Mickey Kaus - Political Views

Political Views

Kaus has identified himself as neoliberal. He tends to support liberal ends, including social equality (the topic of The End of Equality) and universal health care, but frequently attacks traditional liberal means of reaching those ends. Most notably, he was an influential proponent of welfare reform in the 1980s, and is a fierce critic of both labor unions (particularly automotive workers' unions and teachers' unions) and immigration reform (he supports the new Arizona anti-illegal-immigration law, calling to wait to see the law's practical effects before overturning it).

Kaus' constant criticisms of traditional liberalism have prompted some liberals (including his Bloggingheads sparring partner Robert Wright) to see him as a right-winger. He has been criticized for his persistent defense of his friend Ann Coulter from many liberal critics

His views, and willingness to attack the Democratic Party, have also made him popular with conservative writers.

Kaus usually supports Democratic politicians. During the 2008 presidential campaign, Kaus endorsed Hillary Clinton for president, while criticizing other Democrats including Barack Obama. In the 2006 U.S. Midterm Elections Kaus wrote that he hoped the Democrats would fail to take over the U.S. House of Representatives but take the Senate. He called the election "perverse" because he saw a Democratic victory as not impeding George W. Bush's Iraq policy but helping his immigration policy. Nevertheless, Kaus declared he still voted for Democrat Jane Harman.

Kaus is generally moderate on foreign policy (he is notably dovish on issues pertaining to Israel and the Middle East), but he spends relatively little time writing about international topics. In March 2011, he wrote that he feared that the U.S. has entered into an age of 'humanitarian imperialism' in which the U.S. functions as an 'empire' where "war never really ends."

Kaus supported Obama in the 2012 US Presidential Election, citing Obamacare and what Kaus saw as the likelihood of Romney passing immigration reform, but maintained that he doesn't like Obama as President, due to what Kaus saw as a "combination of stubborn arrogance and left-liberal dogmatism" on Obama's part.