Pete Spiliakos

My On The Square column today is about how Republicans underperform even among African-Americans and Latinos who express right-leaning policy preferences. Basically, the lack of a Republican agenda that takes into account the struggles of much of the lower-middle-class makes it easier for Democrats . . . . Continue Reading »

Is the Supreme Court’s decision to make it easier for states to institute voter ID laws a gift to the center left? So argues Ross Douthat, who points out that while voter IDs do not seem to have driven down voting by nonwhites in 2012, there is reason to think that the left can use them to rally public opinion against the return of Jim Crow-type disenfranchisement… . Continue Reading »

Bobby Jindal has written an article on immigration reform. Reihan Salam comes down pretty hard on it . Jindal is against the Gang of Eight plan, but the main difference I see between Jindal and the Gang of Eight is that Jindal wants the process of certifying the border secure to happen before the . . . . Continue Reading »

Thoughts on the politics of abortion over at National Review Online. . . . . Continue Reading »

 How many Americans have heard about Wendy Davis?   How many Americans have heard of Davis based on the fawning descriptions of liberal-leaning journalists?   How many Americans have never seen, on their television, a sonogram of a late-term fetus combined with a description of . . . . Continue Reading »

The employer interests are investing heavily in trying to convince conservatives that the Gang of Eight plan is something other than an amnesty-now, enforcement-maybe never plan that will sharply increase low-skill immigration.  Maybe the most insulting thing in the whole debate is Mark . . . . Continue Reading »

So I saw Man of Steel again and here are some thoughts, 1. Peter Lawler’s subversive interpretation of the Republic-in-speech is also the film’s subversive interpretation of the Republic-in-speech. 2. Zod’s tragedy is that he has completely collapsed the categories of good man and . . . . Continue Reading »

1. If your bitterest ideological opponents in the other coalition are saying that you have to follow their advice and support their policy preferences in order to avoid your doom, then you know you are getting bad advice. So don’t do what they want. Figure out what works for you. 2. Imagine if a . . . . Continue Reading »

Jeffrey H. Anderson and Jay Cost have a lengthy and interesting National Affairs article on reforming the Republican nominating process. I think their institutional analysis is worthwhile (though I am not entirely convinced), but some of the problems of the Republican nominating process are only . . . . Continue Reading »

James Pethokoukis (who is usually one of my favorite bloggers) points to this study which argues that the US usually has a shortage of low-skill labor despite a thirty year decline in wages for low-skill workers. It turns out that even though the unemployment rate of workers with less than a high . . . . Continue Reading »