, 2016
The Arc of History Doesn't Always Bend Toward Justice By Michael Barone
History is on our side. That's a claim Barack Obama has made frequently, in his two successful campaigns for president and during his nearly eight years in office. It's a claim that looks a little shakier this Thanksgiving holiday than it did during the Halloween holiday three weeks ago.
November 22, 2016
The Not-Yet-Emerging Democratic Majority by Michael Barone
What is to become of the Democratic Party? The world's oldest political party, which traces its roots to 1792, is in as dire straits as it has ever been.
November 18, 2016
Clinton's Dishonesty Costs Her the Midwest -- and the Election By Michael Barone
Hillary Clinton lost the election in the Midwest. Donald Trump won 50 Midwestern electoral votes that went to Barack Obama in 2012 -- Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio -- plus 20 more in Pennsylvania, where the two-thirds of voters beyond metro Philadelphia are Midwestern in culture and concerns. Trump could have lost Florida and still won.
November 15, 2016
The New Key to Immigration Reform: More High-Skilled Immigrants by Michael Barone
One of the issues President-elect Donald Trump says he wants Congress to act on is immigration. That's not entirely surprising, given that he spotlighted just that issue, in incendiary terms, after gliding down that escalator in the Trump Tower and announcing he was running 17 months ago.
November 11, 2016
Donald Trump's Astounding Victory: How and Why By Michael Barone
Astounding. That's the best word to describe the tumultuous election night and the (to most people) surprise victory of Donald Trump. Hillary Clinton hoped to win with votes of Northeasterners, including those who have moved south along Interstate 95 to North Carolina and Florida (44 electoral votes). Instead, Trump won with votes along the I-94 and I-80 corridors, from Pennsylvania through Ohio and Michigan to Wisconsin and Iowa (70 electoral votes).
November 8, 2016
2016: The Demise of Small-r Republican Politics by Michael Barone
Among the many complaints I have seen about this squalid presidential election -- the most dismal choice of major-party nominees since 1856 -- there's one that I find missing: that it shows how our politics have become less republican.
November 4, 2016
Is Team Clinton Booting the Election? By Michael Barone
In my Nov. 1 column, I looked at the presidential election through the lens of the old children's radio show "Let's Pretend" -- examining how things would look if it turned out that Donald Trump ends up winning.
November 1, 2016
Let's Play 'Let's Pretend' By Michael Barone
When I was a child, there was a Saturday morning radio program called "Let's Pretend." It used words and sounds to encourage young children to paint pictures in their heads of make-believe worlds.
October 28, 2016
So Far, Trump Not Sinking Down-Ballot Republicans By Michael Barone
Could a flailing Donald Trump campaign hurt down-ballot Republicans and cost the party majorities in the Senate and House? That seems possible, if he loses to Hillary Clinton by a margin similar to those in most current polls and if Americans keep on straight-ticket voting as they have increasingly in recent years.
October 25, 2016
The Politics These Two Unpopular Nominees Hath Wrought by Michael Barone
In last week's third and (thank goodness) final presidential debate, each candidate did an excellent job of presenting convincing arguments for why people shouldn't vote for the other.
October 21, 2016
Despite Trump, Demotic Protest Politics Doesn't Always Fail by Michael Barone
2016 has been a big year for protest politics -- not just in the United States, what with Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump getting over 40 percent of primary votes, but also all over Europe and Latin America, where voters have been rejecting the advice of their nations' political, financial and media establishments.
October 18, 2016
Which Party Will Hold the Senate and House? By Michael Barone
Which party is going to control the House and hold a majority in the Senate in January 2017? Even if you regard the presidential contest as over -- a proposition for which there is powerful evidence, including Donald Trump's current campaign message choices -- the answers to those questions are, respectively, mildly and very unclear.
October 14, 2016
Donald Trump's Invisible Shackles By Michael Barone
"It is so nice that the shackles have been taken off me and I can now fight for America the way I want to," Donald Trump tweeted at the reasonable hour of 10 a.m. on Tuesday.
October 7, 2016
Robin Hood Economics Falls Flat in Debates by Michael Barone
Robin Hood is dead. Or at least seriously ailing. The politics of taking from the rich and giving to the poor -- the politics that philosophers from Aristotle to James Madison dreaded -- just doesn't seem to be working as it used to.
October 4, 2016
Voters Reject John Lennon's 'World as One' By Michael Barone
"The president believes the world will be a better place if all borders are eliminated -- from a trade perspective, from the viewpoint of economic development and in welcoming people from other cultures and countries."
