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
Fact Check: Do You Have to Speak English to Be Naturalized?
During a heated exchange at the Wednesday press briefing between a senior adviser to President Donald Trump, Stephen Miller, and CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta, the question of English requirements for naturalization came up. In an attempt to ridicule a proposal on immigration, Acosta cited a poem on the Statue of Liberty, stating that the poem “doesn’t say… -
opinion
Democrats’ ‘Better Deal’ Proposals Would Make Americans Worse Off
On July 24, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi unveiled proposals by House Democrats to create “a better deal” for American families and workers. Unfortunately, the press releases accompanying the launch of the “Better Deal” initiative outline general policies that would undermine economic opportunities for Americans and harm American consumers. In other words, this initiative flunks… -
opinion
The World Must Turn Back Venezuela’s Growing Dictatorship
Venezuela has succumbed to dictatorship. It’s going to take a concerted international effort to reverse this ugly development. On July 30, socialist strongman Nicolas Maduro held a fraudulent and highly unpopular election. As a result, all 545 seats of a new “Constituent Assembly” are being filled with candidates hand-picked by Maduro’s National Socialist Party. The… -
news
Conservative Leader Says Congress Must Make Good on ‘Bold’ Tax Reform
The chairman of a conservative House caucus said Wednesday that he wants tax reform to be so bold and sweeping that IRS employees will be looking for jobs. “We need to be bold,” Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, said at an event sponsored by Meadows and Americans for Prosperity… -
news
Wasserman Schultz Apparently Planned to Pay House IT Suspect in Pakistan
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., seemingly planned to pay cyber-probe suspect and IT aide Imran Awan even while he was living in Pakistan, if the FBI hadn’t stopped him from leaving the U.S. last week. Public statements and congressional payroll records suggest Wasserman Schultz, chairman of the Democratic Party until last year, also appears to have known that… -
opinion
When It Comes to Helping People, Facts Don’t Care About Your Intentions
Haven’t you heard? Conservatives are heartless, cruel, and all other synonyms for “bad” because we don’t care about other people. Which is to say that conservatives don’t agree with those on the left on how best to help the poor, educate children, and provide health care. To many on the left, these are not just… -
opinion
How the Somali Government Is Getting Terrorists to Defect
The East African country of Somalia recently concluded a 60-day amnesty program for anyone willing to defect from the Islamist terrorist group, al-Shabab. It is too soon to judge how effective this amnesty program will be in the long term. However, its inducement of a significant number of terrorist defections at least temporarily boosts the… -
opinion
Here Are 5 Ways the House Is Working to Improve Americans’ Lives
Did you know that the House of Representatives has passed more than 269 bills this year? You won’t hear that story told when you turn on the TV. For example, the same day the House passed a bill to overhaul Dodd-Frank and end big bank bailouts was the same day former FBI Director James Comey… -
opinion
Should Left-Wing Activists Like Linda Sarsour Be Allowed to Divide America Through the Census?
Somewhere in the bowels of the Office of Management and Budget sit two proposals on how to rewrite the 2020 census—and force America further down the road of identity politics and cultural Marxism. Busy political appointees should reject them. In fact, they should rethink the entire paradigm of dividing the country into artificial groups. The… -
opinion
Get Involved Locally. You Might Just Save the Country.
While much of the media focuses on lawmakers in Washington clunking heads and getting little done, the common narrative has been that change is a pipedream. But great change is afoot. They just need to look outside Washington to find it. At the local and state levels, citizen leaders, armed with a belief in economic… -
opinion
New White House Chief of Staff Is Up to the Task
Retired Marine Gen. John Kelly is now the new White House chief of staff. Known as the gatekeeper to the president, the chief of staff is a powerful but often thankless job. If the president does not have a good chief of staff, the entire administration’s agenda is at risk, as is the ultimate well-being… -
opinion
What’s New in My Lawsuit Against the Government for Breaking Into My Computer
I’m frequently asked about the status of my lawsuit against the Justice Department over secret, unlawful intrusions into my computers, exposed in 2013. While the case is moving slowly through the federal court system, there is a new development: Ongoing forensic work has revealed a second government Internet Protocol (IP) address used in the illegal… -
opinion
Can a Conservative Conduct an Orchestra?
Most Americans are at least somewhat aware of what is happening at American (and European) universities with regard to conservative speakers. Universities disinvite conservative speakers, never invite them, or allow the violent (or threatened violent) prevention of them. No non-left-wing idea should be permitted on campus. But we may have hit a new low. Let… -
news
White House Drug Commission Implores Trump to Declare a State of Emergency
The White House commission created to tackle America’s opioid addiction crisis is imploring President Donald Trump to immediately declare a national state of emergency. The commission, headed by Republican Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, delivered its interim recommendations Monday on what the Trump administration can do to tackle the worsening epidemic. The report provides a litany… -
news
Contents of House Democrat IT Aide’s Smashed Hard Drives Seen as Recoverable
Somebody must have thought they were hiding something by smashing the computer hard drives the FBI recovered from the home of Imran Awan, the former information technology aide to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla. But odds are excellent they were wrong. Federal law enforcement authorities may have already recovered and read whatever was on those… -
news
Passing Out Copies of Constitution Could Get You in Trouble at This College
A college policy that led to the arrests of a student and two supporters of a conservative group for passing out copies of the Constitution on a Michigan campus is getting its day in court. A lawyer with the First Amendment legal aid group Alliance Defending Freedom was set to argue in court Tuesday for… -
opinion
The Liberal Elite Wants to Manage Our Lives. They Must Be Stopped.
The civil society predates the constitutional order. Its subjugation and transformation by a voracious and an unappeasable administrative state is the true object of the progressive ideologue. But the purpose of a constitution, or at least the American Constitution, is to secure politically the human harmony within the civil society so that individual liberty, equal… -
news
Treasury Secretary Says Tax Reform Will Happen Within the Year
Tax reform will happen within the year, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin says. “We will have success,” Mnuchin said Monday during an event hosted by Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce and Americans for Prosperity. “This is a pass/fail exercise and we will pass tax reform, period.” The man President Donald Trump picked to oversee the nation’s… -
news
Anthony Scaramucci Out as White House Communications Director
Just 11 days after President Donald Trump appointed him, White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci is out of that job, the latest in a string of pell-mell staff shake-ups. “Mr. Scaramucci felt it was best to give chief of staff John Kelly a clean slate,” @PressSec says. Early indications Monday afternoon were that retired Marine… -
opinion
One Union’s Desperate Effort to Unionize Automakers in the South
A union organizing campaign at one workplace does not normally generate national headlines, but the 10-year-plus effort by the United Auto Workers to unionize the Canton, Mississippi Nissan plant is an exception. It is a matter of survival for the United Auto Workers. Membership has fallen from a high in 1979 of 1.5 million to…