RealClearFoundation Articles

RealClearPolitics is bringing accountability to political polling with a new pollster ranking system. As a leader in political polling and election coverage for two decades, RealClearPolitics is announcing an initiative to improve public trust and confidence in political polling. Since pioneering the RCP Poll Average in 2002, the public opinion survey industry has undergone momentous changes and faced a series of challenges in a profoundly altered political landscape.  Twenty years ago, Facebook and Twitter did not exist. The iPhone did not exist. The percentage of...

With the 2022 midterm elections fast approaching, we have an October challenge to all Americans: Think outside your tribe, at least a little, this month.***We'd like to offer you some "think outside your tribe" pairings, taken from our daily curated content this month. Today's Pairing *** “We the People” don’t agree on much these days, except for the fact that America’s culture and politics are dangerously divided. Each side sees the other as occupying a bizarro, inverted intellectual, moral, and political universe. Even scarier—each side sees the other as a...

With the 2022 midterm elections fast approaching, we have an October challenge to all our fellow Americans: Think outside your tribe, at least a little, this month. “We the People” don’t agree on much these days, except for the fact that America’s culture and politics are deeply, perhaps dangerously, divided. Each side sees the other as occupying a bizarro, inverted intellectual moral and political universe. Even scarier – each side sees the other as a threat to democracy. How did we get this...

More than 200 years ago, a Massachusetts congressman noted that “falsehoods would fly from Maine to Georgia while truth is pulling her boots on.” The country was smaller then, and Twitter nearly two centuries in the future. The truth can be labor-intensive to dig up—and when it is unearthed, it is often avoided like kale. Falsehoods, especially those that bolster our preconceived notions, are clickbait—shared and rewarded in the online marketplace, with crippling consequences for self-government. Herein lies a harsh reality of online news and Internet...

You come to RealClear to stay informed. Nowhere else do you see opposing sides represented as honestly and fairly. Unique among news organizations, RealClear is the Unum that brings together the Pluribus of America’s public life. Every day, the RealClearFoundation (RCF), a nonprofit working in partnership with RealClearPolitics, is working to enhance your news experience—and live up to the role of the free press and its relationship to a free people. With the end of the year approaching, we are asking RealClear’s discerning readers...

More than 2,000 police officers were assaulted or injured—and at least one was killed—during the riots that followed the death of George Floyd in 2020. More than 16,000 persons were arrested. And the riots caused upward of $2 billion in damage.  During the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 140 police officers were assaulted or injured, upward of 600 persons were arrested, and the damage caused was estimated as high as $1.5 million.  These are among the many comparisons that can be found in a database recently published...

A trustworthy and enduring democracy includes all voices. It gives all serious perspectives a chance to be heard. When dialogue ends, democracy dies. Working in partnership with RealClearPolitics (RCP), the RealClearFoundation (RCF) seeks to advance genuine dialogue in America’s public life. Not a false form of dialogue, in which deep-seated conflicts are papered over, but a true one, in which disagreements are addressed openly, honestly, and civilly. You can see this commitment in RCF’s signature initiative, RealClearInvestigations (RCI), which treats competing positions...

Over the past year, many readers have shared what inspires them to support the RealClearFoundation, a nonprofit working in partnership with RealClearPolitics. Their feedback reflects a sense of civic responsibility—and belief in a public discourse grounded in reality and open to a diversity of perspectives. One donor described his gift as “an investment in the maintenance of our democracy.” Another said that sites like RealClearInvestigations (RCI), the Foundation’s signature initiative, help restore his faith in the free press. The nonpartisan nature of our...

Like millions of readers, you come to RealClear to see the full picture of America’s public life. Everything that drives and sustains our fractious, yet enduring, democracy can be found across RealClear’s pages. The RealClearFoundation is a nonprofit organization working in partnership with RealClearPolitics to advance journalistic and educational projects in the public interest that cannot be sustained by ad revenue. With year-end approaching, I ask that you join our mission by making a donation to help fuel a growing number of initiatives: RealClearInvestigations (RCI): The...