Matt Walsh

In the end, it was air travel, of all things, that ended the longest government shutdown in United States history. That was the point of failure. We just shut down the federal government for 43 days, which runs a budget of around $6 trillion a year, and nothing of value broke during that period — nothing at all — until the flight cancellations and delays started ramping up within the last few days. It wasn’t until the air traffic controllers walked off the job that a single American had any good reason to complain about the shutdown.As much as I’m loath to talk about federal government shutdowns — they are, in every case, a waste of time that benefits no one — this one actually turned out to be a pretty interesting experiment. It was a stress test that exposed some key weaknesses in the conservative movement, as well as the way the federal government works. And before the next funding bill is voted on — which will take place at the end of January, apparently — it’s worth shoring

In the end, it was air travel, of all things, that ended the longest government shutdown in United States history. That was the point of failure. We just shut down the federal government for 43 days, which runs a budget of around $6 trillion a year, and nothing of value broke during that period — nothing at all — until the flight cancellations and delays started ramping up within the last few days. It wasn’t until the air traffic controllers walked off the job that a single American had any good reason to complain about the shutdown.As much as I’m loath to talk about federal government shutdowns — they are, in every case, a waste of time that benefits no one — this one actually turned out to be a pretty interesting experiment. It was a stress test that exposed some key weaknesses in the conservative movement, as well as the way the federal government works. And before the next funding bill is voted on — which will take place at the end of January, apparently — it’s worth shoring

Even if your name isn’t Joe Biden, it’s still very easy to forget pretty much everything the Biden administration attempted to do during their four years in office. It’s one of those administrations that everyone, regardless of party affiliation, wants to wipe from memory as soon as possible. Biden was obviously a historic failure, whose only legacy — if you can even call it that — is employing operatives who hunted down and jailed the political opponents of the Democratic Party.But especially if you’re a young person right now, and you’re trying to buy your first home and take part in a foundational component of the American dream, it’s important to take a step back and consider very carefully what the Biden administration attempted to do. At every turn, the Biden White House took pains to make home ownership more challenging and more expensive for American citizens. In retrospect, you can make the case that this was, in fact, the primary goal of the Biden administrati

When we talked about the rise of Somali clan warfare in American politics the other day, admittedly, the evidence was mostly anecdotal. There were a few reports and social media posts claiming that thousands of Somalis in Minneapolis had rejected Omar Fateh, the Somali mayoral candidate, because he belonged to the Darood clan. You see, according to these social media posts, many Somalis in Minneapolis are members of the rival Hawiye clan, and they’d rather abstain — or even vote for Jacob Frey, a white guy — rather than betray their clan’s honor and support Omar Fateh. That’s how deep these clan loyalties supposedly go.If all of this is true, it may be the clearest sign yet — among many, many others — that all migration from Somalia needs to be terminated immediately. Additionally, Somalia’s “temporary protected status,” which has shielded Somalis from deportation for decades for no discernible reason whatsoever, must be revoked as well. Whatever your position on im

When we talked about the rise of Somali clan warfare in American politics the other day, admittedly, the evidence was mostly anecdotal. There were a few reports and social media posts claiming that thousands of Somalis in Minneapolis had rejected Omar Fateh, the Somali mayoral candidate, because he belonged to the Darood clan. You see, according to these social media posts, many Somalis in Minneapolis are members of the rival Hawiye clan, and they’d rather abstain — or even vote for Jacob Frey, a white guy — rather than betray their clan’s honor and support Omar Fateh. That’s how deep these clan loyalties supposedly go.If all of this is true, it may be the clearest sign yet — among many, many others — that all migration from Somalia needs to be terminated immediately. Additionally, Somalia’s “temporary protected status,” which has shielded Somalis from deportation for decades for no discernible reason whatsoever, must be revoked as well. Whatever your position on im

There was one result from last week’s elections that, as you may remember, actually seemed like a tiny sliver of good news. And it came, of all places, from the city of Minneapolis — otherwise known as Little Mogadishu, otherwise known as the single worst place in the world to spend a fake $20 bill. Despite concerns that a Muslim socialist from Somalia named Omar Fateh would win the mayor’s race, ultimately, Fateh was defeated. The incumbent Democrat, Jacob Frey, emerged victorious by around 8,000 votes.Frey, of course, is a weasel and a terrible politician. He’s most famous for genuflecting and pretending to cry before George Floyd’s golden casket. But Frey, for all his many obvious faults, was not the worst-case scenario. There were a small number of very bad ideas he opposed, believe it or not. Omar Fateh, on the other hand, would have been the Zohran Mamdani of Minneapolis. He wanted rent control. He wanted to dismantle the police department. And above all, he wanted to loot the

There was one result from last week’s elections that, as you may remember, actually seemed like a tiny sliver of good news. And it came, of all places, from the city of Minneapolis — otherwise known as Little Mogadishu, otherwise known as the single worst place in the world to spend a fake $20 bill. Despite concerns that a Muslim socialist from Somalia named Omar Fateh would win the mayor’s race, ultimately, Fateh was defeated. The incumbent Democrat, Jacob Frey, emerged victorious by around 8,000 votes.Frey, of course, is a weasel and a terrible politician. He’s most famous for genuflecting and pretending to cry before George Floyd’s golden casket. But Frey, for all his many obvious faults, was not the worst-case scenario. There were a small number of very bad ideas he opposed, believe it or not. Omar Fateh, on the other hand, would have been the Zohran Mamdani of Minneapolis. He wanted rent control. He wanted to dismantle the police department. And above all, he wanted to loot the

Now that we have a more complete picture of what happened on Election Day, it’s tempting to come to the conclusion that the “America First” movement is in a lot of trouble. Certainly, a lot of commentators are attempting to make that point, from both the Left and the Right. And for the most part, they’re off the mark.For example, I saw some posts talking about how, in the Atlanta metro area on Tuesday, Democrats managed to flip counties that went for Donald Trump last year by 25 points, 26 points, and 28 points. And those figures sound really striking — after all, how could any county go from overwhelmingly supporting Donald Trump to voting Democrat, in just one year? How could these numbers possibly be accurate, unless MAGA is on its last legs?The problem with this analysis is that, on Tuesday, turnout in Georgia was only about 20%. Hardly anyone voted because it’s an off-year election. And the race didn’t have any national implications whatsoever, so the people who did

Now that we have a more complete picture of what happened on Election Day, it’s tempting to come to the conclusion that the “America First” movement is in a lot of trouble. Certainly, a lot of commentators are attempting to make that point, from both the Left and the Right. And for the most part, they’re off the mark.For example, I saw some posts talking about how, in the Atlanta metro area on Tuesday, Democrats managed to flip counties that went for Donald Trump last year by 25 points, 26 points, and 28 points. And those figures sound really striking — after all, how could any county go from overwhelmingly supporting Donald Trump to voting Democrat, in just one year? How could these numbers possibly be accurate, unless MAGA is on its last legs?The problem with this analysis is that, on Tuesday, turnout in Georgia was only about 20%. Hardly anyone voted because it’s an off-year election. And the race didn’t have any national implications whatsoever, so the people who did

Yesterday was the single most clarifying day in American politics since the election of Donald Trump in 2016.When I say “clarifying,” I don’t mean that it was the most consequential day in American politics. There have been plenty of days that were far more important, in terms of their raw impact on millions of people, over the last decade.But no day has been anywhere near as illuminating as this one. No one day has done a better job of showing us where the battle lines are — what’s important and what’s not — at a time when pretty much every prominent commentator and politician on the Right is picking a wildly different target. Less than two months ago, one of the leading Republicans in the Senate — a man I respect — was going after the vice president of the United States for not reading “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Hasn’t the vice president heard of the fictional character Atticus Finch, asked Senator Rand Paul, as the Pentagon sent drug traffickers to the