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
Remote Workers Could Get Surprise Tax Bills, but States Can Protect Them
Following widespread office closures and stay-at-home orders, Americans are now working in new locations, sometimes in new states. Other front-line workers have traveled to pandemic hot spots to help care for the sick and support the health care response. Still others are providing services, such as telemedicine, remotely. These new work arrangements could ensnare unsuspecting… -
opinion
Riots of 1968 and 2020: What We Can Learn and How to Move Forward
Before we declare the riots of 2020 the worst in U.S. history, we should look at the nationwide riots of 1968 that followed the wanton murder of Martin Luther King Jr. at a Memphis, Tennessee, motel. Over 100 cities exploded, led by Washington, D.C., Chicago, Baltimore, and Kansas City, resulting in more than 40 deaths, the arrest of 15,000 mostly… -
opinion
Our Totalitarian Moment
America feels like it’s falling apart. That’s because it is. There are two ways to achieve unity in any group. The first is to set up a few serious standards of conduct, policed with the absolute minimum of compulsion, and then allow freedom in all other matters. This was the founding vision for our federal… -
opinion
Why Juneteenth Is a Uniquely American Holiday
Friday is the 155th anniversary of Juneteenth, which marks the day slaves in Texas found out that they were freed by President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Professor Lucas Morel, head of the Politics Department at Washington and Lee University, joins The Daily Signal Podcast to discuss the significance of the holiday, what the Emancipation Proclamation… -
opinion
NBC Tries and Fails to Wreck a Conservative Website. Here’s Why It’s Deeply Problematic.
If you value a robust media offering a variety of voices, you should be troubled by a chilling incident that occurred this week. Citing the work of two foreign-based activist groups, NBC News reported Tuesday that Google would demonetize a conservative news and opinion outlet, The Federalist–meaning not allow it to carry Google Ads on… -
opinion
Don’t Give Civics the Common Core Treatment
You shouldn’t build a “national church” if you’re a “minority religion,” University of Arkansas professor Jay Greene has cautioned for years. By that, Greene means that those working to reform existing systems shouldn’t look to the national level for policy implementation, as they risk creating an architecture that could be co-opted for different ends… -
opinion
Amazon Doubles Down on Excluding Some Conservative Nonprofits From Customer Donations
In yet another slap in the face from far-left tech giants to conservatives, Amazon.com recently doubled down on its policy that prohibits customers from donating proceeds from their purchases to well-established conservative nonprofits like the Family Research Council and the Alliance Defending Freedom. While Amazon customers can use the AmazonSmile program to donate a portion of each purchase to… -
opinion
Tearing Things Down Does Not Help Others Rise
It is a gift, as Robert Burns wrote, to see ourselves as others see us. One of those “others” is Caroline Glick, who writes on her webpage from Israel: “Americans are now expected to kneel for the Star-Spangled Banner and disavow American history while swallowing whole a false, malicious new history that claims America has… -
opinion
The Tyranny in the Left’s Goal of Outlawing ‘Hate Speech’
Some Americans are working to outlaw so-called hate speech. In a recent paper, Arthur Milikh, formerly the associate director of the B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies at The Heritage Foundation, calls the left’s effort to ban hate speech “the new tyranny over the mind.” So what is hate speech, and how are countries… -
opinion
Anarchy in Central Seattle Isn’t a ‘Festive Zone’
Most revolutions don’t end in liberty; rather, they typically end in bloodshed and merciless tyranny. The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, or CHAZ, created in Seattle is being billed as a cop-free zone (or something along those lines) and treated by more than a few media organizations as little more than a social justice street festival…. -
opinion
White House Makes US Polar Security Fleet a Priority. Here’s Why That’s Important.
President Donald Trump released a presidential memoranda last week with a lot of excellent policy for Arctic and Antarctic security. The U.S. has been an Arctic nation since the purchase of Alaska, meaning it possesses territory and resources above the Arctic Circle. It also supports research and upholds treaties in Antarctica. These regions are seeing… -
news
Boston Considers Removing Lincoln Statue That Features Freed Slave
Boston's mayor is considering removing a statue that features Abraham Lincoln and a freed slave after a petition circulated in the city. The office of Mayor Marty Walsh, a Democrat, said in a statement that he is “going to take time to assess the historic meaning of the statue” and possibly recommission it. A 7,000-signature… -
opinion
Why These 2 College Runners Don’t Want to Compete Against Men
In sports, you win some and you lose some. Everyone knows and accepts this. But being cheated against is any athlete’s worst nightmare. It’s a form of theft, taking away years of training in a moment of dishonesty. And when it happened to Mary Kate Marshall, a sprinter for the Idaho State University Bengals, she… -
opinion
‘Controlling What People Think’: Kim Holmes on the Left’s Speech Policing Goals
Kim Holmes, author of “The Closing of the Liberal Mind” and executive vice president at The Heritage Foundation, joins The Daily Signal Podcast to discuss the resignation of New York Times opinion editor James Bennet after he ran an op-ed by Sen. Tom Cotton, and the outraged reaction to J.K. Rowling’s essay on gender identity…. -
news
Why These African American Leaders Reject the Left’s Victim Narrative
The reality of racism in America has led to cries for justice across the nation, as the May 25 death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis sparked peaceful protests as well as violence and looting. But conservative African American leaders say they’re concerned that the message being sent to the nation’s black community… -
news
What to Expect From Trump’s Police Reforms
The Trump administration had established a commission on reforming police well before the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis pushed the subject to the top of the national debate. Last October, President Donald Trump signed an executive order creating the Presidential Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice. He tasked… -
opinion
Trump Administration Right to Reject Jurisdiction of International Criminal Court
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday announcing sanctions on individuals “directly engaged in any effort by the [International Criminal Court] to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute any United States personnel without the consent of the United States” or the “personnel of a country that is an ally of the United States without the… -
opinion
Why Americans Must Stand Up to the Left’s Power Grab
Parts of the movement started by widespread revulsion at the murder of George Floyd have metastasized into a power grab by hard leftists. Their aim goes beyond dismantling the police—likely to have an early sell-by date—but targets the suppression of such tenets of liberalism as speech and property rights. Conservatives who want to conserve the… -
opinion
The Problem With ‘Pick a Knee’
“Pick a knee,” says CNN’s S. E. Cupp, “The one that knelt on a neck or the one that knelt to try to prevent it.” This kind of ugly false choice—either you adopt my favored form of political protest or you support murder!—is meant to bully you into participating in groupthink. Worse, it’s meant to… -
opinion
The US Army, 245 Years Strong and Still True to Its Roots
June 14 marks the 245th birthday of the U.S. Army. Born even before the Declaration of Independence was written in 1776, the Army marks its birthday from June 14, 1775, when the Continental Congress directed “[t]hat six companies of expert riflemen, be immediately raised in Pennsylvania, two in Maryland, and two in Virginia … [and]…