Blog - Hugh Hewitt

Thursday, July 9, 2026

Trust in our institutions is eroding rapidly.  Is it any wonder?  Yesterday Graham Platner dropped out of the race.  Something in our electoral system failed, deeply, for him to get as far as he did.  Whoever replaces him as the Democratic candidate will be the result of a process other than the one we expect – another institutional fail.  We saw the same fail in the last Presidential with the Biden/Harris swap.  How is it, in a free country, we keep getting dictated to?  What’s gone wrong when a regulatory state makes things grossly more expensive, but can’t keep us safe in the stands for a soccer match?  What we think we know, we don’t…justice seems impossible…media spews nonsense…our public servants turn out to be self-serving.  The evidence is strong that our lack of faith in institutions is well deserved.. . .

Wednesday, July 8, 2026

Our engagement with Iran turned very hot again yesterday.  The question I would love to have answered is, did the president really think they were negotiating in good faith?. . .

Tuesday, July 7, 2026

If the headlines this morning mean anything, Graham Platner is done – put a fork in him – the Democratic Party is abandoning him as fast and dramatically as possible.  Politico says its over.  The Atlantic calls for him to be “cut loose.”  The NYTimes says he has been “abandoned.”  That’s a liberal trifecta if ever I saw one.  Conservative forces agree – the Platner effort is at an end. That which was once astonishingly ascendant is now at the bottom of the slide headed to the dumpster.  Man, did that happen fast.  What lessons can we learn from this?. . .

Monday, July 6, 2026

Alternate title – “There Is No Such Thing As A Free Ride.”  Alternate title – “Get Off My Lawn You Young Whippersnapper.”  As Democratic primary after Democratic primary has returned communists for congressional candidates, I looked at my wife last week and said, “It is as if the Soviet Union never existed.”  It has only been about 30 years since that scourge died a spasmic death, but I guess in today’s world 30 years is a very long time.  My perspective may be somewhat unique as I was actually in the Soviet Union for the first spasm (the failed coup attempt on Gorbachev) but while the young find history boring for those of us that lived it it is quite vivid.  It needs be remembered.. . .

Sunday, July 5, 2026

We’ve seen good Americans and bad Americans.  As the political power in this nation derives from the people, so too does its civility and incivility, its nice or not nice status, its morality or lack thereof, its goodness or evil.  America is us – it is not Donald J. Trump, or Barack Obama.  It is not Tennessee or California – it is us.  How this nation is defined and viewed is all about its people.  Who we are is the fundamental question and that means our religion matters.. . .

Saturday, July 4, 2026

Yesterday I noted that America is fundamentally the same as it was 50 years ago, yet the national anniversary celebrations are quite different, this celebration being quite muted compared to the last.  I noted that the biggest historical difference was covid and that it taught one, perhaps two, generations to wait for permission to step out and to rely on the nation to do things that were essentially their responsibility.  But if individual Americans are the problem, so are they the solution.. . .

Friday, July 3, 2026

For those of us old enough to remember the nation’s 200th, the contrast between then and this 250th is truly startling. One is forced to ponder the difference.  Given that we have essentially two days to observe this momentous anniversary (today is the official “day off” and tomorrow is the actual holiday) I shall commemorate the event in two posts.  Today I’ll look at the down side of the contrast and tomorrow I’ll look at the upside.  Also, given the unusual holiday weekend, I’ll do the usual leftover round-up today instead of tomorrow.. . .

Thursday, July 2, 2026

The Washington Times carried a piece this week about proposed rules changes at EPA designed to make the Clean Air Act easier to work with.  It is stultifying and I spent my professional life dealing with those rules among others.. . .

Wednesday, July 1, 2026

Few questions have baffled my generation more than, “How did a devil like Hitler get power to begin with?”  We are the right age to have heard all about WWII from those that lived it, but also to have witnessed the great liberalization of the Civil Rights Movement.  In the end the Civil Rights Movement was about merit over race, but it sure has not ended up there.  Colorado elected another antisemite in yesterday’s primaries.  The Democratic slate is starting to be pretty crowded with such people.  At the end of my life I am seeing a return of that which I thought had been rejected.  It is depressing and frightening.. . .

Tuesday, June 30, 2026

Iran has lost the war on a military level.  Unquestionably.  But there is a lot more to winning a war than simply crushing the military.  For example, Japan had many soldiers on remote Pacific Islands than continued to fight WWII long after it was over.  Iran appears to be just as intransigent, but at a much higher cost to the world and to its citizenry.  They are, in fact, raising the stakes at every opportunity presented to them.  It is, simply, a test of wills.. . .