Roger Kimball – American Greatness

Plot Twists and Power Plays: The Changing Face of Global Politics

Roger Kimball — Sun, 21 Jul 2024 07:00:28 +0000

Aficionados of old-style mystery novels savor the skill with which their authors ravel and then unravel the plot twists that fuel their books. The simple […]

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A New Offensive: Trump, the GOP, and the Battle for America’s Future

Roger Kimball — Sun, 14 Jul 2024 07:00:27 +0000

Having just spent a week padding about battle sites around Verdun and the Somme, I could not help but register the historical vibration of certain […]

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SCOTUS Rulings, Biden-Trump Debate Shake Up Political Landscape

Roger Kimball — Sun, 30 Jun 2024 07:00:18 +0000

What a week it’s been! We started off with Justice Amy Souter Barrett writing the SCOTUS ruling in Murthy v. Missouri. At issue was whether it […]

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Some Unsolicited Advice

Roger Kimball — Sun, 23 Jun 2024 08:56:00 +0000

As all the world knows, Donald Trump is scheduled to debate Joe Biden this coming Thursday, June 27 [I had July! Sorry for the error], […]

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Further thoughts about the foreseeable future

Roger Kimball — Sun, 16 Jun 2024 07:00:05 +0000

Some years ago, five or six years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, I was asked to participate in a conference […]

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Facebook Post Sparks Debate Over Possible Mistrial in Trump Case

Roger Kimball — Sun, 09 Jun 2024 07:00:42 +0000

I think that it was the great Miranda Devine, she of the “laptop from hell” fame, who first called the world’s attention to the latest […]

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Trump’s Trial Is a Symptom of a Larger Crisis in American Justice

Roger Kimball — Sun, 02 Jun 2024 07:00:23 +0000

Naturally, the cataract of commentary on Thursday’s Stalinist guilty, guilty, guilty verdict against Donald Trump has divided itself into two distinct pools. One is gleeful. The other […]

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Defying the Odds: Trump’s Bronx Speech and Its Impact

Roger Kimball — Sun, 26 May 2024 07:00:52 +0000

Donald Trump’s Bronx rally on Thursday was memorable not only for its display of political virility in a foreign—i.e., Democrat—clime but also for the rhetorical […]

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The new anti-Americanism

Roger Kimball — Sun, 19 May 2024 07:00:49 +0000

I wonder if Empire—the nearly 500-page reader-proof tome by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri—is about to make a comeback. The book has long-since disappeared into […]

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Beyond Reason: How Shame and Disgust Shape Law and Society

Roger Kimball — Sun, 12 May 2024 07:00:56 +0000

Some time ago, I participated in a conference about “policing in an age of terror.” One big topic was the place of informed hunches in […]

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From Idealism to Irresponsibility: Comparing College Protests Then and Now

Roger Kimball — Sun, 05 May 2024 07:00:50 +0000

Like every major college protest since the 1960s, the pro-Palestinian—which is to say, the anti-Israel—protests sweeping college campuses today have early and often been compared […]

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Shock and Awe on the Campaign Trail

Roger Kimball — Sun, 28 Apr 2024 07:00:43 +0000

I would wager that a million or more words have been written about the trials and tribulations—but especially the trials—of Donald Trump. I have written […]

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Socialism’s Survival: The Endurance of an Ideological Paradox

Roger Kimball — Sun, 21 Apr 2024 07:00:17 +0000

I have written about the death and rebirth of socialism periodically over the years. But as André Gide said in another context, “Toutes choses sont […]

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The Battle Begins: Trump’s Trial Tests American Justice

Roger Kimball — Sun, 14 Apr 2024 07:00:03 +0000

Monday, April 15, 2024, is not only Tax Day in the United States. It is also the day that this country will take another fateful […]

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Navigating the Vibe Shift of a Cultural Reckoning

Roger Kimball — Sun, 07 Apr 2024 08:00:29 +0000

We have been hearing a lot about a “vibe shift” in American culture recently. The phrase has been around for a while. It gained new […]

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Easter Reflections: George Washington’s Farewell Address in Today’s America

Roger Kimball — Sun, 31 Mar 2024 08:00:35 +0000

Sitting down the day before Easter, I thought I might say something about this most awful (in the old sense) holiday in the Christian calendar. […]

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Bobulinski’s Testimony: Unraveling Allegations of Biden Family Influence Peddling

Roger Kimball — Sun, 24 Mar 2024 08:00:43 +0000

The entertainment committee never sleeps. Hunter Biden’s former business partner Tony Bobulinski came to Congress a few days ago to testify before the House Oversight […]

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Law and Order in Flux: Crafting a New Image for Justice in America

Roger Kimball — Sun, 17 Mar 2024 08:00:36 +0000

Were I of a more entrepreneurial bent, I might go into the statuary business. I would specialize in those statues of “Justice” one sees, or […]

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The Treason of the Intellectuals & ‘the Undoing of Thought’

Roger Kimball — Sun, 10 Mar 2024 09:00:41 +0000

Last week, the commentator Lee Smith had me on “Words That Matter,” his show for Epoch TV. He had recently come across an essay I […]

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Election Countdown: Trump Surges in Swing States Amid Legal Turmoil

Roger Kimball — Sun, 03 Mar 2024 09:00:20 +0000

When is Jack Smith’s birthday? Someone should give him a copy of the Justice Department’s manual with a bookmark in Section 9-85.500 “Actions that may […]

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Nikki Haley’s Campaign Faces Trump Win in South Carolina Showdown

Roger Kimball — Sun, 25 Feb 2024 10:00:16 +0000

By the time you read this, Nikki Haley will be toast in South Carolina. She will lose by double digits, though the psephologists differ about […]

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Fraud Allegations and Financial Fiascos: The Saga of Trump’s Legal Battles

Roger Kimball — Sun, 18 Feb 2024 10:00:21 +0000

How do you spell “persecution?” How about “D-o-n-a-l-d T-r-u-m-p?” It sometimes seems that the entire judicial apparatus of the state has been mobilized against the […]

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Examining the Controversy Surrounding Tucker Carlson’s Interview with Putin

Roger Kimball — Sun, 11 Feb 2024 10:00:01 +0000

I wonder if there is a central clearing office that issues regular updates about what nasty dictators one is allowed to engage with and which […]

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Democracy in Decline: The Subversion of Rule of Law

Roger Kimball — Sun, 04 Feb 2024 10:00:23 +0000

A friend recently wrote me to offer a sharp formulation of a distinction I have often written about myself. Regular readers know that I am […]

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Our Democracy™: The Democratic Weaponization of Government and the Need for Decentralization

Roger Kimball — Sun, 28 Jan 2024 10:00:05 +0000

Reading Matt Taibbi’s summary how the Democrats weaponized the government against Donald Trump, starting before the election of 2016 and proceeding right up to the present […]

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Ramaswamy Defies New York Times Narrative: Suspends Campaign, Backs Trump

Roger Kimball — Sun, 21 Jan 2024 10:00:32 +0000

No one was surprised that Vivek Ramaswamy decided to suspend his campaign for the presidency after his poor showing in Iowa. Although he was by […]

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Trump’s Resurgence Draws Parallels to Reagan’s 1980 Upset Victory

Roger Kimball — Sun, 14 Jan 2024 10:00:26 +0000

The 2024 presidential election is still more than 10 months away, but already there is a lot of déjà vu all over again about the […]

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From Insurrection to Satire: Biden’s Valley Forge Speech Fails to Cement the Trump-Dictator Narrative

Roger Kimball — Sun, 07 Jan 2024 10:00:30 +0000

How deeply has Donald Trump burrowed into the psyche of the Democratic establishment? I’d say the takeover is nearly total. For proof, you need only […]

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The Pitfalls of Benevolence: Unpacking the Toxic Mix of Universal Good Intentions and Political Correctness in the New Year

Roger Kimball — Sun, 31 Dec 2023 10:00:36 +0000

New Year’s is traditionally a time for reassessment and meditation. Wise sayings and saws are dredged up for reconsideration even as the chorus is getting […]

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Will The Guardians of The Narrative Win?

Roger Kimball — Sun, 24 Dec 2023 10:00:30 +0000

Much that is happening in the spectacle of America’s legal-political life today reminds me of some pages in Johan Huizinga’s great book Homo Ludens: A Study […]

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‘Liberty and Justice For All’ – A Tattered Cliche?

Roger Kimball — Sun, 17 Dec 2023 10:00:10 +0000

Throughout history, the tyrannical abuse of governmental power has been a fearsome thing to behold. Wise men instituted laws in an effort to tame that […]

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The Son-Of-A-Gun-Number-One-Son Might Just Toss Pops Under the Bus

Roger Kimball — Sun, 10 Dec 2023 10:00:36 +0000

So we finally have a serious indictment of Hunter Biden. Well, half-serious. After having been stiffed by lawyers for Biden fils, special counsel David Weiss removed one […]

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Richard M. Weaver’s ‘Ideas Have Consequences’ at 75

Roger Kimball — Sun, 03 Dec 2023 10:00:09 +0000

Last week, I particpated in a conference on the work of the Southern writer Richard M. Weaver hosted by The Buckley Institute in New Haven. The […]

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Election of Milei, Wilders and Cogswell Has the Left Worried

Roger Kimball — Sun, 26 Nov 2023 10:00:49 +0000

Is there a disturbance in the force? I think there might be. In just the last week, the chainsaw-wielding “anarcho-capitalist” Javier Milei won the presidential […]

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Flirtation With Evil Will Not End Well for Leftists

Roger Kimball — Sun, 19 Nov 2023 10:00:13 +0000

Has the TikTok Left just jumped the shark? Well, yes. Imagine seizing on Osama bin Laden’s 2002 “Letter to the American People” as a revelation […]

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Karl Misinterprets Polls; Voters Do Want Trump

Roger Kimball — Sun, 12 Nov 2023 10:00:13 +0000

These days, I am often plagued by the nagging sense that I really don’t understand the dynamics of contemporary politics. It pains to admit that […]

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This Time Israel Will Finish The Job

Roger Kimball — Sun, 05 Nov 2023 12:53:36 +0000

There are many reasons for any sane person to regret the existence of Hamas, the savage Sunni Muslim militia that controls the Gaza Strip in […]

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The George Floyd, Jr. Narrative Unraveled

Roger Kimball — Sun, 22 Oct 2023 10:00:25 +0000

I wonder what Derek Chauvin is thinking these days? He’s the former Minneapolis cop who became the Scapegoat Number One after George Floyd—sorry, St. George Floyd—died from […]

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A Review of Satirist Juvenal in This Mad, Mad World

Roger Kimball — Sun, 15 Oct 2023 10:00:29 +0000

I have often noted here the difficulty our progressive and enlightened age poses for the art of satire. Satire depends on some palpable distance between […]

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Thoughts on Proclamation 7463, or ‘Digital McCarthyism’ on the Move

Roger Kimball — Sun, 08 Oct 2023 10:00:01 +0000

On September 14, 2001, George W. Bush, exercising “the power vested in [him] as President of the Untied States,” issued Proclamation 7463, a “Declaration of National […]

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RFK Jr. as Independent Would Propel Trump to Deliver Crushing Blow

Roger Kimball — Sun, 01 Oct 2023 10:00:32 +0000

So it looks as if Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is just about to turn up the volume. It was bad enough for the Democratic establishment […]

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We Know Exactly What ‘De-Development’ Means

Roger Kimball — Sun, 24 Sep 2023 10:00:05 +0000

“The climate crisis,” said Al Gore at the U.N. a couple of days ago, “is a fossil fuel crisis.” “What climate crisis?” you might be […]

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The Abnormal as the New Normal

Roger Kimball — Thu, 21 Sep 2023 10:00:08 +0000

For many decades now, conservatives in the United States and elsewhere have faced a dilemma. By disposition, conservatives are inclined to endorse precedent. But since the […]

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What is “The Right Way To Lead Life”?

Roger Kimball — Sun, 17 Sep 2023 10:00:17 +0000

In a famous passage of Plato’s Republic, Socrates admonishes his young friend Glaucon (who, incidentally, was also Plato’s older brother) that what they are talking about “is […]

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A Civil Rights Catastrophe at New College of Florida

Roger Kimball — Sun, 10 Sep 2023 10:00:01 +0000

How’s this crumpet to accompany the morning tea? Under the rubric “insanity” a friend just wrote with the news that the Department of Education has opened a […]

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Only Thing Today’s Avant-Garde ‘Artists’ Challenge is Our Patience

Roger Kimball — Sun, 03 Sep 2023 10:03:51 +0000

Let’s take a break from the depressing world of politics and talk for a moment about the equally depressing subject of the art world. What […]

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Trump’s Job for Vivek: Czar in Charge of Swamp Drainage

Roger Kimball — Sun, 27 Aug 2023 10:00:49 +0000

It’s only been a few days since the first GOP debate, but already the kettle of journalist-vultures have gorged themselves on the carrion, their frenzied […]

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Uniparty’s Plan to Save ‘Our Democracy™’ Unfolds

Roger Kimball — Sun, 20 Aug 2023 10:00:42 +0000

The fish are plentiful today. There’s Hunter Biden and his various lies: about the sources of his prodigious income, his payment (that is, non-payment) of […]

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Introducing Contempt of Public

Roger Kimball — Sun, 13 Aug 2023 10:00:58 +0000

We have all heard about contempt of court and contempt of Congress. They are offenses for which one may be fined or jailed. But what […]

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Joe Biden’s Weather Report

Roger Kimball — Sun, 06 Aug 2023 10:00:42 +0000

It was only recently that I have come to understand what a deep bench of comic talent the Democrats command. Consider Rep. Daniel Goldman (D-NY). […]

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