Trump Movement Is Backlash Against Political Correctness

by Robby Soave.  Stephen Baldwin—the actor, outspoken conservative, and brother of Alec Baldwin—supports Donald Trump for president, and his main reason is this: Trump is against political correctness. "The first policy of his that I favor is this guy is gonna take a stand when it comes to the BS of the PC—the political correctness," said Baldwin in an interview  ... MORE

Thomas Sowell: The 'Voice Of The People' Fallacy

An understanding of convenience.      We hear many fallacies in election years. The fallacy that seems to be most popular this year is that, if Donald Trump comes close to getting the 1,237 delegates required to become the Republican nominee, and that nomination goes instead to someone else, then the convention will have ignored "the voice   ... MORE

Thomas Sowell: Dangerous Donald Trump

A serious, mature president is needed.  Donald Trump's victories in the Republican primaries may make him seem like a sure winner. But those victories have been achieved by receiving either somewhat less than 40 percent of the votes or somewhat more than 40 percent, but never a majority. The fragmenting of the Republican vote among many   ... MORE

David Sherfinski: Poll Shows Gary Johnson Already At 11%!

Voters not thrilled about the conventional choices. Libertarian presidential hopeful Gary Johnson, possibly benefitting from dissatisfaction with the two major parties’ front-runners, is in double digits in a potential three-way race, according to a poll released Thursday. In a three-way contest, Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton was at 42%,  ... MORE

Thomas Sowell: What Are Elections For?

Donald Trump and the insight of Eric Hoffer.     After months of watching all sorts of political polls, we are finally just a few weeks away from actually beginning to see some voting in primary elections. Polls let people vent their emotions. But elections are held to actually accomplish something. The big question is whether the voters themselves   ... MORE

Beyond Distrust: How Americans View Their Government

from Pew Research.     We should be worried about the 19%. A year ahead of the presidential election, the American public is deeply cynical about government, politics and the nation’s elected leaders in a way that has become quite familiar. Currently, just 19% say they can trust the government always or most of the time, among the lowest      ... MORE

Poll Shows NRA Is 50% More Popular Than Hillary Clinton

Maybe the people are not-so dumb.    We’ve been hearing a lot about this subject in the last few weeks.  Among the list of the “enemies” that Hillary Clinton is most proud of having made, the National Rifle Association is right near the top of the list. This led one of her prominent supporters to declare that the demise of the organization was   ... MORE

Ira Stoll: A Warning About The Politics Of Crowds

The tactics of Trump, Sanders and the Pope.    The voice I find myself missing this political season is that of Fouad Ajami, who died last year. Not so much for Ajami’s insights into the area that was his academic speciality, the Middle East, though one certainly wishes for his thoughts on the Islamic State, the humanitarian disaster that is Syria, and   ... MORE

Judge Rules Nobody Owns "Happy Birthday To You"

by Ted Johnson.       A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that the lyrics to “Happy Birthday to You” are not protected by copyright, concluding that Warner/Chappell Music does not hold a valid claim to the song. It raises the prospect that royalties will no longer be collected from public performances of the song in movies, TV shows and other         ... MORE

Supreme Court Gets Lowest Favorability Rating In 30 Years

by Jennifer Harper.   Even politicians in robes are having a bad year. “Following major, end-of-term rulings on the Affordable Care Act and same-sex marriage, unfavorable opinions of the Supreme Court have reached a 30-year high. And opinions about the court and its ideology have never been more politically divided,” reports the Pew Research   ... MORE

Poll: Americans Prefer Neighborhoods That Allow Guns

by Joe Perticone.    Americans know what they want — Americans want guns. That’s right. According to the latest poll by Rasmussen Reports, American voters “overwhelmingly” prefer to live in neighborhoods with high gun ownership, as opposed to areas that don’t allow firearms. The polling shows 68 percent of Americans “would feel safer”     ... MORE

Katherine Mangu-Ward: Why Don't Women Like Rand Paul?

A bad job of marketing liberty to women?   Today at The New Republic, Jeet Heer asks why libertarians are mostly dudes, inspired by Sen. Rand Paul's polling gender gap, which shows the Kentucky Republitarian pulling 13 percent of the male primary vote and only 2 percent of females: Why is Paul so unpopular among women?   ... MORE

Jacob Sullum: Are E-Cigarettes Displacing the Real Thing?

Technology's healthier choice.  Survey results released last week indicate that use of electronic cigarettes by American teenagers continues to rise, even as their use of conventional cigarettes continues to fall. You might think these diverging trends would give pause to critics who worry that e-cigarettes are "reglamorizing" the old-      ... MORE

VIDEO: Is Bill Cosby The Real Victim?

David Leonhardt: Football, The Newest Partisan Divide

Dismantling the gridiron.      To the list of issues that divide the country along partisan lines, you can add an unusual item: football. Yes, virtually every slice of America still watches football in enormous numbers. But blue America — particularly the highly educated Democratic-leaning areas of major metropolitan areas — is    ... MORE

Dear Barack Obama: You Suck. Love, The Voters

by J.D. Tuccille.     Americans with their eyes on national politics are more likely to intend their midterm votes as messages of opposition to President Barack Obama than as support, according to Gallup. Almost a third of voters, at 32 percent, are using their ballots as a Bronx cheer for the White House, compared to the 20 percent sending love   ... MORE

Nick Gillespie: The Shittiest President Since World War II

The survey says:     The folks at Quinniapiac College have just released a new poll that must surely be making the rounds of the White House bunker. After talking to about 1,500 registered voters nationwide, Quinniapic finds that one-third of Americans rate Barack Obama as the worst president since 1945. Another 28 percent say George W.   ... MORE

Incumbents Should Be Tossed To The Curb, But Won't Be

by David Harsanyi.       90% will be re-elected. Even in the most catastrophic year for congressional incumbents, 90 percent of them will win re-election—and most of them will do so rather easily. Many of them, in fact, won't even have to run a campaign. This fact might be somewhat obscured lately, what with all the talk of the impending        ... MORE

Edward Morrissey: Americans Are Giving Up on Obama

Relentless incompetence too glaring to ignore.     Over the last several months, the American public has had a hard and clear look at the executive talent inside the White House, and has begun to despair for real leadership and competence. When leadership fails, people stop following. It appears in the sixth year of the Barack Obama   ... MORE

Barry Farber: How Can 40% Of Us Approve This Failure?

Pope ought to declare Obama's numbers a miracle.      To my knowledge, some of the following points have never been the subject of a column before. Does that indicate I own a warped curiosity, or, much more to my liking, have I been kissed by flames of originality? Even though he’s not running for president any more (some fear he’ll find   ... MORE