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
Brother of Man Slain by Dallas Cop Offers Forgiveness to Her
A man hugged and offered forgiveness to former police officer Amber Guyger after a Dallas jury sentenced her to 10 years in prison for killing his brother. Guyger, 31, shot and killed her neighbor Botham Shem Jean, 27, in his Texas apartment while off duty in September 2018. She said she mistook him for an… -
opinion
A Judge’s Wrongheaded Ruling Saves Harvard’s Non-Colorblind Admission Policy
The day that racial preferences are finally expunged from university admissions, hiring practices, and contracting, we should all pause and quietly remember U.S. District Court Judge Allison D. Burroughs. By deciding that Harvard’s race-conscious admissions policies were not just constitutional, but also a necessary evil on the road to colorblind nirvana, she rendered useful service…. -
news
EPA Lowers Boom on San Francisco for Violations of Clean Water Act
The Environmental Protection Agency issued a notice Wednesday accusing San Francisco of violating the Clean Water Act, a 1970s environmental regulation designed to protect the country’s waterways and tributaries. San Francisco is struggling to maintain its sprawling sewage system, allowing “substantial volumes of raw and partially-treated sewage to flow across beaches and into the San… -
opinion
Problematic Women: Transgender Funeral Home Case Could Set New Precedents
This week on “Problematic Women” we talk to Emilie Kao, director of The Heritage Foundation’s Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society. Kao provides insights on sex discrimination in relation to federal civil rights laws and discusses an upcoming Supreme Court case with major implications for sex-segregated spaces (such as bathrooms and… -
opinion
The Gospel of Marx: A False Religion Explained
Karl Marx once called religion the opium of the people—an imaginary coping mechanism that makes suffering in this world more bearable. His vision was a secular, atheistic one. But my guest today argues Marx’s vision was still intensely spiritual. In fact, he says Marx hijacked key themes from Christianity to create a false religion. Theology… -
opinion
Today’s Christians Gather in 3 Camps When It Comes to Presidents
The debate about political power and authority among those who profess the Christian faith has raged since the first century. In modern America, the debate raged throughout Jimmy Carter’s presidency and more recently through the presidencies of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. The debate now looms large for Donald Trump. Newsweek magazine labeled 1976 “The… -
opinion
Hong Kong’s ‘Shot Heard Around the World’ Is Reverberating
Hong Kong protests turned violent as demonstrators took to the streets on Tuesday, the day marking the 70th anniversary of Communist Party rule in China. And, for the first time since protests began early this year, a Hong Kong police officer shot and wounded a protester amid a skirmish between the demonstrators and security forces…. -
news
3 Things to Know About Paul Ray, Trump’s Pick for Top Deregulator
After carrying out an aggressive deregulation agenda for nearly three years, President Donald Trump has tapped his acting chief deregulator as the permanent head of the office he has overseen since March. Trump on Tuesday evening announced his intention to nominate Paul Ray to be administrator for the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Ray… -
opinion
It’s Crunch Time for Brexit. Here’s How It Could Happen.
Within a month, Brexit will either have happened, or it will have been delayed yet again. It has now been over three years since the British people voted to leave the European Union, and the relentless delays imposed by the British courts, the Parliament, and the EU itself have been maddening. But the past three… -
news
More Than 500,000 Central Americans Illegally Enter Mexico in First Half of Year
Over 500,000 Central American migrants entered Mexico illegally during the first six months of 2019, revealing the extent of the immigration crisis. Mexico Interior Secretary Olga Sanchez Cordero revealed that more than half a million Central American migrants have entered her country between January and June of this year, according to the Center for Immigration Studies. The… -
news
Trump Celebrates Winning Legal Fight to Stay on California Ballot
President Donald Trump declared victory Wednesday after a judge blocked a California law keeping his name off the state’s ballot ahead of the 2020 election. Judge Morrison England Jr. officially blocked the law Tuesday afternoon, giving the president a major victory pending California's appeal. The law, passed in July, would have required any candidate running… -
opinion
Court Rulings on FCC’s Deregulatory Agenda are 1 Step Forward, 1 Step Back
Since his appointment as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Ajit Pai has pursued a broad-ranging agenda for regulatory reform. The centerpiece of that agenda was the repeal of the Obama-era “net neutrality” rules on broadband internet providers. The repeal was mostly upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Tuesday. … -
opinion
How the War on History Is Rewriting America’s Past
A generation ago, America’s Founding Fathers were venerated. Today, they’re more likely to be under attack from the media, teachers, and politicians. And it’s not just the Founders, but our founding documents, institutions, and other leaders from our past. Our colleague, Jarrett Stepman, has written about all this in a new book called “The War… -
opinion
The Victim Trap That Keeps People Down
During my student days at a UCLA economics department faculty/graduate student coffee hour in the 1960s, I was chatting with professor Armen Alchian, probably the greatest microeconomic theory economist of the 20th century. I was trying to impress Alchian with my knowledge of statistical type I and type II errors. I explained that unlike my… -
opinion
No, Mattel: Kids Don’t Want Your Gender-Neutral Dolls
Fox Business Network reported some news last week that may surprise business strategists as well as kids and parents alike: Toymaker Mattel has announced a new line of gender-neutral dolls. The company cites new “research” finding that kids “don’t want their toys dictated by gender norms.” So, for $30, children will now be able to… -
news
Charlottesville to Hear From Native Americans in Dispute Over Statue of Sacagawea
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Virginia—Sacagawea, the famous member of the Shoshone tribe, was crucial to the team of explorers who blazed a trail for western expansion of the United States. More statues are dedicated to Sacagawea, it turns out, than to any other American woman. However, how she is depicted in one statue that has stood for 100… -
opinion
Why New Mexico’s ‘Free College’ Plan Likely Will Backfire
New Mexico has become the most recent state to succumb to liberal demands for tuition-free college. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, recently announced support for legislation that would enable New Mexico students who maintain a 2.5 GPA in high school to attend public colleges and community colleges tuition-free starting next fall under a proposed… -
news
Boys Didn’t Cut Her Dreadlocks, 6th-Grade Girl Confesses
A sixth-grade student at a Christian school in Virginia has admitted that she made up a claim that three boys pinned her down and cut off her dreadlocks. Amari Allen, 12, who is black and attends Immanuel Christian School in Springfield, had said that three white sixth-grade boys attacked her on the school playground last… -
opinion
Growing Up to Be Good Is More Important Than Career
Ask any young person—even a young child—“What do you want to be?” and just about everyone will answer, “a doctor,” “an engineer,” “a teacher,” “a firefighter,” “an airplane pilot,” or a member of some other profession. This is completely understandable. But I have a suggestion that would change your child’s life—and the world—for the better…. -
opinion
Here’s How Andrew Jackson Stood Up to Unaccountable ‘Elites’
What Andrew Jackson and his followers of the 1820s and 1830s left us was the “democratic” creed in the American bloodstream. It was populist but principled, as oxymoronic as that may sound. Jackson had surrounded himself with thinking men—like Martin Van Buren, Francis Preston Blair, Amos Kendall, a few eccentric “Locofocos” (precursors to modern libertarians),…