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Charles Lipson

Peter B. Ritzma Professor Emeritus

University of Chicago

Frequent contributor: 
Real Clear Politics
Spectator | World
The Telegraph
Wall Street Journal

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The Telegraph •

Joe Biden’s reputation is already in tatters. History’s judgment will be even harsher

As memories of American presidents fade, only a few salient thoughts linger about each one. Voters are too busy complaining about the next president to remember much more.Richard Nixon is remembered for Watergate, and Gerald Ford for pardoning him. Lyndon Johnson is remembered for the Civil Rights laws of the mid-1960s, the Vietnam War, and the “Great Society” welfare programmes.Jimmy Carter will be remembered, after the encomiums for his recent death fade away, for the gas crisis, Iranian hosta...
The Spectator World •

What is DoGE’s hardest task?

DOGE’s hardest task is not cutting the excess federal payroll but cutting excess federal regulations. To succeed, DOGE needs to focus on four overriding goals:
(1) Reducing the dead-weight drag of regulations on the economy without removing essential safeguards; (2) Making significant changes, not minor ones; (3) Ensuring those changes have an enduring impact by making them difficult to reverse; and (4) Increasing democratic oversight of future rule-making, a legislative responsibility that Congress has wrongfully (and perhaps unconstitutionally) abdicated.
The Spectator World •

The winners and losers in the fight to keep the government open

The first two Continuing Resolutions failed because they contained a trainload of pork, a steaming pile of non-essential provisions that rank-and-file Republicans refused to support. They learned about the bill’s hidden provisions thanks to a new media landscape, which featured blogs and podcasts with huge audiences, free speech on “X,” and the use of AI (specifically Elon Musk’s Grok) to undercover what was in the bill. The problems will come in a couple of months when the short-term measure ends.
The Spectator World •

What’s flying over New Jersey?

The public is frightened, and bland reassurances from Washington aren’t helping. Neither is a wagging finger from the government’s PR flaks, who don’t give citizens any real information but tell them to calm down. When you unpack the obfuscation, White House officials are making two basic points.
1. We don’t know what the objects are or where they came from.
2. Don't worry about it.
The two statements are inconsistent, and the public knows it. They want real answers, not false assurances. The government’s communication problems are compounded by a simple fact: they have lied so often about so much that nobody believes their statements without proof.
Wall Street Journal •

A Solution to Football’s Fake-Injury Problem

Fake injuries have become an increasing problem in college football, slowing the game and threatening its integrity. Here’s a simple rule change to stop the fakery. Keep injured players out longer after they stop play. That won’t hurt teams with real injuries. Their players have to stay out longer anyway. But it would deter a lot of fake injuries, designed to slow down an opponent and gain an uncredited time out.
The Telegraph •

The Democrats after the Deluge

Losing parties always search for explanations. When they lose big – when they lose the White House and both houses of Congress – that search becomes a full-scale reckoning. What went wrong for Democrats? How can they correct it?Those questions aren’t lacking for answers. The problem is sorting out the ones that really matter.The easiest answer – and surely part of the explanation – is “we need a better candidate”. Kamala Harris was truly dreadful. But that only raises another question: how did t...
The Spectator World •

The two final battles of the culture war

On disputes about transgender and abortion.
On abortion, voters have been mobilized by controversial Supreme Court decisions. The fight began in earnest in 1973, when Roe v. Wade…There are two notable exceptions, however, where the cultural battles remain white-hot: abortion and transgender rights. Both issues motivated voters in 2024.At times, the result has been a more tolerant public consensus, for example regarding gay rights and marriage.On issue after issue, conservatives — and Republicans — have lost the “culture wars.” Not just lo...
SAPIR •

The Rise and Fall of Jews on Campus | SAPIR Journal

The open, virulent, and sometimes violent eruption of antisemitism at elite universities may be the most daunting social challenge faced by American Jews since the Ku Klux Klan’s antisemitic campaign in the 1960s. In the 1960s, elite universities were pressured to do away with long-standing discrimination in admissions and hiring. To diversify their student bodies and faculties, they opened their gates widely to those from different backgrounds. This transformation, which stressed merit and equal standards, without invidious discrimination, helped make American universities the best in the world and our nation a more perfect union. But on its coattails came pockets of far-Left radicalism. The strength of this movement of campus radicals grew over decades as it infiltrated and overhauled university administrations and power centers, emerging as the dominant social force on elite campuses. Today, many universities have morphed into hotbeds of illiberalism and antisemitism.
The Spectator World •

What comes after Trump’s decisive victory?

The overriding questions for Democrats whether they can move beyond blaming personalities (Biden and Harris), consider fundamental issues and reshape the party to address them. For the Republicans, the question is whether it can accomplish most of the ambitious agenda Donald Trump has promised. He has pulled off the most astounding political comeback in American political history. Now, can he pull off a successful administration?
The Spectator World •

A consequential, divisive, troubling election about big issues

This election is the most consequential since Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Herbert Hoover amid the Great Depression. The 2024 vote is consequential, too. It is about big issues, on which the two parties are deeply divided. The parties differ dramatically on border control, tax cuts, school choice, gun rights, reproductive freedom, stronger law enforcement, and many more. Taken together, those differences define a deep fault line in American politics. That chasm and repeated attacks (from all sides) on our constitutional framework make our public life perilous. America is resilient, but we are recklessly testing the limits of “E Pluribus Unum,” one out of many.
The Spectator World •

Biden scores another ‘own goal’ over Trump’s ‘garbage’ supporters

While Pres. Biden called Trump supporters “garbage,” he vilified half the country he governs. His communications team compounded the problem by falsely claiming he didn’t say what everyone could hear for themselves on tape. Their clumsy efforts kept the story alive for 2-3 more days. Dumb. The “garbage” comments are actually three overlapping stories. One is the damage he did to Harris. (Probably minimal.) The second is how the tape clearly shows Biden’s failing health. The third is the White House’s desperate efforts to conceal the president’s condition from the public, a subject Kamala Harris won’t touch.
The Telegraph •

America is sinking into the muck

American politics is sinking deeper and deeper in the muck during the final week of an increasingly negative and vitriolic campaign. The latest foul addition to the Augean stables is to call whole groups “garbage”.Bad as that language is, the problem is even greater. It’s also the lame excuses for it, the failure to condemn it immediately when someone on “our side” uses it. That failure suggests the language is either tolerable or trivial. It’s neither.This vile language needs to be condemned –...
The Spectator World •

Contrasting the candidates’ closing arguments

It’s easy to summarize the two sides’ closing arguments. For Kamala Harris, the closing argument is “Trump is really, really bad.” Asked to expand, it is “Trump will end abortion rights” and “Trump is a fascist.” For Trump, the closing argument is, “Things were great when I was president, and I will make them great again.” Asked to expand, it is “I will be better than Washington and Lincoln. Everybody says so.” And “Kamala is a left-wing nut job.” After discounting the hyperbole (a gargantuan task), how is the final stretch going? Rocky for Democrats, encouraging for Republicans. That’s the message from polling trends and political betting markets.
The Telegraph •

There are ominous signs that Kamala Harris’ Blue Wall is collapsing

The ads for Democratic Senate candidates in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin are doing something new and important. They don’t just say they favor a few of Trump’s policies. They actually use Donald Trump’s name in positive terms. They avoid mentioning Kamala Harris and never utter the words, “Joe Biden.” That new tone must reflect what those candidates are seeing in private polls, which are trending, ever so slightly, in Trump’s direction. So, the ads urge pro-Trump voters to split their tickets and vote Democrat for Senate, implying they won’t staunchly oppose Trump’s agenda as president. That may be smart for those candidates, but it is an ominous portent for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.
The Spectator World •

What follows Sinwar’s death in Israel’s war in Gaza and beyond

With Sinwar and other Hamas leaders gone, the key questions how are, (1) What’s the endgame in Gaza, beyond destroying Hamas and preventing its reemergence? (2) What are Israel’s immediate goals in Lebanon; and (3) When will Israel attack Iran and what will its initial targets be? Note that Israel may cave to Biden pressure and limit its initial kinetic attacks to military facilities and regime leaders. But that could change after Iran strikes back.
The Telegraph •

Kamala Harris has sabotaged her own campaign

Polls still show a tight race, but the trend is not Kamala Harris’s friend. The “joy,” which her campaign once emphasised, left the building long ago. Her ebbing chances today are better captured in an old blues lyric. “I have had my fun, but now I’m going down slow.”The signs certainly point that direction for Harris’ campaign. The first one is a sharp turn against her in the betting markets. Until recently, they gave Harris a slight edge. Now, they favour Donald Trump.Second, internal polls fr...
The Spectator World •

CBS: from the Tiffany Network to the cheap discount bin

CBS was once called the “Tiffany Network,” and its news division was the jewel. This is the story of that division’s decline and fall, driven by partisan goals and leftist ideology. Like so many peers in the legacy media, CBS has discarded any pretense of journalistic neutrality while pretending it has not. Four recent examples clearly show a pattern of ideologically-driven network policy at CBS.
The Spectator World •

Can Kamala Harris escape the ‘Hubert Humphrey problem?’

When the sitting president is not running for reelection, the party typically turns to his vice president as the “natural” nominee. That’s a modern development (since the 1950s), caused by the VP’s larger, more visible role in the vastly larger federal government. What helps or hurts in the VP in the General Election are the tight links to the incumbent administration. What’s so striking about Kamala Harris’ candidacy is her strategy of running as an outsider to her own administration. She can only do that a lot of help from the legacy media that wants her to win.
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