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Michael Massing

Michael Massing is a frequent contributor to ​The New York Review of Books and the author most recently of Fatal Discord: Erasmus, Luther, and the Fight for the Western Mind

November 2025

  • Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani holds press conference announce transition committees, Untermyer Fountain at Central Park, New York, United States - 24 Nov 2025Mandatory Credit: Photo by Lev Radin/Shutterstock (15922919v) Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani holds press conference announcing transition committees to advance his affordability agenda at Untermyer Fountain in Central Park in New York, NY on November 24, 2025 Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani holds press conference announce transition committees, Untermyer Fountain at Central Park, New York, United States - 24 Nov 2025

    double quotation markIs Queens the new political bellwether of America?

    Michael Massing
    National news organizations have treated the borough like flyover country. It’s time to change that

July 2025

  • Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez waving to a crowd

    double quotation markShould Democrats pursue progressivism or moderation? That’s a false choice

    Michael Massing
    Let’s try a pragmatic populism, with the stirring ideas of an AOC and the plainspoken appeal of a Marie Gluesenkamp Perez

March 2023

  • ‘How could so poised and polished a figure as Buttigieg so badly miscalculate?’

    double quotation markThe Democrats botched the Ohio disaster response – and handed Trump a victory

    Michael Massing
    The failure of Pete Buttigieg, the US secretary of transportion, to appear for nearly three weeks recalls the incompetence of Fema during Hurricane Katrina

August 2020

  • TOPSHOT-US-POLITICS-VOTE-REPUBLICANS<br>TOPSHOT - US President Donald Trump delivers his acceptance speech for the Republican Party nomination for reelection during the final day of the Republican National Convention from the South Lawn of the White House on August 27, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski / AFP) (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

    double quotation markLiberals are quick to dismiss Trump. They do so at their peril

    Michael Massing
    The Republican party, led by a plutocrat, continues to outdo Democrats in appearing the champion of working families

January 2020

  • ‘Just as the Iraq war undermined the authority of the US foreign policy establishment, so did the financial crisis discredit the bankers and regulators responsible for the world economy.’

    double quotation markMost political unrest has one big root cause: soaring inequality

    Michael Massing
    The 2008 crash stripped the sheen off global capitalism. We’re still living with the effects

June 2019

  • The evangelical Pinal County Cowboy Church in Casa Grande, Arizona.

    double quotation markMaking sense of evangelicals' support for Trump

    Michael Massing
    If urban liberals can’t learn to empathize with religious Americans, they will help secure Trump’s second term

February 2019

  • FILE PHOTO: A student from Covington Catholic High School stands in front of Native American activist Nathan Phillips in Washington<br>FILE PHOTO: Nicholas Sandmann, 16, a student from Covington Catholic High School stands in front of Native American activist Nathan Phillips in Washington, U.S., in this still image from a January 18, 2019 video by Kaya Taitano. Kaya Taitano/Social Media/via REUTERS/File Photo ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVE. - RC1618EDA640

    double quotation markWas the media biased against the Covington students?

    Michael Massing
  • Tucker Carlson, host of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” poses for photos in a Fox News Channel studio, in New York, Thursday, March 2, 2107. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

    double quotation markInequality is so bad, even Fox News anchors decry capitalism

    Michael Massing

January 2019

  • Billionaire Carlos Slim Announces Alliance With World Wildlife Fund<br>Billionaire Carlos Slim attends an event to announce an alliance between his philanthropic foundation and the World Wildlife Fund in Mexico City, Mexico, on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2013. Slim’s foundation and the World Wildlife Fund are currently working together to conserve the habitat of Mexico’s jaguar population. Photographer: Susana Gonzalez/Bloomberg via Getty Images

    double quotation markWho is more dangerous: El Chapo or Carlos Slim?

    Michael Massing
    While attention focuses on a mafia boss on trial in Brooklyn, the billionaire heads a power elite preserving inequality in Mexico

April 2018

  • Too many of our experts are ill-informed.

    Ideas for America
    double quotation markAmerica is plagued by experts without expertise

    Michael Massing
    On-air ‘experts’ are more disconnected from their demographics than ever – and their lack of expertise has become glaring in the age of Trump
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