Josh Barro | |
---|---|
![]() Barro in 2013 | |
Born | July 17, 1984 |
Education | Harvard University (BA) |
Occupation | Journalist |
Employer(s) | New York The New York Times Business Insider Bloomberg L.P. NBCUniversal Comcast |
Political party | Republican (before 2016) Democratic (since 2016) |
Spouse | Zachary Allen |
Relatives | Robert Barro (father) |
Joshua A. Barro (born July 17, 1984) is an American journalist and creator of the newsletter and podcast Very Serious. [1] He previously hosted the weekly radio program Left, Right, & Center based at KCRW Los Angeles and served as a senior editor and columnist at Business Insider . [2] [3]
Barro is the son of Harvard University professor and macroeconomist Robert Barro. [4] After growing up in Massachusetts, Barro received a bachelor's degree in psychology from Harvard University. [5] While in college, he spent a summer interning for Grover Norquist. [6]
Barro previously worked as a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, [7] as a real estate banker for Wells Fargo, [8] as the lead writer for The Ticker (a defunct economics and politics blog hosted by Bloomberg L.P.), and as the politics editor at Business Insider. [9]
He appears regularly on Bloomberg Television and MSNBC and has appeared on Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO [10] and on All In with Chris Hayes on MSNBC. He is the former host, moderator and center of the weekly political roundtable radio show Left, Right & Center , based at KCRW Los Angeles and heard on public radio stations across the U.S.
In early 2013, he was a prominent supporter of a potential trillion-dollar coin, [11] but by late 2013, he had changed his mind. [12]
Time named Barro's Twitter feed one of "The 140 Best Twitter Feeds of 2013", one of ten in the Politics category. [13] In 2012, Forbes selected him as one of the "30 Under 30" media "brightest stars under the age of 30", [7] and David Brooks listed him as part of the "vibrant and increasingly influential center-right conversation." [14] A former aide to Barack Obama included Barro on a short list of Obama's favorite columnists. [15]
In 2014, Barro left Business Insider to join The New York Times' "The Upshot." [5] [16] In 2016, Barro was rehired by Business Insider as a senior editor. [17] In 2018, he again left Business Insider to become a business columnist at New York magazine. [18] In 2020, he announced that he was rejoining Business Insider as a columnist covering politics, business, and the economy. [19] [20]
In early 2022, Barro left Business Insider and stepped down as host of Left, Right & Center to pursue his newsletter and podcast Very Serious. [21] He is a co-podcaster with Los Angeles lawyer Kenneth White, [22] a/k/a Popehat, in a podcast about litigation, "Serious Trouble." [23]
Early in his career, Barro described himself as Republican but was critical of many of the party's policies. [24] He also identified as a neoliberal. [25] Barro has spoken out strongly against traditional Christian beliefs regarding homosexuality, stating that they "linger and oppress" and must be "stamped out ruthlessly". [26] [27]
After the 2012 United States elections, Barro became increasingly critical of the Republican Party and wrote that "the party's economic agenda, as embodied in the latest Ryan budget, is simply terrible for the vast majority of Americans." [4] Barro called Congressional Republicans "crazy and awful". [6] Reactions by other conservatives in the media led The Atlantic to name Barro "the loneliest Republican". [6] Ezra Klein said that, based on Barro's views, "He doesn't come across as much of a Republican." [28]
On October 11, 2016, following the Republican Party's nomination of Donald Trump for president, Barro said he had left the Republican Party and registered as a Democrat. [29] [30] Barro cited as reasons for his decision the "fact-free environment so many of its voters live in, and because of the anti-Democrat hysteria that had been willfully whipped up by so many of its politicians," which created a "vulnerability in our democracy." [29]
Barro argues that progressives in the United States have what he calls a hamburger problem, by which he means they sanctimoniously scold the public about a host of inconsequential personal choices, such as eating ground beef burgers (it is unhealthy, harms animals, and contributes to global warming, among others). They have become in his words a movement of "moralizing busybodies", which harms their political appeal. He said: "All this scolding—this messaging that you should feel guilty about aspects of your life that you didn't think were anyone else's business—leads to a weird outcome when you go to vote in November." [31] [32] [33] [34]
Barro lives in Manhattan and is openly gay. In 2017, he married Zachary Allen, chairman of TIPAH Consulting and a former Democratic National Committee official. [35] He is an atheist. [36]
David Jeffrey Frum is a Canadian-American political commentator and a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush. He is currently a senior editor at The Atlantic as well as an MSNBC contributor. In 2003, Frum authored the first book about Bush's presidency written by a former member of the administration. He has taken credit for the famous phrase "axis of evil" in Bush's 2002 State of the Union address.
Kalpen Suresh Modi, known professionally as Kal Penn, is an American actor, author, and former White House staff member in the Barack Obama administration. As an actor he is known for his portrayals of Lawrence Kutner on the television program House, White House staffer Seth Wright on Designated Survivor, Kevin, a psychologist and boyfriend to Robin in How I Met Your Mother, and Kumar Patel in the Harold & Kumar film series. He is also recognized for his performance in the film The Namesake. Penn once taught at the University of Pennsylvania in the Cinema Studies Program as a visiting lecturer.
Byron York is an American conservative correspondent, pundit, columnist, and author.
Mark Reed Levin is an American broadcast news analyst, columnist, lawyer, political commentator, radio personality, and writer. He is the host of syndicated radio show The Mark Levin Show, as well as Life, Liberty & Levin on Fox News. Levin worked in the administration of President Ronald Reagan and was a chief of staff for Attorney General Edwin Meese. He is the former president of the Landmark Legal Foundation, an author of seven books, and contributor to media outlets such as National Review Online. Since 2015, Levin has been editor-in-chief of the Conservative Review and is known for his incendiary commentary.
Ezra Klein is an American journalist, political analyst, New York Times columnist, and the host of The Ezra Klein Show podcast. He is a co-founder of Vox and formerly was the website's editor-at-large. He has held editorial positions at The Washington Post and The American Prospect, and was a regular contributor to Bloomberg News and MSNBC. His first book, Why We're Polarized, was published by Simon & Schuster in January 2020.
Kirsten Anne Powers is an American author, liberal columnist, and political analyst. She currently writes for USA Today and is an on-air political analyst at CNN, where she appears regularly on Anderson Cooper 360° and The Lead with Jake Tapper. The Washington Post called her "bright-eyed, sharp-tongued, [and] gamely combative". The New Republic noted Powers "held her own in any debate" at Fox News and quoted columnist Erik Wemple, who called her "a ferocious advocate for her points of view".
Ross Gregory Douthat is an American political analyst, blogger, author and New York Times columnist. He was a senior editor of The Atlantic. He has written on a variety of topics, including the state of Christianity in America and "sustainable decadence" in contemporary society.
David Weigel is an American journalist. He works for Semafor. Weigel previously covered politics for The Washington Post,Slate, and Bloomberg Politics and is a contributing editor for Reason magazine.
Public Policy Polling (PPP) is an American polling firm affiliated with the Democratic Party. Founded in 2001 by businessman Dean Debnam, the firm is based in Raleigh, North Carolina. Debnam currently serves as president and CEO of PPP, while Tom Jensen serves as the firm's director.
William Joseph Walsh is an American politician, talk radio host, former social worker, and former 2020 Republican presidential candidate who served one term in the United States House of Representatives representing Illinois's 8th congressional district.
Neera Tanden is an American political consultant and government official serving as Director of the United States Domestic Policy Council since 2023. Tanden previously served as a senior advisor and staff secretary to President Joe Biden from 2021 to 2023 and as president of the Center for American Progress (CAP), a center-left policy research and advocacy organization, where she worked in different capacities since its founding in 2003 until she joined the Biden administration in 2021.
Reinhold Richard "Reince" Priebus is an American lawyer and politician who served as chairman of the Republican National Committee from 2011 to 2017 and as White House chief of staff during the first six months of Donald Trump's presidency.
The political positions of Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States, have frequently changed. Trump has been primarily called a protectionist on trade. He has also been called and calls himself a populist, semi-isolationist, nationalist and other political categories.
Coreco Ja'Quan Pearson is an American conservative activist, political advisor, former political candidate and commentator.
"Make America Great Again" is an American political slogan and movement most recently popularized by Donald Trump during his successful 2016 presidential campaign. "MAGA" is also used to refer to Trump's political base, or to an individual or group of individuals from within that base. The slogan became a pop culture phenomenon, seeing widespread use and spawning numerous variants in the arts, entertainment and politics, being used by both supporters and opponents of Trump's presidency. Originally used by Ronald Reagan as a campaign slogan in his 1980 presidential campaign, it has since been described as a loaded phrase. Multiple scholars, journalists, and commentators have called the slogan racist, regarding it as dog-whistle politics and coded language.
Frederick George "Rick" Wilson is an American political strategist, media consultant, and author based in Florida. A former member of the Republican Party, he has produced televised political commercials for governors, U.S. Senate candidates, Super PACs, and corporations.
Josh Rogin is an American journalist currently serving as a foreign policy columnist for the Global Opinions section of The Washington Post and a political analyst for CNN. He is author of the book Chaos Under Heaven: Trump, Xi, and the Battle for the 21st Century.
Hadas Gold is a media and business reporter for CNN and CNN International based in Jerusalem.
Mindy Finn is an American digital media expert, political and technology consultant, and entrepreneur. She worked as a digital strategist for the Republican Party, most notably for George W. Bush and Mitt Romney's presidential campaigns in 2004 and 2008, respectively, and became the vice presidential candidate for Evan McMullin's 2016 presidential campaign. She co-founded the organizations Stand Up Republic and Empowered Women, and works to make elections more inclusive.