Althouse: "I wish I could designate myself as a 'foreign-policy Republican,' but there’s no such option, so I have to go whole hog."

April 21, 2026

"I wish I could designate myself as a 'foreign-policy Republican,' but there’s no such option, so I have to go whole hog."

"By registering as a Republican rather than an independent, maybe I can have some influence on moving some Republican policies toward the center. I have given up on trying to change the Democratic Party. My main goal is to send a message that many traditional Democratic voters can’t accept what it is becoming—a replica of left-wing European parties that are hurting their countries."

Writes Alan Dershowitz, in "Why I’m Becoming a Republican/I first registered as a Democrat in 1959. The party’s hostility to Israel is too much" (Wall Street Journal).

86 comments:

Enigma said...: After at least a decade on Fox News, this is the world's slowest political transformation. Bill Maher next? Joe Manchin? Krysten Sinema? Fetterman?; 4/21/26, 11:54 AM
Maynard said...: I guess Alan has given up on getting invited to Martha’s Vineyard soirées, not to mention Farmers Markets where they refuse him service.; 4/21/26, 11:56 AM
RCOCEAN II said...: Gee aren't we Republicans lucky. We get the Epstein Island Lawyer. The guy who helped get Epstein a sweetheart deal for pedophilia. And is a leftist on pretty much every social issue.

But luckily he loves the Republicans support for middle east wars, and undying and unthinking support for Israel. So, he's on our side. Sorta.; 4/21/26, 12:01 PM
bagoh20 said...: I've been wondering what it would take for intelligent people to see the obvious. Turns out it takes a hell of a lot of evil to turn some people off. I figured this stuff out in my early 20's, and it's only been reinforced ever since. Took me until my 50's to actually drop the Democrat registration due to inertia. I'm not a Republican, because they may be much less evil, but still pussies when you need them. like right now. Looks like they will let the Democrats destroy them and possibly start a revolution out of a combo of cowardice and grift. Democrats with real principles, if there are any left, may have to save us by crossing over.; 4/21/26, 12:03 PM
john mosby said...: “I have to go whole hog.”

Damn, thought for a second Titus was back! CC, JSM; 4/21/26, 12:05 PM
RCOCEAN II said...: Move them the center? Most of the Establishment Republicans, especially those in the US Senate, are already there. Whats the difference between Miss Lindsey (R-Gooberville) and Dirshwhatashit? Nothing really other than Miss Lindsey fake Conservative stand on social issues.

Open borders, Amnesty, support for H-1bs, "Free trade", Prison reform, love for Israel, hatred of anti-semitism, FISA, Defense spending - its hard to think of anything Desrshowitz and say John thune really disagree on.; 4/21/26, 12:07 PM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: Yes the Democrat party is becoming more and more hostile to Israel and America both. Funny that he writes it in the WSJ, which has moved leftward hard in Trump 2 admin. I'm not a hater, with the exception of the Biblical admonition that we "Love God and hate injustice." Maybe there are other verses admonishing men to hate things, but that's the one that stuck in my mind.

Because it's from Deuteronomy, a book highly important to Jews and the most quoted book of the OT by our Founding Fathers, it is applicable to both Jews and Christians. And we all have a natural hatred of injustice when we are the victim. But God wants us to hate injustice everywhere, and that is fundamentally at odds with the revenge- and hatred-spouting activists who foment hatred. They WANT injustice. For Trump. For J6. For whatever other imaginary crimes they will invent.; 4/21/26, 12:07 PM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: Enigma, you seem to be unaware there are a lot of Democrats on Fox News Channel. Half their programming is playing clips of the democrats who don't appear as guests or sit on panels.; 4/21/26, 12:10 PM
RCOCEAN II said...: BTW, nobody thinks its odd that a powerful, famous lawyer, who's constantly opining on American Issues on TV and in print, really only one "red line" - support for a foreign country.
Everything else is secondary.

Just more evidence that Tucker's claim that "Israelism" is America's civic religion is correct.; 4/21/26, 12:11 PM
Enigma said...: @MJB: I gave up on Fox long ago. It was kind of "fair and balanced" at one time, but I have no interest in hearing screaming and watching ads for Gold Bond powder.; 4/21/26, 12:12 PM
RCOCEAN II said...: Somebody should tell Schumer and the D House minority leader that the Democrats are "hostile" to Israel. They'd be suprised, given they vote to give israel everything it wants by a 90-10 percent margin.

And if the Democratic base truly did become "hostile" to Israel, Schumer and all the D Senators would all change parties.; 4/21/26, 12:14 PM
FullMoon said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/21/26, 12:18 PM
steve uhr said...: Am I supposed to believe he didn’t vote for Trump last year? He just needs attention and couldn’t think of anything else.; 4/21/26, 12:23 PM
Dogma and Pony Show said...: "Enigma, you seem to be unaware there are a lot of Democrats on Fox News Channel. Half their programming is playing clips of the democrats who don't appear as guests or sit on panels."

Every night, Bret reports on something the administration did, and then plays a montage of dems expressing outrage over whatever that thing is. To Fox, the dem reaction to whatever Trump does is the news, not the thing itself.; 4/21/26, 12:49 PM
Kevin said...: The Democrats, with their oppressor/oppressed worldview, have chosen the Muslims over the Jews. Now we'll see how long it takes the Jews to look around and recognize it.

The D's have chosen victimhood over civl rights, reparations over wages, and government censorship over freedom of expression. Their party stands on the right of women to choose -- but only whether or not to abort. The choice of speech, gun ownership, who to vote for, how to deal with the homeless, what to do with illegal immigrants, and whether or not to work outside the home, have all been taken away from those who remain in blue circles.; 4/21/26, 1:22 PM
Maynard said...: RCO is bombing the thread again because, you guessed it. Dersh is a Jew.; 4/21/26, 1:25 PM
bagoh20 said...: It's not just the antisemitism. Dershowitz has been struggling with his party running insanely left for a while. He's expressed it many time lately on other issues, especially erosion of free speech. The antisemitism should be hard for any Jew to accept. Unfortunately, it also has infected people on all sides, and it usually sounds unhinged and compulsive/obsessive. I bet there is more than one guy out there blaming erectile dysfunction on Israel.; 4/21/26, 1:30 PM
rehajm said...: jewish guy goes whole hog...; 4/21/26, 1:52 PM
Enigma said...: Way back in the "Hannity and Colmes" days, Fox put normal-strong Hannity against creepy-weasel Colmes as an easy punching bag. Then, they reconsidered and gave Colmes stage training. H&C ultimately became a reasonable debate show. I stopped watching by the time it became just Hannity alone with his gassy pontification. Seems it's still gassy.; 4/21/26, 1:54 PM
Greg The Class Traitor said...: "My main goal is to send a message that many traditional Democratic voters can’t accept what it is becoming—a replica of left-wing European parties that are hurting their countries."

They're hurting their countries because they hate their countries.

As the Democrats hate America and Americans; 4/21/26, 2:05 PM
Dude1394 said...: Democrats have gone full Nazi. They hate the joooooosssss.
Black democrats have always hated the Jews, now the white democrats are catching up. They might lose the Hispanic vote because I think Hispanics and Asians value merit, competence and patriotism.; 4/21/26, 2:17 PM
Leland said...: I don't have time to "watch" the news.

I'm with Bagoh20 on "what does it take". I gave up on party politics when I worked the 92 Republican convention. I saw the GOP up close and decided it wasn't for me. But the Democrats have never been for me. Then again, I'm not sure Democrats have been for anything other than policies that line their personal pockets, for example see Newsom's book purchase.; 4/21/26, 2:19 PM
JaimeRoberto said...: "Every night, Bret reports on something the administration did, and then plays a montage of dems expressing outrage over whatever that thing is."

How is that different than MSNBC or CNN?; 4/21/26, 2:34 PM
john mosby said...: Just part of the reorganization of the party system. We will eventually settle on parties more or less along class lines: one for the working class, one for the non-working class, one for the lanyard class. Maybe there'll also be a Black People's Party to make explicit the de-facto power of urban machines and gerrymandered districts. If I were fully black, I would love to be part of such a kingmaking party, with the other parties competing for our en-bloc votes.

Such an interest-based arrangement would probably crowd out a lot of the silly issues on the 20 side of 80-20 that the current parties now fly as relig-ish flags. The Hardhat Party and the BPP would just say "huh? what?" to trans bathroom stuff, for example. CC, JSM; 4/21/26, 2:42 PM
john mosby said...: A system of multiple interest-based parties would also give up the practice of demonizing opponents: today's Worse Than Hitler could be tomorrow's coalition partner. Sort of like a political version of Westphalian small wars. CC, JSM; 4/21/26, 2:45 PM
D.D. Driver said...: Saying its "antisemitic" when you don't support this is the same thing as saying you are a "racist" if you don't think George Floyd is a saint.

The political right used to be above this type of lazy slander. Just one more way that MAGA is much like the progressive movement. You guys are looking in the mirror at this point.; 4/21/26, 3:08 PM
Paddy O said...: The Republican party is mostly led now by 1980s type democrats; 4/21/26, 3:08 PM
Leland said...: Can we say it is "antisemitic" when they say October 7 was deserved or march with chants "from the river to the sea"? I think we can.; 4/21/26, 3:12 PM
D.D. Driver said...: Why is my tax money paying for the destruction and desecration of sacred Christian sites? Why do I have to pay for this?

MAGA: help me understand how this is "America First." Anyone?

Crickets. 🦗🦗🦗; 4/21/26, 3:15 PM
Shouting Thomas said...: I don’t know if I dislike or like Dershowitz. He’s a type I admire… the lawyer who takes on the case of his client and prosecutes it with zeal, without regard for the public perception of his client.; 4/21/26, 3:27 PM
Enigma said...: @Paddy O --

Trump's policies are akin to Clinton's post-1994 "triangulation" coupled with Path Buchanan's pro USA labor agenda.

The left moved way way way way left (or somewhere into self-hating confusion), while the right wants to go back to the saner left era.; 4/21/26, 3:30 PM
Aggie said...: Alan Dershowitz going 'whole hog Republican because them Democrats ain't kosher' isn't something I was expecting. In the space-time continuum, Alan Dershowitz is rolling over in the womb.; 4/21/26, 3:45 PM
bagoh20 said...: If your argument against a military operation depends on finding one solder or one unit that did something offensive, then you really need to be arguing against every military operation, bars open past 10pm, and sporting events that serve liquor. I suggest you consider Quakerism.; 4/21/26, 4:08 PM
bagoh20 said...: Dershowitz seems to be an unusually principled man from what I've seen, but his very common baked-in-at-birth liberalism keeps him hoping the party that left long ago will find its way back. Maybe it will, but I think he finally realized that it won't happen in his lifetime.; 4/21/26, 4:13 PM
AZ Bob said...: Eight years ago, he made the same compaints about the ACLU:

https://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/391682-the-final-nail-in-the-aclus-coffin/; 4/21/26, 4:14 PM
Howard said...: From the summer of 2019:

Multimillionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein will receive a bail decision on Thursday over allegations that he sexually exploited and abused dozens of minor girls. Over a decade ago, Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz represented Epstein when he was fighting similar charges in Palm Beach County, Fla.

Dershowitz helped negotiate the sweetheart plea deal that allowed him a work release provision throughout his 13 months in Palm Beach County Jail.

Epstein accusers Sarah Ransome, Maria Farmer and Virginia Giuffre have also leveled allegations against Dershowitz in court filings and defamation lawsuits. Dershowitz denies the accusations adamantly and, in an interview with NPR's Noel King, clarifies his relationship with Epstein.; 4/21/26, 4:28 PM
n.n said...: Conservativism: pro-Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness under a Constitutional order. Welcome.; 4/21/26, 4:29 PM
Howard said...: The Republicans have created a safe space for Epstein Island refugee's seeking asylum.; 4/21/26, 4:30 PM
n.n said...: Conservativism is centrist is classical liberalism tempered by Christian principles.; 4/21/26, 4:31 PM
Howard said...: Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman couldn't be reached for comment.; 4/21/26, 4:32 PM
n.n said...: American Civil Liberties Unburdened; 4/21/26, 4:32 PM
Howard said...: Klaus von Bulow is dancing a jig in hell.; 4/21/26, 4:34 PM
RCOCEAN II said...: According to Grok, "Deschowitz has declared/or threatened to leave the Democrat Party seven times since 2017 over Israel. Dershowitz delights in describing himself as “Israel’s single most visible public defender…the Jewish state’s lead attorney in the court of public opinion.”

He even wrote a book about it - Defending Israel: The Story of My Relationship with My Most Challenging Client (2019).

And states in the book that he has visited Israel over 100 times and publicly defended Israel in many hostile surroundings, including well-publicized debates at more than 55 universities and colleges. In addition, Dershowitz has written a plethora of books and op-eds on the subject.; 4/21/26, 4:35 PM
n.n said...: Dershowitz pins the tail on the donkey. Baby steps.; 4/21/26, 4:36 PM
RCOCEAN II said...: Dershowitz in other words, is a single-Issue voter. Is a Politican "Good for Israel?" thats his litmus test. Personally, even before Israel became such a controversial issue, I thought he was a slimey loud-mouth, and was puzzled by all the respect he garnered. Now I realize he's the perfect 'murican hero.; 4/21/26, 4:40 PM
boatbuilder said...: Apparently Dersh pushes all of the right buttons, for a certain segment, which self-identifies.

Are there any actual Republicans who care whether Dersh officially declares himself a Republican?; 4/21/26, 4:48 PM
Enigma said...: Setting Dershowitz aside for a moment, consider what happens as Jewish donors and Wall Street interests edge away from the Democrats. They've long been in an uncomfortable lock-step voting relationship with black Democrats, even though Farrakhan's crowd hates them. Consider the post-Oct 7 doxxing trucks and basic Jewish survival instinct -- now the left college and pro-Palestine voters hate Jews too.

Dershowitz is an old-time arch liberal -- politics has simply rotated very far away from his views. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" has returned.; 4/21/26, 4:58 PM
Aggie said...: @Howard, you seem to be damning Alan Dershowitz for being good at what he does, which includes defending Constitutional rights. Is there any criticism to be leveled at his prosecuting opposition in any of the cases that you mentioned? Or were they perfect?
I don't like seeing people that are guilty as sin getting off on clever lawyering either, but that doesn't mean I want to stand the lawyer up against the wall. It's the system we have. You got a better one?; 4/21/26, 5:13 PM
n.n said...: On one hand, on the other hand, always and forever.; 4/21/26, 5:16 PM
narciso said...: Yes they didnt have anything on him, but they pretended they did larry summers waa silent through that whole episode; 4/21/26, 5:16 PM
narciso said...: And hank rogers (kendi) and a host of others; 4/21/26, 5:19 PM
Indefinitely Extended Excursion™️ said...: The gloves, as well as the underpants... are FULLY OFF; 4/21/26, 5:20 PM
Leland said...: SPLC indicted on 10 counts of fraud and 1 for money laundering in Alabama.; 4/21/26, 5:23 PM
Peachy said...: Allegations are facts in lefty-land.; 4/21/26, 5:36 PM
Indefinitely Extended Excursion™️ said...: People sometimes wonder how things got so crazy in this country. Well, look back at the '90s: for Clinton impeachment, you had Alan Dershowitz on Geraldo arguing against impeachment and Jon Turley arguing for it. All three of course became Trumpers.

On various topics around feminism....the debate was between Camille Paglia and Naomi Wolf. Also both Trumpers now.

An enormous percentage of the self-promoting gasbags of 90s political/"cultural" television became Trumpers.

There's a reason for all the chaos we're seeing right now.; 4/21/26, 5:39 PM
narciso said...: Liberals dont actually want to convict criminals when innuendo does the trick; 4/21/26, 5:43 PM
Anne in Rockwall, TX said...: “I have to go whole hog.”

Is that kosher?; 4/21/26, 5:44 PM
Mary Beth said...: I think he can designate himself as whatever he wants.; 4/21/26, 5:55 PM
tcrosse said...: Must one attach oneself to a particular party? Could Dersh not just be a plague-on-both-their-houses Independent?; 4/21/26, 5:55 PM
rehajm said...: Are there any actual Republicans who care whether Dersh officially declares himself a Republican?

I’m not sure about Republicans but for me it’s nice to think one more defection stings the lefties and their fabu parties might start to look kind of like Lonnie and Jugdish sitting on the end of the couch…; 4/21/26, 5:58 PM
n.n said...: The Special and Peculiar Liberal Corporation is a den of Diversity.; 4/21/26, 5:59 PM
Indefinitely Extended Excursion™️ said...: woofie writes: “Yes the Democrat party is becoming more and more hostile to Israel and America both.”

Any path to peace, must account for the existence of Israel and for the actions of Israel. Israel can't be treated like Schrödinger's country. When bad things happen to it, it suddenly emerges and the whole world must be brought to a stop.

However, when it does bad and destructive things to subjects under its control or to other countries it suddenly disappears, and we can't even mention what it has done.

That is the fundamental problem. "Defenders" of Israel may want to maintain this denial for eternity, but reality always has the final word. Even in silence.; 4/21/26, 6:08 PM
D.D. Driver said...: If your argument against a military operation depends on finding one solder

You cousin-fucking moron. It's not "one soldier" and if you could fucking read, you would know that.

MAGA is a shrinking cult. It's just cousin fuckers and bimbofied cucks left.; 4/21/26, 6:49 PM
D.D. Driver said...: What does it tell you when lifelong conservatives like Tucker Carlson are abandoning ship and lifelong lefties like Dershowitz is hopping aboard? What exactly is going on?; 4/21/26, 6:52 PM
narciso said...: So when a syrian algerian yahoo like mshmoud khalil can kill 'the jews in Arabic and we dont boot his ass out of the country; 4/21/26, 7:11 PM
john mosby said...: Little Ex: "An enormous percentage of the self-promoting gasbags of 90s political/"cultural" television became Trumpers."

They were always Trumpers. Trump is just Bill Clinton with harsher language. All the people you mentioned still believe what they believed in the 90s, as does Trump.

The Dem Party moved farther left (and in skew lines that don't point right or left), leaving them and Trump sitting there. CC, JSM; 4/21/26, 7:32 PM
narciso said...: Actually naomi had to detox from working for al gore, there was a long hangover also she rediscovered religion (found out about the old gods); 4/21/26, 7:35 PM
n.n said...: Dem-Oh, crap! Another one.; 4/21/26, 7:37 PM
narciso said...: Newmax has more interesting angles but they have some stuoid democrats jason nichols and daniel lippman; 4/21/26, 7:44 PM
narciso said...: Three-Armed Iranian SEALS Swimming With Rifles Makes Us Question That Iran Is Winning the AI War – Twitchy https://share.google/ymG43m82ItpuQio4B; 4/21/26, 8:30 PM
Howard said...: Aggie: you're right. It's the best system money can buy.; 4/21/26, 9:22 PM
Howard said...: Do the Iranian seals swim faster with three arms? For some reason the Isle of Man comes to mind.; 4/21/26, 9:25 PM
Aggie said...: @Howard, so your answer is: No. You don' t have something better to offer, or anything constructive to say about the existing one.; 4/21/26, 9:51 PM
gadfly said...: Virginia Giuffre's 2016 deposition involving allegations against Alan Dershowitz was unsealed Tuesday.
Dershowitz has pushed for the unsealing of all case documents, saying they'll prove his innocence.
In her deposition, Giuffre claimed she and Dershowitz had sex at least 6 times as she was trafficked by Epstein.

Giuffre details in the deposition being encouraged by Epstein to engage in oral sex with Dershowitz while in a limousine, to have intercourse in a plane while traveling with another young woman who was trafficked by the financier, and at Epstein's home in his bedroom.; 4/21/26, 10:11 PM
Leland said...: What does it tell you when lifelong conservatives like Tucker Carlson are abandoning ship

That they maybe on the SPLC payroll.; 4/22/26, 5:44 AM
Iman said...: DeeDeeDoo: excremental gasbag shares his “thoughts”…; 4/22/26, 6:25 AM
Tina Trent said...: I don't care about that dirtbag's political affiliation or views on Israel. He has bragged that he takes on unpopular causes (OJ, Epstein) so he can afford to help suffering poor minority men. Which he doesn't. He loves woman-killers and abusers and anti-Catholics and takes great pleasure in promoting them. The Republican Party should reject him: in his filthy misogynist and child-molester-defending behavior, he is much more ethically conformist with the Democrats.; 4/22/26, 7:07 AM
Tina Trent said...: Shouting Thomas: and I have every right to judge Dershowitz's decisions about whom to defend -- and defame.; 4/22/26, 7:13 AM
narciso said...: Point taken but he saw through some of the subterfuge against trump when most of the bar would not; 4/22/26, 7:26 AM
Lazarus said...: Geraldo's a friend of Trump's, but not necessarily a supporter. I doubt Camille Paglia is either. She sees something in MAGA that can't be dismissed or equated with Hitler, but that's different from actually supporting Trump.

Some celebrity opiners of the 90s are old enough and have seen enough that they don't fall in with contemporary trends and superficial assessments, but there are enough "gasbags" on TikTok and in the blogosphere who do. Reliable leftist Naomi Klein wanted to draw a sharp line between herself and Naomi Wolf because people confuse the two women, but they're both part of the media circus, as are this "Hasan Piker" people are talking about and Stephen Colbert, and all the others.; 4/22/26, 8:40 AM
narciso said...: Naomi klein thats a name from the past; 4/22/26, 8:41 AM
Dude1394 said...: And all of the democrats, Tucker, Candace stood up and shouted, “it’s the joooooooossssss”; 4/22/26, 10:34 AM
Greg The Class Traitor said...: What does it tell you when lifelong conservatives like Tucker Carlson are abandoning ship

Same thing it told me when "lifelong conservatives" like Jonah Goldberg jumped ship:
They never were conservatives, they were always just grifting liars; 4/22/26, 11:24 AM
Greg The Class Traitor said...: tcrosse said...
Must one attach oneself to a particular party? Could Dersh not just be a plague-on-both-their-houses Independent?

He could, and did. Now he sees, correctly, that the Democrats are an existential threat, and therefore if he doesn't want to be murdered by them, he needs to support the other side.

boatbuilder said...
Are there any actual Republicans who care whether Dersh officially declares himself a Republican?

Yes, because I'm happy to see it is possible for a Jew to figure out that Jews doing for Democrats are like chickens voting for Col Sanders. I see him as a leading edge of a wave; 4/22/26, 11:28 AM
Lazarus said...: Well, there goes the party. It wouldn't be good if the Republicans were any more married to Dershowitz's opinions than they already are.; 4/22/26, 12:10 PM
Indefinitely Extended Excursion™️ said...: Although I spent most of my life with the Democrats, I’ve decided I’d prefer to link up with a party that’s almost 30 years younger. ~ Alan Dershowitz /S; 4/22/26, 5:14 PM