The Bowl Games Confound Their Critics
Chronicles—To the surprise of most college football fans, the bowl games produced far more exciting games during the recently completed season than the non-bowl playoff games did—once again demonstrating that things that come about organically, are locally controlled, and are time-tested are generally superior to the schemes of central planners. Read more.
Seven Reasons Biden Was One of Our Worst Presidents
The Federalist—As Joe Biden leaves the presidency, it’s worth reflecting on where he ranks among the 45 men who have held the nation’s highest office. For seven reasons—reflecting his signature blend of narcissistic incompetence and disregard for the Constitution—he has perhaps earned the title of worst American president. Read more.
America Needs A Quarter-Millennial Celebration Worthy of Its History
The Federalist—America’s Bicentennial was a glorious celebration of the American Revolution. Back then, we were coming off of a decade featuring high crime, riots, racial tensions, Watergate, and Vietnam. A half-century later, we’re coming off of a decade featuring high crime, riots, racial tensions, Covid mandates, and a disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal. As was true then, we need to reconnect to the “spirit of ’76”—indeed, the upcoming Quarter-Millennial marks the best opportunity in 50 years to reorient the citizenry toward the American Founding. Unfortunately, the official planning commission is more focused on DEI than on celebrating America’s history and heroes. Read more.
How Trump Remade the Electoral Map
City Journal—The electoral map looks significantly different than it did before Donald Trump hit the political scene. Trump has left the “blue wall” of old lying in purple ruins, he won Florida by more than Kamala Harris won New York, and his emergence has improved GOP prospects in states worth 97 electoral votes while diminishing them in states worth only 27. Across the ribbon of five states in the Great Lakes or upper Mississippi River regions that have largely decided presidential elections for more than 150 years, he went 12-3 across three elections, while Republicans in the five prior races went 3-22. Read more
Did the Crimson Tide Get Rolled?
City Journal—The College Football Playoff Selection Committee made the right call in picking SMU over Alabama, as the Mustangs were the more deserving team on the merits. But while nobody should buy Nick Saban’s argument that the Crimson Tide, and the Southeastern Conference, are overlooked victims who can’t get a fair shake versus teams outside of the SEC, Alabama has a good case that it should have been picked over its conference rival to the north. Read more.
Shake Up HHS
City Journal—HHS bureaucrats have insisted masks work, denied there’s any significant downside to wearing them, denied the existence of natural immunity, insisted that ivermectin isn’t for humans, denied the risks of experimental mRNA vaccines, presided over an explosion of obesity, and have generally done little for decades except feather their own nests at the expense of truth and of everyday Americans’ quality of life. RFK Jr., whatever his faults, would not indulge their groupthink—which would be an extraordinary virtue in an HHS secretary. Read more.
Trump Won on the Issues
City Journal—In an election in which Gen X fueled Donald Trump to victory, exit polling reveals interesting insights. Parents with minor children swung 15 points (from backing Joe Biden by 6 points to backing Trump by 9), suggesting that mask and trans mandates may have backfired. Abortion offered a split verdict, with most of Kamala Harris’s support coming from those who want abortion to be legal at all times. Catholics swung 23 points (from backing Biden by 5 points to backing Trump by 18), and Latino men swung 35 points. The urban-rural gap widened even further. Finally, among the plurality of voters who think “democracy in the U.S.” is “very threatened,” 51% supported Trump—implying that censorship and lawfare might themselves be viewed as dire threats. Read more.
Personnel Is Policy
The American Mind—This time around, the Trump administration should fill political appointee positions and tackle the federal government’s maddening H.R. regime. It should establish a hotline to help political appointees defeat inevitable H.R. obstructionism, while revising H.R. rules for hiring, rewarding, and firing career staff. Such insane rules let applicants move to the front of the hiring line for things like a history of drug addiction or alcoholism. But the administration should resist imposing a hiring freeze, which would only ensure the further leftward tilt of career employees. Read more.
Which Way Will It Go?
City Journal—With Election Day finally here, it’s puzzling how national polling isn’t lining up with statewide polling, at least not based on results in the two prior elections involving Donald Trump. This suggests that one of three things is true: State-by-state polling is underestimating Trump’s support, national polling is underestimating Kamala Harris’s support, or the gap between the national margin and the average margin in the seven key swing states will be notably smaller this time around. Read more.
Return of the Masks
City Journal—Wielding essentially unchecked power, public health officers in five Bay Area counties are ordering doctors and other medical personnel—and sometimes visitors—to wear masks in various health-care facilities. In one county, doctors who wish to follow the medical evidence on masks will be subject to punishment by law enforcement as “an imminent threat and immediate menace to public health.” Such nonsense represents not an abundance of caution but the triumph of superstition, as well as a thirst for power. Read more.
Border Bait-and-Switch
City Journal—The border crisis, which is a result of the Biden administration’s refusal to enforce existing immigration law, is ongoing—and it has nothing to do with a failed immigration bill. The administration’s CBP One app now lets illegal aliens schedule their arrival—and almost sure release—at a port of entry. Thus, encounters between the ports are down somewhat, while encounters at the ports are up 17-fold versus when President Trump left office. The press has fallen for this bait-and-switch, even as the estimated number of illegal aliens let into the U.S. under Biden approaches 10 million. Read more.
Are FBI Crime Statistics Reliable?
City Journal—The mainstream press is trumpeting FBI stats suggesting a 3% drop in violent crime from 2022 to 2023, while ignoring the big urban crime spike found by the Bureau of Justice Statistics in recent years. In doing so, the press is hanging its hat on statistics generated by a non-statistical agency whose process is hardly transparent, whose results are often inconsistent and poorly explained, and whose numbers are frustratingly fluid—as the FBI has a history of offering multiple, conflicting crime figures. Read more.
Discussed at length (along with other recent AMSI work on crime) on PowerLine.
Highlighted by Andrew McCarthy on National Review Online.
Misjudging the Debate
City Journal—The commentariat declared Vice President Harris to be the clear winner in her recent debate with former-President Trump. But subsequent swing-state polling—which, if anything, has tilted towards Trump—suggests that everyday Americans may have viewed that encounter quite differently. Read more.
Contrary to Media Myth, U.S. Urban Crime Rates Are Up
The Wall Street Journal—Left-leaning media outlets—and presidential debate moderators posing as “fact-checkers”—have continually insisted that crime is dropping. But the most definitive source, the National Crime Victimization Survey, now says that crime rates didn’t change to a statistically significant degree nationwide from 2022 to 2023. Moreover, the NCVS shows that the violent crime rate in urban areas rose a whopping 40% from 2019 (the last year before George Floyd and the defund-the-police crusade) to 2023 (the most recent figures, just released), as cities’ lax law enforcement and lax prosecution yielded predictable results. Statistics from the NCVS are more reliable than those from the FBI in a variety of ways, including that the NCVS captures crimes not reported to police. Read more.
Quoted in the NY Post; discussed on Fox News’ The Five (9/24/2024), The Ben Shapiro Show (9/24/2024), the Matt Walsh Show, and the Dan Bongino Show (9/24/2024).
AMSI President Jeff Anderson is interviewed about crime stats by Fox News. Watch here.
Woke Disney To Destroy Popular ‘Frontierland’ Attractions
The Federalist—Walt Disney designed Frontierland as "a tribute to the faith, courage and ingenuity of the pioneers who blazed the trails across America," but Disney's current leadership doesn't want to celebrate any of that, and it has announced plans to destroy iconic Frontierland at the Magic Kingdom. This decision represents an affront to America's history and spirit, an aesthetic abomination, and an example of the woke propensity to destroy everything. Read more.
Issues, or Intangibles?
City Journal—In this election like no other, the issues favor one candidate while the intangibles favor the other. The outcome will likely hinge on which half of that equation voters choose to emphasize. Read more.
What Do Voters Actually Care About?
The American Mind—This strange presidential election pits a very unpopular presidency versus a relatively unpopular former president. With four of the five major issues in this election pretty clearly favoring former President Trump, the result may hinge on whether voters view Vice President Harris as a key member of the Biden administration or as fresh new blood. Read more.
America’s Debt Emergency
City Journal—Our interest payments on the national debt have gotten so huge that, in 2024, they will exceed our entire federal deficit in 1945—even after adjusting for inflation. This year’s interest payments will also exceed discretionary defense spending for the first time ever. The first 18% of Americans’ tax dollars will essentially go to nothing—just to pay the government’s creditors. And things will only get worse from here if we don’t get serious about our so called “mandatory,” or autopilot, spending—which is already eating up more than 100% of our tax revenues before a single dollar of discretionary spending is approved. Read more.
City Journal’s “10 Blocks” podcast
Jeffrey H. Anderson joins Brian C. Anderson to discuss the Biden–Trump debate, marijuana policy, and the national crime rate. Listen here.
Anderson on The Andrew Klavan Show
Jeff Anderson, president of the American Main Street Initiative, talks with Andrew Klavan about the GOP nomination process, abortion politics, masks, and the race for the White House. Listen here.
I Helped Write Project 2025's Policies. Let's Set the Record Straight
Newsweek—President Biden claims that Project 2025 would “gut the checks and balances” and give President Trump (and only President Trump) “limitless power over our daily lives,” and his media allies have echoed his ravings. But far from encouraging the exercise of unchecked power, Project 2025 is an ode to the Constitution. It highlights five specific ways in which our nation could restore key aspects of our constitutional design. Progressives’ opposition to this effort is further confirmation that they like “our democracy” a lot more than they like our Constitution. Read more.
Additional Coverage
Quoted extensively in Washington Times article, “What is Project 2025, and why are ‘rented evangelicals’ against it?”
Mollie Hemingway shared the article on X (formerly Twitter), gaining 67K views, 1.3K likes.
1 In 5 Auto Accident Deaths Now Involve Marijuana Use
The Federalist—Stoned drivers are increasingly causing deaths on America’s roads, and many of them are drunk as well as stoned. Indeed, the 33 percent increase in drunk-driving deaths from 2019 to 2022 may have a lot to do with increased pot use. Yet the Biden administration is ignoring these safety concerns (and federal law, and the separation of powers) and doing the bidding of Big Marijuana at the expense of everyday Americans. Read more.
Now What?
City Journal—In the straight-line march toward a Biden-Trump rematch, Joe Biden’s unexpectedly bad debate performance marks the first real turn in the plot. Now, just over four months until Election Day, the potential for an open Democratic convention has arisen, as well as the possibility—for the first time in 56 years—of an incumbent president exiting the race before November. But Biden still holds a lot of cards within the Democratic party, which hasn’t seen fit to challenge him to date. Read more.
Fauci Was Just a Symptom
TomKlingenstein.com—This essay on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s provocative book, The Real Anthony Fauci, highlights that whether it’s public health research or “climate change” research, most science funding in America now funnels through a small cabal of self-interested bureaucrats—and those who don’t tow the party line don’t get the funding. This arrangement, which badly compromises both genuine science and republican government, is what enabled the unscrupulous, power-mongering, slithering Fauci to do great damage for 40 years, from AIDS to Covid—and he used the same playbook for each. Read more.
Biden’s Destructive Pot Gambit
City Journal—In moving to reclassify pot in a way that benefits Big Marijuana, the Biden administration is skirting federal law (and the separation of powers), falsely claiming pot isn't abused, falsely claiming it is currently accepted as medicine, and putting us on course to have pot do even more damage to our republic. Read more.
America Is a Land of Justice, Not Systemic Racism
The Telegraph—Joe Biden exacerbates rather than solves so many of America's problems because he has the wrong root cause. Biden is convinced that America is "systemically racist," but the best available evidence suggests the opposite: that America is a land of justice. Read more.
Enduring Lawlessness in Our Cities
City Journal—Although President Biden and his mainstream media allies pretend otherwise, crime continues to plague American cities at much higher levels than before the pandemic. What’s more, this crime spike is the direct result of policies championed by the Left: lax prosecution, Covid lockdowns, the stoking of race-based grievances, and the abandonment of civilized norms. Read more.
Additional Coverage
Featured on the “Andrew Klavan Show.”
Anderson interviewed on Chicago’s Morning Answer.
Tweeted on X by Mark Hemingway and Steve Forbes.
Anderson interviewed on the Rod Arquette Show.
Americans Are No Longer Safe in Their Cities—and Biden Can't Even Admit It
The Telegraph—Much like how President Biden pretends that inflation is a figment of Americans’ imagination, he acts as if crime hasn’t increased. But the best available federal statistics show a massive increase in violent crime in cities in recent years, coinciding with the Left’s push to “defund the police,” stop prosecuting “minor” crimes in the name of racial “equity,” and quit enforcing general civilized norms. Read more.
Additional media coverage
Anderson discusses urban crime on CBN News.
The Rod Arquette Show
No Great Mystery
City Journal—Inflation has been higher during President Biden’s first three years in office than during the first three years of any other newly elected president in the past century except for Jimmy Carter, while Americans’ credit-card debt has risen 47% since Biden became president. Yet the mainstream press is mystified as to why Americans aren’t enthusiastic about the economy. Read more.
Covid Catastrophes
Claremont Review of Books—Beginning an Olympiad ago and extending across portions of two years, American society was locked down, thousands of businesses permanently closed, the federal government racked up its two largest inflation-adjusted deficits ever, Americans were told they had to cover their faces, children were told they couldn’t go to school, and in many cases ostensibly free citizens were told they had to take experimental vaccines or else be fired from their jobs—all largely because a trio of clueless “experts” in the White House said so. We can never again let such a colossal public-policy disaster happen, and this article provides five key lessons for the future. Read more.
Additional media coverage
Claremont’s “Close Read” podcast or on Apple here
A Border Crisis By Design
City Journal—The cause of the border crisis is President Biden’s unprecedented refusal to enforce federal immigration law, which requires that all asylum-seekers be detained rather than released into the country. Pre-Biden, those trying to enter illegally at least had to evade the authorities. Under Biden, millions have willingly turned themselves in, knowing they’ll be released. Whereas President Trump’s Border Patrol released 17 aliens into the U.S. in December 2020, Biden’s released 191,142 in December 2023. What’s more, Biden considers this crisis a success, as it advances “equity.” Read more.
AMSI on the Kevin Roberts Show
Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts invited the American Main Street Initiative's Jeff Anderson onto his podcast to discuss the issues that animate Main Street Americans, ideas for reining in the ever-expanding administrative state, and the future of America. Watch the show on YouTube or on Apple Podcasts.
Lead Role in Shaping the Project 2025 “Mandate for Leadership”
AMSI President Jeff Anderson wrote the introductions to all five sections of Mandate for Leadership 2025, the 887-page policy guide for the next conservative administration that was produced by Project 2025 and published by the Heritage Foundation.
Anderson also contributed to the section on the U.S. Department of Justice. In addition, AMSI serves on the 2025 Project’s Board of Advisors and on the subcommittee for preparing for America’s 250th anniversary.
Latest: In April, Jeff Anderson appeared on Japanese public television to discuss Project 2025 and its implications for the next conservative administration.
Moving to Red America
City Journal—Based on Census data over the past three-plus years, Americans have made clear that they didn’t appreciate the Covid-19 mandates and lockdowns—as they have chosen to move away from the states that imposed the most authoritarian Covid-19 mandates, while moving to the states that focused on securing the blessings of liberty. Read more.
Additional media coverage
John Stiegerwald Show (Wed. January 31, 2024)
Why DeSantis Couldn’t Beat Trump
City Journal—The 2024 Republican presidential race marks the continuation of a longtime trend: GOP voters almost always reject new blood in favor of the “next in line” candidate—or in this case, the “already at the front of the line” candidate. In addition, the DeSantis campaign made a strategic mistake early on, which led to its facing a three-sided barrage from the Trump campaign, establishment Republicans, and the Left. While the popular Florida governor couldn’t overcome all this, he gained valuable experience and remains Donald Trump’s probable heir apparent in 2028. Read more.
Urban Crime Wave
City Journal—In recent days, the mainstream press has claimed that crime is dropping. But there’s no good evidence that the whopping 58% increase in violent crime in urban areas since 2019 has started to fall to any substantial degree. Read more.
Another Newsom Whopper
City Journal—“[M]ore Floridians [have been] coming to California in the last two years than the other way around,” asserted Gavin Newsom during his recent debate with Ron DeSantis. In truth, a whopping 66% more people moved from California to Florida than vice versa—many no doubt fleeing Newsom’s Covid mandates and lockdowns for the Sunshine State’s freedom. Newsom’s claim is a prime example of the use and abuse of statistics, as—without saying so—he’s applying a “per capita” adjustment that makes no sense and leads to ludicrous results. Read more.
Correcting Newsom’s Claims About Crime
City Journal—“We’re near 50-year lows…[in] violent crimes in the state of California,” claimed Gavin Newsom during his recent debate with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. In reality, California’s violent crime rate is at a 10-year high—and rising—while Florida’s has dropped. When both men took office, Florida had more murders and California had more overall violent crime. California now has more of both, including 39% more violent crime than Florida—more than twice the gap from when both men took office. Read more.
Another Year, Another Trillion
City Journal—When the Barack Obama-Joe Biden ticket first got elected 15 years ago, America's three highest federal deficits on record, in inflation-adjusted dollars, were all from World War II. Since then, those WWII deficits have been surpassed an amazing 12 times, with the fiscal-year 2023 deficit more than doubling any WWII deficit, even after adjusting for inflation. These crippling deficits are largely due to “autopilot” Great Society programs that no one has the courage to reform. Read more.
An Election Like No Other
Claremont Review of Books—This essay examines possible upcoming twists and turns in a presidential election campaign that has already been bizarre. It discusses the candidates, the calendar, and the indictments. It explains how this has been the “briar patch” election, how 3rd-party candidates are poised to make their biggest splash since Ross Perot, and how possible constitutional challenges stemming from the various indictments could well necessitate involvement by the Supreme Court. Read more.
It’s Time For Pro-Lifers To Scrap Their Losing Electoral Strategy And Adopt The Lincoln Method
The Federalist—Pro-life politicians should recall Lincoln’s words that “public sentiment is everything” in a republic, and more powerfully make the case for protecting unborn life. At the same time, Lincoln heeded political reality, and pro-lifers should heed the reality that most Americans currently don’t want to ban (or nearly ban) abortion. The good news for pro-lifers from exit polling is that most Americans are in the middle on abortion, most want limits on it, and pro-lifers have generally fared better among those with middle-ground positions than abortion advocates have. Read more.
Ed Whelan at National Review, highlights “Learning from Lincoln on Abortion” as offering “valuable and encouraging political lessons for pro-lifers.”
College Football’s Rule by ‘Experts’ Shortchanges Deserving Teams
The American Conservative—In college football, as in so many other aspects of American life, rule by “experts” leaves much to be desired. Take college football’s purely subjective 13-member “expert” committee, which ranks a Georgia Bulldogs team that has no marquee wins—most of its opponents aren’t even ranked in the top-80—three spots ahead of a Washington Huskies team that has beaten #10 Oregon and #18 USC. Whether in ranking college football teams or setting public policy, so-called experts routinely see what they want to see, rather than looking objectively at the evidence at hand. Read more.
Iowa Poll Shows DeSantis, Not Haley, Is Trump’s Only Real Competition
The Federalist—While the mainstream press says that a recent Iowa poll shows good news for Nikki Haley and bad news for Ron DeSantis, a closer look tells a different story. Likely Iowa caucus-goers view DeSantis more favorably, are more apt to be considering him, and are more apt to rank him in their top-2. What’s more, the poll suggests that any decline in DeSantis’s support would likely help Donald Trump and hurt Haley, while any decline in Haley’s (or Trump’s) support would likely help DeSantis. Read more.
The Mask Comes Off
City Journal—Scientific American, a magazine that has been around since before the Lincoln-Douglas debates, has now published an article by a Harvard professor saying that scientists should prioritize “reality” over scientific “rigor.” What could make Scientific American question the merits of scientific rigor? Masks, of course. Because the most rigorous, impartial, and reliable studies suggest that masks don’t work, those studies must be discarded in favor of ones that comport with the mask advocates’ sense of “reality.” Read more.
Impeachable?
City Journal—The House impeachment inquiry should be broadened to include President Biden’s unprecedented and unconstitutional refusal to enforce federal immigration laws. The president’s most basic constitutional duty is to enforce, or execute, the laws. The cause of the current immigration crisis is the Biden administration’s refusal to detain illegal aliens—including those seeking asylum—as the law requires. Instead, it is releasing them into the U.S.
Biden’s presidency marks a sea change in this regard. In December 2020 (under President Trump), the U.S. Border Patrol released 17 aliens into our country. Two years later, in December 2022 (under Biden), it released 140,355—more than 8,000 times as many. Almost all of these releases have been in defiance of federal law. Read more.
Folly and Redemption: Thirty Years After Black Hawk Down
The American Conservative—The niece of Medal of Honor-winner Randall Shughart, who died 30 years ago today in the Battle of Mogadishu (as captured in Black Hawk Down), honors her uncle’s memory—both by remembering his heroics and by highlighting lessons we should learn from the events leading to that fateful day. Rather than following our founders’ wise division of war powers—Congress decides whether we go to war, the president carries it out—we ended up in Somalia through a combination of advocacy by the press, pressure from the U.N., and executive decrees. With a possible engagement in Taiwan looming, we should heed Somalia’s lessons going forward. Read more.
Who’s Your Last Choice?
City Journal—Political parties once nominated consensus candidates who enjoyed a broad range of support within their own party. In that spirit, we asked likely voters of both parties, “Which person are you hoping will not win your party’s nomination for president?” The answers were revealing—and in some cases surprising—and they help provide a fuller picture of the state of the race. Read more.
The War for the Military
The American Mind—The U.S. Air Force Academy’s new DEI office openly proclaims that its mission is to “aid in the transformation” of cadets—as the battle between Americanists (who seek to preserve) and woke revolutionaries (who seek to transform) is now being waged on the preparatory grounds for future officers in the U.S. Armed Forces. Read more.
More Mask Hysteria
City Journal —As summer turns to fall, the maskaholics are attempting a comeback. They’re particularly eager to mask school-aged kids, for whom the CDC’s own stats show that Covid-19 has been only marginally more deadly than the flu.
Never mind that none of the 16 randomized controlled trials done on masks have provided compelling evidence that they work. Never mind that those who wear masks are effectively poisoning themselves by breathing in their own carbon dioxide. And never mind that masks are to human social interaction as water is to fire. The mask zealots don’t care—they have a myth to perpetuate. Read more
The Allure of Last Time’s Loser
City Journal—Over the past 30 years, parties that have nominated last time’s loser have gone 1-3 and have won just 36% of the electoral vote on average, while parties that have nominated "new blood" have gone 4-0 and won an average of 56% of the electoral vote. In light of this fact, it will be interesting to see whether either party will go with new blood this time around. Read more.
Black Americans Embrace Florida
American Greatness—Notwithstanding the NAACP’s ludicrous “travel advisory,” people of all races are moving to Florida in droves, as Governor DeSantis and the state legislature are standing up for everyday Americans against woke revolutionaries. The number of black people who live in Florida rose 5.5 percent from 2018 to 2021. That’s even more than the 4.5 percent increase in the state’s white population over that span—and more than three times the 1.6 percent increase in the overall U.S. population across that period. Read more.
Elon Musk Is Right: There’s Very Little White-on-Black Crime
American Greatness—Now that Elon Musk has dared to draw attention to a compelling editorial cartoon based on official federal crime statistics, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez suggests that corporations will refuse to advertise on Twitter—as those stats debunk the Left’s prevailing narrative about race and crime in the U.S. Read more.
Mask-Wearers Are Poisoning Themselves
The American Conservative—According to a new German study, research suggests that mask-wearers breathe in 35 to 80 times normal levels of carbon dioxide—and that some damage from breathing in too much CO2 may be irreversible. Read more.
Disney Blocks Access to Premier Military Resort
American Greatness—Located about a half-mile from Walt Disney World’s Polynesian Resort, the military-owned Shades of Green has long provided military families and veterans with easy access, on foot, to Disney’s monorail system, boats, and the Magic Kingdom itself—or at least it did until May 1, when Disney abruptly cut off such access (in connection with development approved by the Reedy Creek Improvement District). Read more.
The Harm Caused by Masks
City Journal—Evidence continues to mount that mask mandates were perhaps the worst public-health intervention in modern American history. Masks not only greatly compromise human social interaction, but a new German study says chronic exposure to 8 times the normal level of carbon dioxide is “toxic,” while research suggests that mask-wearers breathe in 35 to 80 times normal levels of CO2. Among other things, this can lead to high blood pressure, reduced thinking ability, respiratory problems, and reproductive concerns. The CDC has known about these reproductive concerns for decades, yet it has pushed for mask mandates that have forced pregnant women to breathe in levels of CO2 that would be prohibited if they were serving on a Navy sub. Read more.
The Mask of Ignorance
City Journal—The 2023 Cochrane review, the 2020 Cochrane review, and the author’s thorough 2021 review all find the same thing: that the best scientific evidence suggests masks do little to nothing to stop the spread of viruses (and might even be counterproductive). But the mask advocates’ faith transcends reason. They steadfastly believe in their totem and don’t think anyone should question its power. Read more.
Related Press
The John Steigerwald Show (starting at 28:30 on March 22, 2023)
Law & Liberty Podcast with Matt Whitaker
Grading Ben Sasse’s Paean to Civic Pluralism
Wall Street Journal—”By Mr. Sasse’s own definitions, the divide between “political zealots” and “civic pluralists” looks a lot like the divide between blue and red America, between woke revolutionaries and those who believe in the American Revolution.” Read more.
Getting the Candidate We Deserve
Claremont Review of Books—The current presidential-selection system was designed by the left wing of the Democratic party and doesn’t remotely serve Republicans or the nation well. It empowers donors, consultants, and the press corps, while marginalizing the grassroots. It favors the politically unemployed over those doing real work, and the “next in line” candidate over new blood. It should be replaced with a system that combines the best of old and new—one based on the process by which we ratified the Constitution. Read more.
Featured as a “Politico Playbook Recommended Reading.”
Americans Flee Mask Mandates
The American Conservative—In the Covid era, the list of states that Americans have fled from reads like a who’s who of mask-happy states, while the states that they’ve fled to are mostly states that had shorter mask mandates or no mask mandates at all—for example, California lost nearly enough people in net domestic migration to fill the city of San Francisco, while Florida gained more people than the population of Miami. Read more.
“Our Democracy,” Not Our Constitution
Claremont Review of Books—The Left loves “our democracy” (or at least that phrase) but not our Constitution, as it is now attacking the design of the Senate (specifically its equal-state representation) while its leading intellectuals are openly calling for violating the Constitution to change the Senate’s design—as “fixing democracy” allegedly requires “ignoring” the Constitution. In truth, the founders got it right, as equal-state representation offsets the effects of statewide voting and prevents big cities from disproportionately dominating the Senate at the expense of most American voters. Read more.
Save the Rose Bowl!
City Journal—One of the most iconic events in American sports is in danger of being lost, as under current plans for college football’s playoff expansion (from 4 teams to 12), next month’s game between Penn State and Utah will be the last scheduled Big Ten-Pac-12 Rose Bowl game in history—but the Rose Bowl (and the other historic bowl games) could be saved by making feasible modifications to the playoff expansion format. Read more.
The Election, By the Numbers
City Journal—In an election that generally defied expectations, voters actually conveyed a lot of information about what they want or don’t want: Seven-eighths as many people said they voted against former President Trump as against current President Biden; Republicans won by 26 percentage points among the 56% of voters who don’t think abortion should either always be legal or always be illegal; Democrats heeded voters’ expectations of candidate experience more than the GOP did; and a higher percentage of voters (46%) said they “strongly approve” of Ron DeSantis than of anyone else, while other non-establishment candidates like John Fetterman prevailed as well. Read more.
Related Press
The Wall Street Journal’s “Notable & Quotable,” November 21, 2022.
Power Line blog, November 19, 2022.
Rod Arquette Show, November 21, 2022.
What to Expect on Tuesday
American Greatness—In an election that’s a lot more about the government’s Covid response than most commentators will grant, the dynamics of the House races look a lot like they did six months ago, while ten competitive races (ranging from New Hampshire to Washington) will determine the outcome in the Senate. Read more.
Related Press
The Star News Network re-ran this article on November 8, 2022.
Ranking the 11 Competitive Senate Races
American Greatness—With fewer than three weeks to go, 11 Senate races look to be genuinely competitive. This will be the first time voters will have a chance to register their opinions in a federal election about COVID-related mask mandates, vaccine mandates, lockdowns, and out-of-control spending since the debate heated up in 2021. Those issues—and the attendant issue of parents discovering what the public schools are actually teaching their children—were massive factors in Glenn Youngkin’s victory in last year’s Virginia gubernatorial election. Read more.
Three Views on the Election: 538, RCP, and Cook
American Greatness—Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight incredibly gives Democrats essentially the same shot of holding the House as it gives Republicans of taking the Senate, RealClearPolitics gives Democrats almost no shot of holding the House and favors Republicans to win the Senate, and the Cook Political Report—properly decoded to account for its historical bias—mostly supports RCP. Read more.
Related Press
Steve Bannon’s War Room, October 10, 2022.
Criminal Neglect
City Journal—Providing further evidence of the real-world effects of soft-on-crime policies, newly released federal statistics (from the nation’s largest crime survey) find that violent crime rose almost 30% in urban areas—while not rising in suburban or rural areas—and the stats also reveal interesting information from victims about the demographics of perpetrators. Read more.
Learning from Lincoln on Abortion
American Greatness—Many of the same arguments that Abraham Lincoln made during the slavery debate apply today to the abortion debate, and his blend of rhetorical persuasiveness and political prudence provides an example for wise pro-lifers to follow. Read more
Related Press
National Review, “Lessons for Pro-Lifers Post-Dobbs”
Biden’s Unscientific Decree Bars a Champion from the U.S. Open
American Greatness—Novak Djokovic is being barred from playing in the U.S. Open not by the tournament, not by the U.S. Tennis Association, not even by the city of New York, but by the president of the United States—who acts like Covid is still as deadly as ever, like vaccines stop the virus’s spread, like natural immunity doesn’t exist, and (for that matter) like Congress doesn’t exist. Read more
The Evidence Shows George Soros is Wrong on Crime
Newsweek—George Soros claims in the Wall Street Journal that racial disparities in jails are “an injustice that undermines our democracy,” but official government statistics show that the racial demographics of prisoners match the racial demographics of perpetrators—according to victims—which further demonstrates that America is a land of justice. Read more
Biden Gives PredictIt Zero Chance of Survival
American Greatness—The website PredictIt is a very valuable resource because it’s about the only place where one can see what everyday Americans—as opposed to “experts”—think about future political events, and those opinions aren’t filtered through potentially biased pollsters. For example, PredictIt shows that Americans think Joe Biden has a 20% chance at reelection—and now the Biden administration is shutting the website down. Read more
Masks Still Don't Work
City Journal—On masks, the public-health establishment is ignoring “gold standard” randomized controlled trials in favor of anti-scientific wishful thinking, except when it comes to one RCT in Bangladesh that’s more like fool’s gold—as its highly flawed methodology produced results that no one would find convincing. Read more
Vin Scully Was the Best
American Greatness—The great Dodgers announcer Vin Scully was the voice of baseball, and hence of summer in America—and he was also a patriotic American who loved not just our national pastime but our nation itself. Read more
Denying Reality on Immigration
City Journal—The stats back up everyday Americans’ sense that something has gone badly awry with immigration, as they show that immigration has reshaped the composition of the population more in recent decades even than during the great waves of immigration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries—and they show the Biden administration’s utter failure to enforce federal immigration law. Read more
Related Press
Quoted in National Review Online’s “Morning Jolt” by Jim Geraghty, July 13, 2022
The Best Supreme Court Ruling in Almost 200 Years
American Greatness—In reversing one of the two worst decisions in Supreme Court history, and thereby striking a huge and historic blow for the Constitution and the cause of republican government, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization—the case that overturned Roe v. Wade—is the Supreme Court's finest ruling at least since the early days of the republic, when John Marshall and Joseph Story graced the Court. Read more
Roberts is Courting a Constitutional Crisis
American Greatness—While the press corps is pretending that the attempted assassination of Justice Kavanaugh is something other than front-page news, it’s now clear that Chief Justice Roberts is risking a constitutional crisis by waiting to release the majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization—as there doesn’t appear to have been a prior moment in our history when the potential killing of a justice could have had such consequential effects. Read more
In the Red: Our Glidepath to Insolvency
Claremont Review of Books—Since Ross Perot ran for president on an anti-debt message three decades ago, our national debt has risen from $4 trillion to $30 trillion—and it’s climbing fast. Almost unfathomably, we racked up more deficit spending in the twelve months of 2020 than during the four years of World War II—even after adjusting for inflation. Then we repeated that profligate feat in 2021. Read more
Related Press
Appearance on Tipping Point, May 30, 2022
George Will’s syndicated Washington Post column cites AMSI debt figures.
Anderson on “The Moment of Truth”
American Main Street Initiative president Jeff Anderson talks with American Moment’s Saurabh Sharma about the national debt, Obamacare, Jeff’s experience working in the Trump administration, and why you should care that Disney closed the Magic Kingdom’s most popular ride.
A Tyranny of the Minority
City Journal—In the wake of guest speakers’ criticism of Covid mandates and racial preferences, a college seeks to torpedo one of academia’s few remaining jewels by announcing that only “responsible opinion” will henceforth be tolerated—in what “could be the most extreme example of guest speaker censorship” that the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education “has seen in its more-than-20-year history.” Read more
King Joe Can’t Transfer Student-Loan Debt
American Greatness—Transferring hundreds of billions of dollars of student-loan debt (as President Biden is considering doing) would not only be unjust and irresponsible, but—far worse—would be a naked violation of our constitutional forms, a move more monarchical than republican. Read more
GOP Gains Could Be Twice What the Cook Political Report Predicts
American Greatness—The Democrats’ Covid policies and resulting inflation appear poised to cost them far more House and Senate seats than establishment pundits like the Cook Political Report are predicting. Read the article
Breaking the Grip of H.R.
The American Mind—If the federal government is to advance the goals of everyday Americans, rather than those of ideologically aligned federal employees, its insane hiring policies must be revised, its H.R. departments must be reined in, and the power and reach of OMB career staff must be reduced. Read the article
Let God, Not Marco, Decide the Placement of the Sun
American Greatness—Senator Marco Rubio’s knee-jerk quest to change the way Americans keep time, and the Senate’s inexplicable choice to acquiesce without debate, would result in 9:00 a.m. sunrises, Americans having to wake up an hour early, and most of the USA effectively being shifted one time zone to the east. Read more
Gas-Price Change, Not ‘Climate Change,’ Is What Matters to Americans
American Greatness—”There are few more easily observable measures of the cost of everyday living than the price of gasoline at the pump. As has been widely reported, gas prices in the United States recently hit a seven-year high. The striking thing, however, is not just how high gas prices have gotten, but how fast and far they have risen.” Read more
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New York Post editorial board excerpts the article in featured commentary
The Rod Arquette Show, February 17, 2022
Article ran again by the Star News Network in digital newspapers across 13 states
Kids Full of Life, Adults Obsessed with Death: The insanity of masking children—by the numbers
City Journal—”In general, Covid is mercifully sparing kids, yet adults are seemingly, inexplicably, targeting them, making them suffer needlessly and in defiance of the data—that is, in defiance of the science.” Read more
Related Press
Wall Street Journal, “Notable & Quotable”
Newsmax TV, The John Bachman Show, February 7, 2022
The Seth Leibsohn Show, February 3, 2022
The John Stiegerwald Show, February 4, 2022
Americans are Sick of Authoritarian Mandates
American Greatness—Americans have had it with the mask and vaccine mandates and are poised to express their displeasure at the ballot box with those who impose them. Read more
Let's Shed the Masks and Mandates—Omicron Stats Show We Can Stop Living in Fear
New York Post—Far from being a "pandemic of the unvaccinated" and unmasked—Covid is spreading faster in states with authoritarian mandates. Read more
Fit for a King
City Journal—“‘In republican governments, the legislative authority necessarily predominates,’ said James Madison. But what sort of government is it when the president thinks he can decree a nationwide vaccine mandate without the legislature’s involvement? Such a decree would seem to be more characteristic of an elective monarchy than a republic.” Read more
Don’t Trust the Washington Post on Masks
AMERICAN GREATNESS—"Washington Post reporter Salvador Rizzo...gave [Sen. Rand] Paul 'Four Pinocchios'...for saying that 'peer-reviewed studies of masks,' specifically an important study from Denmark, have found that masks 'didn’t work.'
"In truth, the best peer-reviewed studies of masks, taken in combination, provide little support for Biden’s mandates and much support for Paul’s statement." Read more
IDs to Dine, but Not to Vote
THE FEDERALIST—”Given Biden and other Democrats’ strong support for vaccine mandates, it’s illuminating to compare the vaccination ID requirements in Los Angeles to the voting ID requirements in places like Georgia that Biden and other leftists have strongly condemned…One of the major objections that Biden and his allies have had to the Georgia law is its enhanced ID requirements for proving one’s eligibility to vote. Contrast this with how supportive the left is of ID requirements for proving that one is vaccinated against COVID-19 and thus is worthy to participate in normal American life.” Read more
Why America Needs a Main Street Initiative
American Greatness—“Main Street-oriented policymakers need compelling intellectual support from outside groups—just as establishment-oriented policymakers enjoy abundant support for their efforts.” Read more.
Fred Barnes, Washington Free Beacon—”A new think tank unmasks the the left.”
Do Masks Work? A Review of the Evidence
CITY JOURNAL—”Since we are constantly told that the CDC and other public-health entities are basing their recommendations on science, it’s crucial to know what, specifically, has been found in various medical studies. Significant choices about how our republic should function cannot be made on the basis of science alone—they require judgment and the weighing of countless considerations—but they must be informed by knowledge of it.
“In truth, the CDC’s, U.K.’s, and WHO’s earlier guidance was much more consistent with the best medical research on masks’ effectiveness in preventing the spread of viruses. That research suggests that Americans’ many months of mask-wearing has likely provided little to no health benefit and might even have been counterproductive in preventing the spread of the novel coronavirus.” Read more
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Radio Interviews
The Richard Syrett Show, August 23, 2021
Chicago’s Morning Answer, August 18, 2021
The Mark Reardon Show, August 12, 2021
The Seth Leibsohn Show, August 12, 2021
Articles and Summaries about “Do Masks Work?”
Washington Examiner, “Do masks actually work? The best studies suggest they don't”
New York Post, “Power-seeking pols are trying to create a never-ending pandemic”
Tennessee Star, “Science on Mask Usage Indicates Scant Benefit”
The Masking of America
Claremont Review of Books—”Many Americans have been taught to believe that masks work—at least a little—and that wearing them comes at a minimal cost. Nearly the opposite is true. The best scientific evidence invites a far less rosy assessment of masks’ effectiveness than is broadcast by public health officials. And the dubious health benefits of widespread mask-wearing come at an enormous social cost, which is almost never acknowledged by those writing and enforcing the mandates.” Read more
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Tucker Carlson Tonight, “Jeffrey Anderson: Masked faces undermines human individuality”
“What’s the harm [in requiring masks]? Jeffrey Anderson, maybe more than anyone in recent months, has thought deeply about that question. He just wrote...‘The Masking of America,’ which we strongly recommend.” — Tucker Carlson
Podcast—A Close Read, “Jeffrey Anderson on America’s Mask Regime”
Stop Teaching Cadets Anti-American Racial Marxism
The Federalist—”In a recent Washington Post op-ed, United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) political science professor Lynne Chandler Garcia celebrated teaching critical race theory (CRT) to cadets. As a former USAFA political science professor who taught the same courses Garcia now teaches, I find her commitment to teaching CRT a dangerous hindrance to forming good citizens, effective leaders, and future Air Force commanders.
“Far worse than just a waste of taxpayer money, such teaching undermines American ideals and military camaraderie, substituting leftist dogma for the inculcation of genuine wisdom in our future officer corps.” Read more
How The Backlash Against Major League Baseball Could Help Save America
The Federalist—”It seems to have taken the politicization of the National Pastime to make Americans fully aware of the politicization of the country—and to be moved to take a firm stand against it. Baseball’s actions seem to have angered people more than any other woke corporate gesture to date. When the likes of Daniel Henninger, deputy editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial pages, calls for boycotting Major League Baseball, the response is clearly not limited to the extreme fringe.
“Moving the All-Star Game is hardly the first of Manfred’s heresies. He has a long track record of progressive leanings and disregard for tradition in his management of the game.” Read more
Biden's 'infrastructure' plan would cost $809,000 per job
Washington Examiner—”President Joe Biden’s ‘infrastructure’ plan is called the American Jobs Plan, but it doesn’t focus much on infrastructure and wouldn’t create many jobs. A more appropriate name for the $2.2 trillion proposal would be the ‘American Debt Plan.’…Moody’s Analytics projects that Biden’s ‘infrastructure’ plan would result in there being 2.7 million additional nonfarm jobs by 2030 at a total cost of $2,183,800,000,000. That works out to $809,000 per job — nearly three times as much as those under Obama’s failed ‘stimulus’ bill. Yet Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said that creating fewer than 3 million jobs at the cost of more than $2 trillion ‘is a great place to be.’” Read more
Biden, Claiming ‘Systemic Racism’ in Policing, Defies Science
Wall Street Journal—”In a report released days before Mr. Biden’s inauguration, the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics examined whether people of different races were arrested to a degree that was disproportionate to their involvement in crime. The report concluded that there was no statistically significant difference by race between how likely people were to commit serious violent crimes and how likely they were to be arrested. In other words, the data suggested that police officers and sheriff’s deputies focus on criminals’ actions, not their race.” Read more