About Peter Beinart

Peter Beinart is an American columnist, journalist, and political commentator. A former editor of The New Republic, he has also written for Time, and The New York Times among other periodicals. He is also the author of three books. You can follow him on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/peterbeinart, and on Substack at: https://peterbeinart.substack.com

Will the Left Go Too Far?

If you gauge the climate inside the Democratic Party merely by which candidates won its 2018 primaries, you might think reports of its leftward lurch are exaggerated. Despite the hoopla about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s and Ayanna Pressley’s upset victories in congressional races in New York and Massachusetts, not a single incumbent Democratic governor or senator lost a primary to a left-leaning challenger. …

2018-11-13T09:03:51-05:00By |

Trump Bet Conservatives Wouldn’t Denounce His Racist Ad. He Won

In the Trump era, when every day brings fresh insanity, looking back is hard. But it’s worth remembering what Donald Trump did in the final days before Tuesday’s midterm elections. It’s worth remembering because it’s a template for what he may do in 2020. And for how mainstream conservatives will respond. …

2018-11-13T08:54:15-05:00By |

The Harsh Truth Exposed by the Midterm Elections

The story line coming out of Tuesday’s midterm elections will be: The two Americas drift further apart. Republicans expanded their majority in the Senate by cleaning out Democrats in states that voted for Donald Trump. Democrats won the House by cleaning out Republicans in districts that voted for Hillary Clinton. In the next Congress, Democrats will be even more liberal. Republicans will be even more ...

2018-11-13T08:48:22-05:00By |

Blaming ‘Both Sides’ For Political Rage Is Ignorant – And Immoral

I logged onto Twitter on Saturday night to find a message from Alan Dershowitz. “The both sides argument is always proper,” he tweeted. “Blaming only one side— the “other” side— is too easy. The shoe on the other foot test requires that you condemn your side’s bigots along with their side’s.” “Shootings at places of worship, targeting of lawmakers playing baseball, & mailing pipe bombs ...

2018-11-13T08:44:27-05:00By |

How Trumpian Nativism Leads to Anti-Semitism

In May 2016, Ben Shapiro—arguably the most influential conservative Jewish pundit in America—did something admirable. He admitted he was wrong. “I’ve spent most of my career arguing that anti-Semitism in the United States is almost entirely a product of the political Left,” Shapiro wrote. “The anti-Semitism I’d heard about from my grandparents — the country-club anti-Semitism, the alleged white-supremacist leanings of rednecks from the backwoods—was a ...

2018-11-02T08:43:21-04:00By |

Trump Shut Programs to Counter Violent Extremism

Set aside the question of whether President Donald Trump’s rhetorical flirtations with white nationalism enabled Saturday’s mass shooting in Pittsburgh. What’s undeniable is that his administration has hobbled the infrastructure designed to prevent such murders. …

2018-11-01T09:39:18-04:00By |

The Special Kind Of Hate That Drove Pittsburgh Shooter — And Trump

It happened on Parshat Vayera. The worst anti-Semitic attack in American history occurred while Jews around the world were reading the Torah portion that tells the story of Lot, an immigrant. Lot moves to Sodom, and prospers there. The Midrash says he becomes a judge. His daughters intermarry with the locals. Then one day, while sitting at the gates of the city, the assimilating immigrant ...

2018-11-01T09:21:24-04:00By |

Trump’s New Cold War

Many people in Washington are angry at the Trump administration’s coddling of Saudi Arabia. They’re angry at Donald Trump’s efforts to exonerate Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for Jamal Khashoggi’s murder. Outrage is spreading to America’s participation in Riyadh’s war in Yemen, where a Saudi blockade on the country’s main port has left 8 million at risk of starvation. Good. Given that the U.S. military is providing ...

2018-11-01T09:24:54-04:00By |

Bernie Sanders Offers a Foreign Policy for the Common Man

Last Tuesday, Bernie Sanders delivered a speech entitled “A Global Democratic Movement to Counter Authoritarianism.” In so doing, he resurrected the legacy of a man mostly forgotten by the makers of American foreign policy: Henry Wallace. Wallace is best known for his renegade 1948 presidential run, in which he argued for cooperation—not cold war—with the Soviet Union. But his most significant statement on foreign policy came six ...

2018-10-19T09:04:32-04:00By |
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