Republicans
August 4, 2025 — Scott Johnson
Texas Democrats have hightailed it out of the state to deny Republicans a quorum in the state legislature. One of Joni Mitchell’s songs is titled “Refuge of the Roads.” That’s where Texas Democrats have taken refuge — on their way to Illinois. Why does Illinois get the business? They’ve got tradition going for them. Wisconsin Democrats took the refuge of the roads to Illinois for a similar purpose in 2011
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August 4, 2025 — John Hinderaker
Texas Republicans are trying to update their Congressional map in a way that will provide fairer representation for Republicans. (Fairer, in any event, in the context of the gerrymandering for which Democrats have long been notorious.) Texas House Democrats have fled the state to prevent establishment of a quorum, and thus defeat the redistricting. This is nothing new. Democrats did the same thing in Wisconsin a few years ago, and
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July 29, 2025 — John Hinderaker
By rights, Republicans should be ascendant. The Democrats are in disarray. Their ideas are deeply unpopular–open borders, men in women’s sports, soft on crime, $37 trillion in debt, woke national defense, perpetrators of the worst scandal in American history, and so on. Beyond that, they are crazy. And they don’t have a single attractive spokesman or spokeswoman. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has been triumphant, enacting one popular policy after another,
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July 17, 2025 — John Hinderaker
This Quinnipiac University poll is getting a lot of attention, primarily for the finding that Congressional Democrats have only a 19% approval rating, while 72% disapprove. Those are terrible numbers, of course. But they are driven largely by the fact that many Democrats disapprove of their Congressional representatives because they don’t think they are aggressive enough, or far enough left. The more salient takeaway from the survey is that Americans
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July 1, 2025 — Bill Glahn
Few headlines have the power to shock. From The Hill newspaper, Republicans in Congress see highest approval rating in more than a decade: Poll. Wut? And by “more than a decade,” they mean “ever,” as this poll has been measuring the subject only since 2011. Still, nothing to brag about, In the survey, conducted in late June, 36 percent of registered voters approve of the job Republicans in Congress are
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June 28, 2025 — John Hinderaker
The last week has seen one of President Trump’s most brilliant successes, the bombing of Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities. That military strike, carried out with nearly unparalleled secrecy and precision, may have spared one or more American cities from being destroyed by a nuclear warhead–something that, presumably, even Democrats do not want to see. And yet Trump’s approval rating has not budged. The best source for such trends is Rasmussen,
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June 19, 2025 — John Hinderaker
I was on Sky News last night with the great Rita Panahi. We talked about Tucker Carlson’s interview with Ted Cruz and his attack on President Trump’s Israel/Iran policy. Rita wanted to know, will MAGA split over this issue? We also talked about regime change and Trump’s record in his first months in office. It is worth a listen, I think:
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June 18, 2025 — John Hinderaker
I wrote here that I didn’t expect the Iran-Israel war to seriously divide MAGA, and that I thought the “anti-Israel/pacifist wing of the right” would prove to be “barely discernible.” This survey by J.L. Partners supports that view: * 58% of Republicans back U.S. military strikes on Iran, compared to just 25% opposed. * Among MAGA Republicans, support jumps to 65%, with just 19% against. This is higher than among
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June 12, 2025 — John Hinderaker
I was at a business dinner in Texas last night, in a restaurant that had multiple screens displaying various sports events. One of them was tuned to the annual Republican-Democrat baseball game. Our group of conservatives cheered the GOP team as they annihilated the Democrats 13-2, winning for the fifth straight year. The game raised a record amount for charity, as 30,000 tickets were sold. The Democrat team was shockingly
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May 28, 2025 — John Hinderaker
Today is, apparently, National Hamburger Day–something I really don’t think we needed. But the NRSC has used National Hamburger Day to remind us how clueless Democrats are about such American rituals as grilling hamburgers: Happy National Hamburger Day, @chuckschumer. We grill like we vote: RIGHT. pic.twitter.com/C15pvM3kOU — Senate Republicans (@NRSC) May 28, 2025 This reminder of Schumer’s grilling faux pas occurs in the context of the Democrats’ widely-publicized $20 million
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May 25, 2025 — John Hinderaker
Democrats are panicking over their abysmal (and well-deserved) approval ratings, and above all about the fact that, while they were otherwise preoccupied, the American working class deserted them. The New York Times has a report that is an endless source of schadenfreude: “How Donald Trump Has Remade America’s Political Landscape.” Donald J. Trump’s victory in 2024 was not an outlier. It was the culmination of continuous gains by Republicans in
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May 4, 2025 — John Hinderaker
We have entered a whole new era in our country’s political history. This is something we have written about before, but this current Rasmussen polling offers more evidence: Trump Daily Job Approval – Full Week, Likely VotersAll: 50%Men: 55%Women: 45%18-39: 50%40-64: 52%65+: 46%White: 49%Black: 39%Hispanic: 62%Other: 51%DEM: 24%IND: 46%GOP: 79% https://t.co/85Tw8zlR4U — Rasmussen Reports (@Rasmussen_Poll) May 3, 2025 Whites are a relatively weak group for President Trump, as are old
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March 22, 2025 — John Hinderaker
The Democrats are engaged in an odd “anti-oligarchy” tour. Odd, because the Democrats are the party of the rich and the establishment. It would more accurately be called an “anti-populism” tour. Also, I don’t know how many Americans know the meaning of the word “oligarchy.” I think what the Democrats mean by “oligarchy” is Elon Musk. But in modern times, individual rich people have generally not been unpopular in America.
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February 24, 2025 — John Hinderaker
Democrats believe that the Trump administration has overreached and is rapidly becoming unpopular. Thus, the New York Times headlines: “Republicans Face Angry Voters at Town Halls, Hinting at Broader Backlash.” After a monthlong honeymoon for the G.O.P. at the start of President Trump’s term, lawmakers are confronting a groundswell of fear and disaffection in districts around the country. Longtime Democratic consultant James Carville says that the Trump administration is in
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February 6, 2025 — John Hinderaker
As Scott noted earlier, the month-long standoff in Minnesota’s House of Representatives came to an end last night, as the Democrats, who have boycotted the session since it opened on January 14, have agreed under intense pressure to go back to work. Because I disagree with Scott’s evaluation of the outcome, I am writing separately. Absent last night’s agreement, there would not have been a quorum in the House (under
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February 6, 2025 — Scott Johnson
We’ve been following the standoff between Democrats and Republicans in the Minnesota House of Representatives. The winning Democratic candidate in a suburban metro district lied about his residence and got caught. He has been barred from taking office. Facing a Republican majority of 67-66 until the special election that Governor Walz just called for March 11, Democrats arranged a secret swearing-in ceremony before the legislative session that commenced on January
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January 30, 2025 — Scott Johnson
Emerson actually wrote — in a poem, no less — “Things are in the saddle, / And ride mankind.” The line doesn’t have the meaning that I remember, but it’s close enough to moderate the joy I take in reading the results of the latest Quinnipiac survey measuring attitudes toward President Trump, toward Elon Musk, toward immigration and deportations, toward the Democratic and Republican parties, and more. The findings are
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