American Heritage News

The Daily Signal provides comprehensive coverage of American heritage with reporting, analysis, and conservative commentary on founding principles, historical monuments, patriotic movements, and the ongoing debates over preserving traditional American values and national identity.
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    • News

    Fearing Late Action by Obama, Republicans Consider Curbing Presidential Power to Declare National Monuments

    President Barack Obama is using his executive power to issue a broad swath of environmental protections during his last weeks in office, guarding himself against a successor who has vowed to roll back parts of that agenda. As part of this effort, Obama has made historic use of a 110-year-old law signed by Theodore Roosevelt…
    Josh Siegel
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    • Opinion

    Here’s What the Founders Thought About Term Limits

    With the sudden dominance of Republicans in Congress, state legislatures, and, of course, the White House, conservatives have an incredible opportunity to restore constitutional principles to government. Several lawmakers have brought back the old idea of congressional term limits to “drain the swamp” on Capitol Hill. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla.,…
    Jarrett Stepman
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    • Opinion

    What the Founders Thought About the Value of a ‘Classical’ Education

    The generation that produced the U.S. Constitution lived at a time when liberal education was being rethought, redefined, stretched, and challenged. The Founders lined up on different sides of that debate. They argued over whether or not a liberal education worthy of the name had to be a classical education based on instruction in the…
    Richard Gamble
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    • Opinion

    How This Man Pushed Courts to Respect the Founders’ Constitution

    Three decades ago, then-Attorney General Edwin Meese III initiated a spirited national debate about the proper application of our most important governing document—the U.S. Constitution. His goal was to persuade judges, even Supreme Court judges, to agree they should respect the text of the Constitution and the intent of the Founders who wrote it. Meese,…
    Lee Edwards
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    • Opinion

    What a School Letting Students Opt Out of Pledge of Allegiance Says About Our Patriotism

    Can America thrive as a post-patriotic society? A Florida elementary school recently caused a stir on social media when a man posted an image of his niece’s waiver from reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. The waiver form asked parents if they would like to opt their child out from “standing and placing his/her right hand…
    Jarrett Stepman
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    • News

    Moved by Patriotic Professional Sporting Events? Your Tax Dollars Funded Them.

    The Pentagon and professional sports teams seem to have teamed up. The Department of Defense (DOD) has been exposed for paying pro teams to honor American soldiers at sporting events, a government oversight report finds. U.S. Senators Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and John McCain, R-Ariz., authored the report. “Dear Taxpayer,” Flake and McCain write. “In 2013,…
    Leah Jessen
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    • Opinion

    Candidate Obama Said $11.3-Trillion Debt Limit Was ‘Unpatriotic.’ Now the National Debt Is $18.1 Trillion.

    In October 2008, Congress raised the debt limit to $11.3 trillion. Then-presidential candidate Barack Obama denounced the action as “irresponsible” and “unpatriotic.” But those were the good ol’ days, when Congress actually put a statutory limit on the debt. Seven years later, Congress has become only more fiscally irresponsible. Today the national debt has climbed…
    Paul Winfree
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    • News

    Are Americans Still Patriotic? What Polls Reveal

    American Enterprise Institute published a public opinion report evaluating Americans’ sense of patriotism. The report compiled information from various studies, including those done by Pew Research Center, The New York Times and National Opinion Research Center. Here are some key findings: 1. Most Americans consider themselves patriotic. According to a Pew Research study from February…
    Diana Stancy
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    • Opinion

    Meet 7 of the Most Interesting Founding Fathers You’ve Never Heard Of

    When reading the Declaration of Independence over the holiday weekend, it’s easy to skip over the names of the signers and focus instead on the sweeping language of the second paragraph. This overlooks the fact that the signers pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor in order to found a country upon self-evident truths rooted…
    Mike Sabo
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    • Opinion

    The Founders’ Model of Welfare Actually Reduced Poverty

    Which approach to welfare policy is better for the poor: that of the Founders or that of today’s welfare state? The more we spend on the poor, the harder it seems for them to attain decent, productive lives in loving families. The federal government has spent $22 trillion on anti-poverty programs since the beginning of…
    Thomas West
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    • Opinion

    From Founding Father to Broadway Star

    Alexander Hamilton is often credited with being the most far-sighted of the founders, since he, more than anyone else, saw America’s potential to become a manufacturing and commercial powerhouse among the nations. Not even a man of Hamilton’s vision, however, could have foreseen that he would one day be the subject of a hit stage…
    Carson Holloway
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    • Opinion

    What Our Founders Feared: Lawmakers Now Empower Non-Elected to Make Laws

    At the close of the Constitutional Convention, when an elderly Benjamin Franklin hobbled out of the hall where dele­gates had debated the fate of the young nation for the length of the hottest Philadelphia summer in thirty-seven years, he was asked by a curious bystander, “Well, Doctor, what have we got—republic or a monarchy?” “A…
    Sen. Mike Lee
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    • Opinion

    Tom Cotton Is Right: Founders Wanted Both Senate and President to Sign Off on Treaties

    In a letter written by Sen. Tom Cotton and 46 other senators to Iran’s leadership—but also, of course, intended for President Obama—the signatories state that without Senate ratification, a deal between the United States and Iran is unlikely to outlast the current president. This letter perfectly showcases the intelligence beneath our constitutional design. For America’s…
    Arthur Milikh
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    • Opinion

    Why Won’t Obama Implement This Patriotic Policy?

    Thirty-three years ago this month, President Reagan picked up his executive signing pen and affixed his name to one of the most sweeping pieces of tax legislation in U.S. history: the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981. Rarely has any bill been more aptly named. The country had been pummeled for years at that point…
    Ed Feulner
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    • Opinion

    Businesses Don’t Leave the U.S. Because of Lack of Patriotism

    President Obama will deliver a speech today railing against corporate inversions. That is the process whereby a U.S. business merges with a foreign business and moves the new joint business’s headquarters to the foreign country. Inversions have been a hot topic recently because well-known businesses such as Walgreens, Pfizer, and Medtronic have been looking to…
    Curtis Dubay
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    • Opinion

    Memo to Congress: True Patriotism Is Axing Taxes to Keep Companies in U.S.

    The Obama administration announced new rules this week that will effectively punish American companies who move facilities and jobs overseas to save on taxes. Labor union backed groups have denounced American businesses that move offshore to avoid the 35 percent corporate tax as "unpatriotic." The White House claims such moves cost the Treasury billions of…
    Stephen Moore
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