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
Census Bureau Hopes to Make a More Accurate Count of Rural, Western Areas
The Census Bureau is looking to get a more accurate count next year in rural areas and out west, places that often were undercounted in previous censuses. Specifically, the agency has named Arizona, Alaska, and northern Maine. The 2020 census will have a significant impact on reapportionment for congressional seats and for state legislative seats…. -
opinion
Twitter’s Ban on Political Ads Will Only Make Things Worse
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey recently announced that the social media platform will no longer run political advertisements of any kind. Twitter is a private company and is free to adopt whatever policies it wants, but this decision is not the win for civil discourse and our “democratic infrastructure” that Dorsey claims it is. Defending his… -
opinion
What Born-Again Kanye Might Do for America
What happens when one of the kings of pop culture gets born again and starts dropping hard truths on progressive culture? We’re about to find out. The internet has been abuzz lately over Kanye West’s latest album, “Jesus Is King,” which was released on Oct. 25. It’s his first album since his public conversion to… -
opinion
Why These Women Walked Away From the LGBT Lifestyle
Those struggling with same-sex attraction or hoping to walk away from a homosexual lifestyle may find some encouragement from Liz Flaherty and Elizabeth Woning, who both once lived a lesbian lifestyle. While leading their own organizations to help individuals transition out of homosexuality, Flaherty and Woning are also a part of a growing movement called… -
opinion
Sexually Explicit Books Were Put in These Virginia Classrooms. Parents Want Answers.
Parents in Loudoun County, Virginia, are outraged after discovering that thousands of books were placed in classrooms across the school district this year as part of a new “Diverse Classroom Library Initiative.” While most of these books focus on introducing kids to different cultures and ethnicities, parents began to discover that an alarming number of… -
opinion
‘I’m Black, I’m Supposed to Be a Democrat’: 2 Women Explain Why They Veered Right
Bill Walton recently welcomed Star Parker and Winsome Sears to his video podcast for a discussion of why so many black Americans continue to vote for the failed liberal agenda. Here is a transcript of their conversation, edited mostly only for style and clarity. Bill Walton: Welcome to “The Bill Walton Show.” Race just seems… -
opinion
Subordinate Sex Is Bad and So Is Revenge Porn
Freshman Rep. Katie Hill resigned Thursday in the wake of multiple controversies, including engaging in at least one sexual relationship with a campaign staff member. Conservative website Red State published intimate photos of the California Democrat on Oct. 18 after they were leaked to the site, sparking a debate about inappropriate relationships and “revenge porn.”… -
news
Activists Want to Abolish Your Kid’s Honors Classes, Cite ‘White Toxicity’ and ‘Supremacist’ Values of High Achievement
School systems across the country are seeking to abolish honors classes, teach how math has been used to oppress people, and let truant students into gifted schools. Advocates say the moves are aimed at diminishing an achievement gap between demographic groups. In one county, a busing initiative led to a populist uprising and rare bipartisan… -
opinion
Here’s How Poor Land Management Is Leading to Bigger California Fires
Editor’s Note: Fire season has become extreme and destructive in California as the state has been hit with numerous infernos and now power outages. In 2018, in the wake of a massive fire in Northern California, President Donald Trump said that land management has been a contributing factor to the blazes. As Jarrett Stepman wrote… -
opinion
Former Time Magazine Editor Is Wrong. America Doesn’t Need ‘Hate Speech’ Laws.
Will someone in our free press stand up for free speech? Just as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been harangued by politicians and legacy media journalists about not doing more to censor speech on his social media platform, an opinion column Tuesday in The Washington Post called for passing “hate speech” laws that take direct… -
opinion
Congress Must Look for Ways to Improve Our Federal Land Policies
A House Natural Resources subcommittee held an oversight hearing last week not-so-subtly titled “No More Standoffs: Protecting Federal Employees and Ending the Culture of Anti-Government Attacks and Abuse.” The hearing—before the National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands Subcommittee—was unremarkable except for one observation; namely, the witnesses largely all disagreed with the clear partisan purposes of… -
opinion
The Truth About America’s Founding and Slavery
The New York Times’ 1619 Project is the latest attempt from the left to retell history. But Allen Guelzo thinks the Times made some key errors. “The hope of many members of the Constitutional Convention, that slavery could be abolished, was linked to their conviction that the abolition of slavery was simply one more step… -
opinion
California’s Disastrous State Illustrates Limits of Progressivism
More than 2 million Californians recently were left without power after the state’s largest utility, Pacific Gas and Electric—which filed for bankruptcy earlier this year—preemptively shut down transmission lines in fear that they might spark fires during periods of high autumn winds. Consumers blame the state for not cleaning up dead trees and brush, along… -
news
Nation’s Report Card ‘Must Be America’s Wake-Up Call,’ Betsy DeVos Says
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos criticized the state of American students’ education Wednesday, saying the United States is in a “student achievement crisis.” DeVos referred to the 2019 Nation’s Report Card, a national assessment of U.S. students’ academic understandings and abilities released Wednesday. The report found that between 2017 and 2019, reading and mathematics scores lowered for all students,… -
opinion
Washington Post’s Headline on ISIS Chief’s Death Shows Moral Gulf Between Left, Right
The headline to The Washington Post obituary read, “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, austere religious scholar at helm of Islamic State, dies at 48.” “Austere religious scholar”? How about terrorist?! After Twitter world went berserk, the Post obituary reappeared with a new headline: “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, extremist leader of Islamic State, dies at 48.” At a time… -
news
White House Touts ‘Health Care for You’ as Better Option Than ‘Medicare for All’
The White House is making a strong push against Democrats’ “Medicare for All” proposal, laying out a “Health Care for You” agenda to boost competition and transparency, lower prescription prices, and produce greater affordability in health-related costs. Speaking Wednesday to a crowd in Las Vegas, Joe Grogan, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council,… -
opinion
Al-Baghdadi’s Death a Reminder Freedom Isn’t Cheap
Only extreme partisans intent on denying President Donald Trump any credit for any success would be critical of the operation he ordered that resulted in the death of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. These extreme partisans include Speaker Nancy Pelosi who, while praising the “heroism” of the special unit that conducted the raid on… -
opinion
Using Salaries to Hold Lawmakers Accountable
If the average American expects to get paid, they have to show up to work and do their job. Why don’t we hold Congress to the same standard? Sen. Rick Scott and The Heritage Foundation’s Justin Bogie explain why it’s essential to keep Congress accountable for actually getting its work done. -
opinion
Why Protests Rocking Lebanon Forced Out the Prime Minister
What started out as spontaneous protests Oct. 17 opposing a tax imposed on a popular messaging service escalated into the largest political protests in Lebanon since the 2005 “Cedar Revolution” and forced the resignation Tuesday of Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri. Hariri’s action is unlikely to end the protests, which have drawn a quarter of the… -
opinion
Media Coverage of Terrorist ISIS Founder’s Death Exposes a Double Standard
The death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as U.S. special forces cornered the terrorist founder of the Islamic State was a blessing to humanity and justice. But you wouldn’t know that from reading the widely panned headline from The Washington Post, which initially called the Islamist mass murderer an “austere religious scholar at the helm of…