Political Commentary & Opinion
Analysis, commentary, and opinion essays on politics and policy from The Daily Signal’s contributors and experts.
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opinion
What Our Baby Bust Says About Modern America
How could America shift so babies were more welcomed, less dreaded? Tim Carney, author of the new book “Family Unfriendly: How Our Culture Made Raising Kids Much Harder Than It Needs to Be,” has a few ideas. He’d like to see corporations offer parents their child’s birthday off every year. He wants parents to not… -
news
Youngkin Stands Firm as Virginia Democrats Prefer to Give Millions to Pot Instead of Opportunity
Democrats in the Virginia General Assembly insist that Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, illegally appointed the director of the state’s renamed Office of Diversity, Opportunity, and Inclusion. And they say they’re willing to give over $2 million more to commercial marijuana sellers to dramatize that point. Created in 2020 under Youngkin’s predecessor, Democrat Ralph Northam,… -
opinion
Coddling Brazil’s Authoritarian President Lula
The coddling of Brazil’s increasingly dictatorial president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, by the Biden administration and its allies in Congress has gone from baffling to damaging to U.S. national interests. Lula is an enemy of the United States, one itching to increase China’s presence in the hemisphere. What gives? “They see Bolsonaro as [Donald]… -
opinion
Black Anesthesiologist Defies Affirmative Action Assumptions
Two weeks ago, my wife, Susan, underwent major surgery for breast cancer. Happily, the cancer was caught so early (via routine mammogram) that it was barely a Stage 1 cancer. The surgeon was confident that the cancer was completely eradicated. My wife had both the oncological surgery and the breast reconstruction at the same time… -
opinion
When a Teachers Union Adopts a Radical Foreign Policy
Traditionally, teachers unions have kept a laserlike focus on improving members’ pay, benefits, and working conditions. Now, though, teachers unions are diverting their energies from fighting for the well-being of teachers to fighting over a host of unrelated issues. Teachers unions now have foreign policies. For example, the Massachusetts Teachers Association, the state affiliate of… -
news
EXCLUSIVE: Rubio Calls for DOJ to Investigate Planned Parenthood’s Handling of Aborted Baby Tissue
FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL: Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is calling for a federal investigation into reports that Planned Parenthood is providing aborted baby body parts to the University of California San Diego in exchange for “valuable consideration”—while also maintaining intellectual property rights over the fetal tissue. “If confirmed, this relationship represents a flagrant… -
news
Young Women Favor Femininity Over Feminism, Survey Finds
A majority of young women say they prefer traditional femininity to radical feminism, an online survey has found. The survey results also show that 82% of women ages 18 to 24 align themselves with “femininity” while only 50% say they consider themselves feminists. In other results, 79% of the 800 young women surveyed agreed that… -
news
Married People More Likely to Be ‘Thriving’: Gallup Survey
A new Gallup survey has found that, over more than a decade, one variable has consistently predicted whether people described themselves as “thriving”: marriage. Married couples are more likely to be happy today, anticipate future happiness, and have a “strong and loving” relationship with their children than cohabiting partners. Gallup classified respondents into one of… -
news
EXCLUSIVE: Biden’s Peace Corps Pushes Expanded Overseas Voting
FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—To comply with an executive order from President Joe Biden, the Peace Corps pushed to make its headquarters a voter registration center, upped efforts to register U.S. citizens abroad, and moved to supply multilingual voter registration forms. The Peace Corps, a federal agency, assigns volunteers to provide services and meet needs… -
news
Washington Post, TikTok Target Young Women Speaking Up About Birth Control
The Washington Post and TikTok are under fire over apparent attempts to discredit stories women have been sharing about the negative effects of hormonal birth control on their physical and mental health. The Post reported Thursday that “women are getting off birth control amid [a] misinformation explosion,” referring to the onslaught of viral videos of… -
news
Conservative Scholars Debate Prison Abolitionists at Berkeley Conference on Crime
BERKELEY, Calif.—When scholars from the Right and Left recently met at UC Berkeley School of Law to debate what to do about surging crime, the event provided a rare opportunity to identify key philosophical and policy fault lines as Americans ponder policing and criminal justice. The conference, sponsored by Berkeley Law and The Heritage Foundation,… -
opinion
German Marshall Fund Wrongly Criticizes Heritage Foundation for Opposition to Exporting Divisive Cultural Agenda
In a recent issue of Foreign Policy magazine, Laura Thornton, the senior vice president for democracy at the U.S. taxpayer-funded German Marshall Fund, published a sweeping polemic attacking The Heritage Foundation, its Project 2025, and democracy itself. Project 2025 (which I have contributed to) brought together over a hundred conservative organizations to make policy suggestions… -
news
Army Seeks Retirees to Come Back to Work Amid Manpower Crisis
The Army is seeking to bring back retired soldiers to fill critical manpower shortages, according to a servicewide directive published this week. The All Army Activities document describes how Army retirees can find and apply for open positions and aims to maintain a sufficient number of personnel to fill all of the Army’s authorized positions…. -
opinion
Why These Women Chose to Have 5 or More Kids
Why do some women choose to have large families? As the American birth rate declines, academic Catherine Ruth Pakaluk decided to look at the 5% of American women who are outliers, and who have five or more children. With a colleague, she interviewed 55 of those women, and shares their reasons and experiences in her… -
news
Recalled San Francisco DA Says Victims Don’t Have Rights Under the Constitution
BERKELEY, Calif.—Crime victims don’t have rights under the Constitution, former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, who was recalled by voters in 2022 amid an escalation of crime, said during a conference here at UC Berkeley School of Law. Boudin’s surprising comment came as part of a larger debate between the Left and Right on… -
news
‘NOT LIKELY TO HAPPEN’: Law Professor Pours Cold Water on Letitia James’ Plans to Seize Trump’s Assets
George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said Friday that former President Donald Trump is “not likely” to see his properties seized by New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat. James filed judgments Friday against Trump and others in Westchester County, New York, where the 45th president owns a private estate in Seven Springs and the… -
news
I Asked Illegal Aliens If They Knew They Were Breaking Law. Here’s What They Said.
SAN DIEGO, Calif.—Brandon says he left Cameroon on March 15 and crossed the border from Mexico into California four days later. He knows it’s illegal to cross the U.S.-Mexico border between ports of entry, as he did, Brandon told The Daily Signal. But, he said, he did so because the “situation in my home… -
opinion
Angry Americans Muscle $400 Million Away From Pro-Trans Planet Fitness
At Planet Fitness, you can exercise everything but your right to privacy. That’s the message customers are taking to heart after an Alaskan woman had her membership revoked for complaining about a man in the women’s locker room. The gym is a “no judgment zone,” Patricia Silva was told. Well, it’s about to become a profit-free zone,… -
news
Florida’s New Online Dashboard Displays Cost of Unrecompensed Hospital Care Provided to Illegal Aliens
Florida has launched a dashboard that reports the total cost of uncompensated health care for illegal immigrants, which currently tops $566 million. Announced on Wednesday, the interactive Hospital Patient Immigration Status Dashboard highlights “the cost of illegal immigration, which puts a strain on our health care system and taxpayers here in Florida,” the secretary of… -
news
AOC’s New Version of the Green New Deal
Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is reportedly planning to propose a new version of the Green New Deal, and it is loaded with provisions designed to make America’s public housing stock go green. Ocasio-Cortez, independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, and other left-wing legislators are poised to launch the Green New Deal for Public Housing…