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
Uncle Sam Is Picking Your Pocket With High Taxes. Democrats Want to Raise Them Even Higher.
Some politicians running for federal office make it sound as if the biggest problem facing our country is that we don’t send enough of our paychecks to Washington, D.C. They propose increasing or creating new federal taxes on income, payrolls, business profits, carbon emissions, financial transactions, wealth, and more. Before they start trying to spend more and more of… -
opinion
How Your Donations Helped Us Bring Selina Soule’s Story to Millions
In 2019, The Daily Signal team found an underreported story on one of the most controversial social issues of our time—biological boys participating in girls sports. In the 2017-18 season, a high school junior in Connecticut named Selina Soule missed qualifying for the New England track and field regionals by two spots in her top… -
news
Here’s How Bad San Francisco’s Poop Problem Got in 2019
San Francisco residents reported more than 30,000 cases of poop to authorities in 2019, city records show. As of Monday afternoon, the city’s Department of Public Works responded to 30,136 cases of “human or animal waste” this year, easily topping the 28,353 cases the agency handled in 2018 with a week still to go, according to a… -
opinion
Recalling the Battle of the Bulge
Seventy-five years ago, at the Battle of the Bulge (fought from Dec. 16, 1944, to Jan. 25, 1945), the United States suffered more casualties than in any other battle in its history. Some 19,000 Americans were killed, 47,500 wounded, and 23,000 reported missing. The American and British armies were completely surprised by a last-gasp German… -
opinion
These Former Intelligence Chiefs Fit Perfectly Into Our Media Advocacy Culture
Former FBI Director James Comey and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, former CIA Director John Brennan, and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper have lots of things in common. One, they ran the nation’s key intelligence and investigatory agencies under President Barack Obama. They were deeply involved in the “Russian collusion” hoax. And they participated… -
opinion
Understanding Democrats’ March Toward Electoral Defeat
After months of false starts and threats and endless posturing, Donald Trump has joined Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, becoming the third American president impeached by the House of Representatives. Democrats started promising to do this before the president was elected. Still, it feels kind of weird, surprising, surreal even, that it actually happened. Why?… -
opinion
Staying Safe and Keeping the Season Bright
As much as we’d like to relax and just enjoy the holiday season—the shopping, the music, the tastes, and the scents—we unfortunately must not lose sight, even for a minute, of the threat posed by terrorism. On Black Friday—the traditional opening of the Christmas shopping season—the world witnessed its 58th terrorist stabbing attack in London,… -
opinion
For Taxpayers, College Football Remains a Guilty Pleasure at Christmastime
With Christmastime comes college football’s bowl season, with games all day, nearly every day. Starting last Friday with Buffalo against Charlotte in the Bahamas (1,235 miles from Buffalo, 733 miles from Charlotte), college football graces the airwaves until Jan. 6. After two straight weeks of football, viewers will get a seven-day break until the national… -
news
The First Time a Bold New Yorker Got Impeached for Taking on the Swamp
This Manhattanite came to office with a big reform agenda, ready to toss out the old establishment and fight corruption. He asserted: “Political conventions must go.” And: “Disgraceful secret alliances between special privileges and crooked politics must cease.” But reforming an old, entrenched system had its price. The system pushed back with impeachment, prompting the… -
opinion
Tucker Carlson’s False and Misleading Claims About The Heritage Foundation
In a segment that aired Friday night, Fox News Channel host Tucker Carlson made several false, outrageous, and unfounded accusations against The Heritage Foundation. For nearly 50 years, The Heritage Foundation has represented the interests of the American people based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional values, and a strong… -
opinion
Schiff’s Subpoenas Reveal New Escalation of Partisan Warfare
When law enforcement officials break the law to get someone they think is bad, politicians and the media rail in high dudgeon—and rightly so. The police, however, aren’t the only ones who occasionally decide to “get the bad guy” no matter what it takes or what laws may stand in the way. Consider the recent… -
news
Biological Male Files Lawsuit Demanding Entry Into Female Beauty Pageant
A biological male who identifies as a transgender woman is suing after being denied entry into a female beauty pageant in Oregon. Lawyers for Anita Green filed suit Tuesday against United States of America Pageants in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon, alleging the organization unlawfully discriminated against Green by limiting the… -
news
Surveillance Footage Outside Jeffrey Epstein’s Jail Cell Goes Missing
Surveillance footage showing the outside of alleged child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s jail cell the night he first tried to commit suicide is missing, prosecutors say. >>> Update: The missing footage actually was preserved and has been found, the New York Daily News reported Thursday night. Epstein, arrested in July, died in an apparent suicide while… -
opinion
Problematic Women: The Truth About Going on TV
This week on “Problematic Women,” we interview the “leading voice of The Heritage Foundation,” Genevieve Wood, to get her take on everything from feminism to football. Now serving as Heritage’s spokesperson and senior adviser, Wood has had an extended career in policy and media in Washington, where she has interviewed countless politicians, government officials, celebrities,… -
news
Trump Administration Aims to Make Fewer Criminal Aliens Eligible for Asylum
The Trump administration is proposing to bar foreign nationals convicted of drunk driving, gang-related crime, illegal reentry, and other illicit activity from winning asylum protection in the United States. The Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday announced a proposal to expand the crimes that would disqualify a migrant from claiming… -
opinion
Solving the Problem of Nationalism
This article s adapted from a lecture James Carafano gave at The Heritage Foundation’s Dec. 9 event, “The Problem of Nationalism.” I have two recommendations to address nationalism. One is called parsing and the other is called spade work. This is not about arguing about bumper stickers, and the problem cannot be solved by discussing… -
opinion
The Invention of Hispanics
America’s surging politics of victimhood and identitarian division did not emerge organically or inevitably, as many believe. Nor are these practices the result of irrepressible demands by minorities for recognition, or for redress of past wrongs, as we are constantly told. Those explanations are myths, spread by the activists, intellectuals, and philanthropists who set out… -
news
J.K. Rowling Faces Deluge of Attacks From LGBT Activists Over Transgender Tweet
J.K. Rowling, the author of the beloved “Harry Potter” book series, came under attack Thursday for a tweet defending a researcher who lost her job for saying that “men cannot change into women.” Rowling tweeted Thursday in defense of British researcher Maya Forstater, who lost her job after tweeting that “men cannot change into women,” the Independent reported Thursday. Forstater was… -
opinion
These Historians Challenge New York Times’ Dubious 1619 Project
What makes America exceptional? Undoubtedly, most Americans would say our long-term commitment to self-government and the rule of law, and our extraordinary embrace of liberty. Not so, according to The New York Times’ 1619 Project—named for the year in which African slaves were first brought to the English colonies in North America. The various New…