Political Commentary & Opinion

Analysis, commentary, and opinion essays on politics and policy from The Daily Signal’s contributors and experts.
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  • news

    Trump’s Press Team Won’t Respond to Emails With ‘Preferred Pronouns’ in Signature

    Reporters often contact government officials to request statements or quotes on significant events or policies, but President Donald Trump’s press deputies have determined that one group of journalists won’t be getting a response to their emails. According to The New York Times, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and other Trump administration communications officers have implemented…
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  • opinion

    Cut the Bureaucracy, Save Social Security

    Millions of Americans know the frustration of dealing with the Social Security Administration—endless hold music on the phone, months of waiting for a simple benefit decision, and confusing paperwork. Even before the latest reforms, the Social Security Administration’s customer service—in an agency delivering checks to 70 million Americans—was a mess. The culprit is decades of…
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  • opinion

    Public Trust in Media Dies in ‘Groupthink’

    Journalists are terrible at hiding their desire to run our democracy, using their platforms to direct history to the “right side.” That badly disguised lust for power creates an audience problem, where the people resent the media’s imperious lectures about which side they are supposed to favor—and if they don’t, they are uneducated, racist nincompoops….
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  • news

    Wisconsin Farmer Again Challenges USDA Program Rules as Discriminatory

    THE CENTER SQUARE—The U.S. Department of Agriculture continues to discriminate in many of its programs, according to a new letter from the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty. Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty wrote the letter telling the USDA that it will file a lawsuit if the issue is not corrected within 60 days. Wisconsin Institute…
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  • opinion

    Tariffs Aren’t Only Road to Reindustrialization

    Today’s tariff turmoil has stirred a fascinating debate among conservatives who otherwise travel harmoniously aboard the Trump Train. Some consider tariffs an end, not a means. They argue that tariffs could generate $600 billion in annual federal revenues. They want these funds to underwrite tax cuts or curb the national debt. Defending tariff protectionism, a Manhattan…
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  • opinion

    Compassion or Coercion? What Is the Role of Government in a Free Society?

    In the ongoing debate about the role of government in addressing societal issues, a crucial misconception often surfaces on one side: The desire to help others equates to a mandate for state intervention. Advocates for increased government action frequently ignore the vital distinction between voluntary assistance and coercive mandates. The belief that government can—or should—serve…
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  • opinion

    Universities: No More ‘Blind Neutrality’ When It Comes to Protesters

    Universities face a reckoning. President Donald Trump canceled $400 million in federal funding to Columbia University for failing to protect Jewish students. Columbia caved to the administration’s demands to get that funding back. Now, Harvard is in Trump’s crosshairs, with $9 billion at risk. Trump’s Department of Education is investigating at least 60 universities for creating a hostile environment….
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  • news

    The Nature of War

    Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of today’s video from Daily Signal Senior Contributor Victor Davis Hanson. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see more of his videos. Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for The Daily Signal. With two large theater wars raging, one in Ukraine and one in the Middle East, maybe…
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  • news

    Washington State Women Expose ‘Diversity’ Rules at Girls Frisbee Tournament

    Two women in Washington state have exposed and are calling out a high school girls Ultimate Frisbee league for promoting transgenderism at a recent tournament in SeaTac, Washington.  According to a thread of posts Tuesday on X, Dawn Land and Beth Daranciang attended the DiscNW tournament on March 1 holding signs promoting the protection of…
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  • news

    7 Things to Know About Gen. ‘Razin’ Caine, Trump’s New Chairman of Joint Chiefs

    The Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s pick for chairman of the joint chiefs early Friday. Trump’s nominee, retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine, was confirmed by a Senate vote of 60-25, which was bipartisan, but significantly less so than the Senate Armed Services Committee approved his advancement to the Senate floor by a…
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  • opinion

    National Democrats Raising Money to Keep Virginia Legislature Blue in November

    What price would you put on a constitutional amendment allowing abortion right up to the moment a baby is about to be born? What about giving your local police the authority to conduct warrantless searches of your home simply because you are on a list of people who purchased a legal consumer product? Well, if…
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  • opinion

    The Gen Z Case for Tariffs

    Let’s not sugarcoat it: America has been getting played for decades. Our jobs? Shipped overseas. Our factories? Boarded up. Our communities? Hollowed out. And the worst part? The very people who sold us out to China still pretend like they know what’s best for us. But Gen Z sees through the lies. We’ve lived through…
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  • news

    House Oversight Calls Walz, Hochul, Pritzker to Testify on Sanctuary Policies

    The House Oversight and Accountability Committee is seeking testimony from three Democrat governors on their states’ sanctuary policies.  House Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., sent letters to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who was the 2024 Democrat vice presidential candidate, to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker on Thursday.  The…
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  • news

    DOGE: 24,000 People Over 115 Claiming Unemployment Benefits

    THE CENTER SQUARE—The Department of Government Efficiency shared several examples of alleged unemployment fraud on its X account Thursday, the latest in its string of examples since President Donald Trump took office.  DOGE’s “initial survey of Unemployment Insurance claims since 2020” included tens of thousands of claims for hundreds of millions of dollars from people…
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  • opinion

    How Ron DeSantis Turned Florida Red—and Why It Will Remain That Way

    In 2022, the state famous for deciding the presidential election in 2000 dramatically shifted to the right, catching Democrats and Republicans by surprise. The only person not surprised was Gov. Ron DeSantis, who brought the state from purple to bright red, and he plans to ensure that Florida remains that way. As a Floridian, I…
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  • news

    Fact-Checking 4 Claims By Opponents of the SAVE Act

    Democrats contend the SAVE Act, short for Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, would lead to mass voter suppression of women and minorities.  The House passed a measure requiring proof of citizenship for voter registration on Thursday. The bill gained four Democrat votes in the House vote Thursday. The Republican-controlled House passed the measure sponsored by…
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  • opinion

    The Embarrassing Casting of Emma Corrin in New ‘Pride and Prejudice’

    Like Shakespeare producers of yore, who enlisted lithe lads to play Juliet and Ophelia, Netflix hotshots have decided they don’t see gender. Or they don’t believe gender identity, when mismatched to biological sex, is real. Take your pick. But regardless of which scenario, it’s an insult to Jane Austen that the latest adaptation of “Pride…
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  • opinion

    Passover Wisdom for a Nation Losing Its Memory

    America is suffering from a cultural Alzheimer’s. An ancient Jewish ritual—the Passover seder—may hold the cure.  Last year, more than 7 in 10 Americans failed the basic civic literacy quiz administered annually by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation. Even among college students, knowledge of basic facts about American history and civics is shockingly low….
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  • opinion

    Virginia Democrats’ Increasing Political Obstructionism

    During the 2013 campaign for Virginia governor, the GOP nominee, then-Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, warned that if his opponent, Democrat and Bill Clinton confidant Terry McAuliffe, were to win, “D.C.-style politics would take over in Richmond.” Well, a dozen years later, his words seem to be prophetic and ironic at the same time. McAuliffe did…
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  • news

    Texas AG Paxton Announces 2026 GOP Primary Challenge Against Sen. Cornyn

    Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced this week his long-expected 2026 Senate primary challenge against incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.  Both politicians cast long shadows in the Lone Star State. In his announcement, Paxton characterized the run as bolstering support for President Donald Trump in the Senate. “We have another great U.S. senator in Ted…
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