Article
BARONE: Joe Biden’s big lie
Did you know that black people are not going to be allowed to vote in America anymore? At least in states controlled by Republicans. Sounds a bit unlikely, but that’s a conclusion you might have […]
Articles by Michael Barone
Article
BARONE: Both parties fail to respond to signals in the political marketplace
I like to apply free-market analysis to American politics. Within established laws, politicians compete for votes and are rewarded for maximizing voters’ preferences. As in economics, there are sometimes market failures, but mostly the system […]
Article
BARONE: Charles Murray’s two uncomfortable truths and his not bad advice
Give Charles Murray, longtime scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, credit for courage. Again and again, despite outrageously unfair attacks, he has returned to the public arena and persisted in telling unwelcome truths. In his […]
Article
BARONE: On Juneteenth, remember Americans who put slavery on the path to extinction
Last week, the Senate unanimously passed a bill declaring Juneteenth a national holiday, commemorating June 19, 1865, when a Union general informed the last enslaved people in Texas that, thanks to the 13th Amendment, they […]
Article
BARONE: Adolescents need constraints, not indulgence
“Letting adolescents have their way.” That’s one way to describe two public policies, advocated vociferously by woke liberals, opposed surely by most. One primarily affects young men, the other primarily young women. The policy primarily […]
Article
BARONE: Facebook’s speech suppression argues for repeal of Section 230 and a Facebook stock price of zero
“A lot of people have egg on their face” for dismissing the COVID-19 lab leak theory, tweeted ABC News’ Jonathan Karl this week. “Some things may be true even if Donald Trump said them.” Or […]
Article
BARONE: Reform prosecutors may hang on, but national Democrats may not
Last week’s Democratic primary election for Philadelphia district attorney could presage outcomes in the 2022 and 2024 elections, but not in the way the winner would like. Foreigners are often surprised that Americans elect most […]
Article
BARONE: British Labour’s problems could hurt Democrats, too
Five years ago next month, British voters, in the largest turnout ever, voted to leave the European Union by a 52% to 48% margin. It was an unexpected result, and a harbinger of Donald Trump’s […]
Article
BARONE: The 2020 Census: Small Republican gains in a nation hunkered down
The COVID-delayed results of the 2020 census are finally in, with totals for the 50 states and the District of Columbia at nearly one-third of a billion — 331,449,281 — and with surprises having to […]
Article
BARONE: Workers don’t share Democrats’ nostalgia for unions
It wasn’t even close. The final count was 1,798 against and 738 for, 71% to 29%. The issue in question was whether the employees at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, wanted to be represented […]