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Can Iran Replace Israel?

July 7, 2026•

Under the dictatorship of the Shah, Iran was a close U.S. ally. There are tantalizing indications that American policymakers are looking to recreate that Cold War-era partnership and kick Israel to the curb. This seems crazy. Just a few months ago, the Trump administration and Israel went to war together against Iran, assassinated its Supreme Leader and other top officials and attempted to decimate its military and spark a popular uprising against the government. Against the odds, Iran prevailed by leveraging its control of the Strait of Hormuz—through which 20% of the world’s oil (and thus much of its economy) flows. Iran flipped the script, transforming U.S. bases in the Gulf from encircling threats to convenient targets. Lest there be any doubt, 92% of Israelis—in a right-wing apartheid state whose Left has been hollowed out and radicalized by Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack—say they believe that Iran has won. The Islamic Republic has emerged with newfound respect not only from…

Is This Column Real?

June 23, 2026•

Ted Rall

During the pandemic, I did something stupid: I published a book. Bookstores were closed, so authors obviously could not promote their books by going on tour. Like a lot of other titles that came out in 2021, “The Stringer”—a graphic novel written by me and drawn by Pablo Callejo—got lost in the shuffle. Too bad, and not just for my bottom line. It was a good read about an important topic: deepfakes. What would happen, I wondered after considering the intersection of underemployed reporters in an age of decline with their deep connections to the dangerous places some of them cover, if a rogue journalist were to manipulate global politics—and even start wars—by creating fake imagery and audio of world leaders insulting one another? Behind that question lies a deeper philosophical and psychological concern. What do human beings do after they come to accept that they cannot believe anything they read, hear, or see? What if there is no reliable…

Proportionality Matters

June 17, 2026•

Ted Rall

Every person who has either participated in or witnessed a fight understands the doctrine of “he started it.” The fight begins with a provocation followed by a response. That same reasoning extends to politics and war. What has gotten lost between third grade and the septuagenarians who determine our fates however is an equally common-sense ethical norm: proportionality. A verbal insult rarely justifies a physical attack. Even when the provocation takes the form of violence, retaliation must be proportional. Getting punched in the face once certainly justifies punching your assailant once in the face—maybe twice or three times—but not fifteen times nor stabbing or shooting them. Victimhood is not a blank check. Being wronged does not give you license to do anything you want in response. Action provokes reaction; action never justifies overreaction. This doctrine is codified in the laws of all 50 states. If you are assaulted, you can only use the amount of force that a reasonable person…

Hey, Women: A Little Help, Please?

June 8, 2026•

Ted Rall

Even if you haven’t geeked out over the “boy problem,” you’re probably aware of the well-documented evidence that boys and men are struggling. Boys lag behind girls in school and graduate at lower rates. Women now comprise the overwhelming majority of college students and graduates. Boys are far more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD, get into administrative and legal trouble, and drop out. Three to five times as many men as women commit suicide. Men and boys abuse drugs more and OD more. And no wonder: dudes don’t have much to look forward to. Traditionally male jobs in manufacturing, construction, and physical labor are disappearing. Male workforce participation is plunging. Real wages for many guys have been falling since the late 1970s. Proponents of equity deny reality: jobs, money, and social status are zero-sum games. Every gig, prize, and pay raise that goes to a woman—fixing the systemic injustice of sexism—is one for which a guy has been passed…

America’s Bleak 250th

June 1, 2026•

Ted Rall

Not least because I was 12 years old, the Bicentennial festivities felt very different from this year’s 250th birthday celebrations for the United States. This being America, commercialization was inevitable—everything was red, white and blue and was official whatever of the shindig. Overall, though, 1976 was a non-partisan affair despite being an election year following a major scandal. No one seemed to think it should be otherwise. Aside from the flood of Bicentennial quarters that began turning up in our change, my main interaction with the event was a junior high school field trip to Cincinnati to visit the Freedom Train, which carried notable historical artifacts but not the blockbusters I was hoping for. The Louisiana Purchase is no Declaration of Independence! Decline was baked into the event. The train barely made it to my hometown of Dayton, whose passenger rail lines were shutting down and beginning to rust away alongside the factories that used to employ my neighbors. America…

More Good Advice Democrats Won’t Take

May 28, 2026•

Ted Rall

Like the weather, everyone complains about the Democrats, but no one does anything about them. Well, we do point out what the perennial hapless loyal opposition is doing wrong. But we rarely offer useful suggestions for what they ought to do instead. Democrats are favored to take back the House in this year’s midterm elections, and possibly the Senate too. When you are opposing someone as reckless as Donald Trump, however, you have an ethical obligation not to leave any votes on the table or miss any opportunities. Winning, in other words, is not the only thing. Winning big is the only thing. The first step should be to look at examples of big midterm victories. With the exception of years like the 1974 Democratic landslide, when all you had to do to win big was not be associated with the Watergate scandal, 1994 stands out. Even though the economy was recovering nicely from the Reagan-Bush recession of 1987–1992, House…

Should Congress Stay or Should They Go?

May 21, 2026•

Ted Rall

Should I stay, the Clash asked, or should I go? When I was a kid, during and following Watergate, the tortured politico’s answer to that existential question was the latter. Occasionally. During the 1973 “Saturday Night Massacre,” Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus refused to obey Nixon’s order to fire the Watergate special prosecutor and resigned. Gerald Ford lost his Press Secretary Jerald terHorst the following year, because Ford pardoned Nixon but not Vietnam draft dodgers. In 1980, Secretary of State Cyrus Vance quit after Jimmy Carter ignored his advice to pursue diplomacy and sent the military on a hostage rescue mission to Iran, which turned into a fiasco. Vance was the high-water mark of quitting over a policy disagreement. Indicating either the triumph of cynical careerism over personal integrity, or an extraordinary run of ideological alignment between presidents and their hirelings, or both, the high-profile political Resignation on Principle vanished into deep hibernation for more…

MAGA’s Idea Factory Has Closed

May 14, 2026•

Ted Rall

Trump’s three presidential campaigns were contests between establishment and insurgent, steadfastness versus change, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” against “burn it all down.” Trump did not offer new ideas. Rather, the vagueness of MAGA and America First promised an idea-generation machine powered by a pair of nationalist principles. The implicit pledge that anything would be possible was reinforced in his second term by out-of-the-box personnel picks like Gabbard and Kennedy. Intellectually exhausted, in permanent defense mode, and paralyzed by the internal contradiction between their New Deal history and their Clintonite present, Democrats tacitly conceded the framing to the opposition. 2016, 2020, and 2024 were referenda about Trump. Liberals took comfort in Biden’s win, failing to recognize that COVID was a black swan moment, that Trump’s weird disavowal of Operation Warp Speed was political suicide, and that “nothing will fundamentally change” is not an appealing campaign message under normal circumstances. Yet here we are, ten years into this current…

Scandal at the Pulitzers

May 6, 2026•

Ted Rall

The Pulitzer Prizes, administered annually by Columbia University, are the most famous prizes awarded to American journalists, authors, playwrights and others in the world of letters. A win can elevate an obscure book to bestseller status, turn a play into a Broadway hit or save a reporter during a round of layoffs. So prestigious is this honor, getting shortlisted as one of a given year’s three finalists can be leveraged into bigger paychecks and gaining new clients. Shortly after each year’s application deadline in late January, Columbia invites several jurors in each category—subjects like Photography, Nonfiction Book, Opinion Writing, etc.—to its Morningside Heights campus in Manhattan, where the panels—chosen for their expertise in their respective fields—sift through piles of entries. Generally speaking, each subject panel selects three finalists. Each trio goes to the main Pulitzer board, which picks one winner—leaving the remaining two as runners-up. (Usually. There are exceptions, but let’s not voyage too deep into the weeds.) The Pulitzers…

Gen X to Gen Z: We Salute You

April 28, 2026•

Ted Rall

Thirty years and thirty pounds ago, Workman published “Revenge of the Latchkey Kids,” my bestselling entry in the Gen X manifesto genre. I argued in snotty prose and spiky scratchboard cartoons that Americans born in the 1960s and early 1970s faced a set of challenges that made us the first generation of the 20th century doomed to face downward mobility—to be worse off economically, and by extension politically and culturally, than our parents. As the word “revenge” implies, it wouldn’t be all bad. We’d be ignored by the Powers That Be—and we’d never become full-fledged members thereof—but we’d also be left alone; we would find our way. Still, we were born under a dark star. Ours was the first postwar generation to enter a crappy job market hobbled by student loan debt and globalization. Lost, alienated and broke, we married later and had fewer kids and bought our first homes late or not at all. Whatever age we were at…

Can Iran Replace Israel?

Is This Column Real?

Proportionality Matters

Hey, Women: A Little Help, Please?

America’s Bleak 250th

More Good Advice Democrats Won’t Take

Should Congress Stay or Should They Go?

MAGA’s Idea Factory Has Closed

Scandal at the Pulitzers

Gen X to Gen Z: We Salute You

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Can Iran Replace Israel?

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America’s Bleak 250th

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