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
House IT Aides Fear Suspects in Hill Breach Are Blackmailing Members With Their Own Data
Congressional technology aides are baffled that data-theft allegations against four former House IT workers—who were banned from the congressional network—have largely been ignored, and they fear the integrity of sensitive high-level information. Imran Awan and three relatives were colleagues until police banned them from computer networks at the House of Representatives after suspicion the brothers… -
opinion
Here’s How Many of the Top 100 Colleges Are Having Conservative Commencement Speakers
Diversity of thought continues to be decidedly unpopular at America’s top institutions of higher education. According to a new survey from Young America’s Foundation, top colleges invited 45 liberal commencement speakers this year … and a measly four conservatives. (Not all of the universities, which were drawn from U.S. News and World Report’s list, had… -
news
Bill Protecting Faith-Based Adoption Agencies in Texas on Way to Governor’s Desk
The Texas Senate early Monday passed a bill to allow faith-based adoption and foster care providers to operate based on their religious beliefs. By a final vote of 21-10, state senators agreed with their counterparts in the Texas House of Representatives that society should continue to make room for adoption and foster care services associated… -
opinion
How Fast US Public Debt Will Grow If We Don’t Change Course
A fiscal storm has been brewing over America for years, and things are only getting worse. Publicly held debt—the debt the U.S. is borrowing from credit markets (as opposed to debt owed to federal trust funds like Social Security)—is at its highest level as a percentage of gross domestic product since World War II. To… -
opinion
Undercover Video Exposes Deep Contradiction at the Heart of Planned Parenthood
Just hours after Hollywood filmmaker Joss Whedon launched a foul piece of propaganda celebrating Planned Parenthood, an undercover video surfaced that reveals a much darker reality about the nation’s leading abortion business. Though buoyed by well over $500 million in taxpayer dollars each year, Planned Parenthood offers little else in medical services beyond abortion—despite its rhetoric… -
opinion
What’s at Stake in the Left’s Effort to Redefine ‘Sex’ in Pennsylvania Law
State capitals across the country are proving they are not immune to the malady that has afflicted the policy process in Washington. The latest case in point: Pennsylvania. In a quietly released statement issued late on a Friday afternoon, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, an agency of the state government, announced a proposal to effectively… -
news
Family Homeless Nonprofit Forced to Choose Between Government Funding and Drug-Free Policy
VISTA, CALIF.—Growing up, Teena Faison never imagined she’d find herself a single mom and homeless. “We didn’t wake up one day and go, ‘Hey, I just want to be homeless with my kids,’” she told The Daily Signal “No. There’s many, many contributing factors to that—lack of education, lack of resources, addiction.” At 34 years… -
opinion
Federal Drone Registry Declared Unlawful
A three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit unanimously declared Friday that the Federal Aviation Administration’s registry of recreational drone owners is “unlawful as applied to model aircraft.” As a result, hobby drone fliers across the nation no longer face the specter of $277,500 in civil and criminal fines, as well as… -
news
Professor Receives Over $200,000 to Study Microaggressions
The National Science Foundation awarded a professor over $200,000 to research microaggressions. Specifically, her research seeks to identify how microagressions keep racial minorities from comprising a larger chunk of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics jobs, and it seeks ways to improve minority representation in these fields. Mary Atwater, a science and mathematics education professor at the University of Georgia,… -
news
3 Bills Sen. Mike Lee Thinks Could Shift Power ‘Back to the People’
Over the past eight decades, Congress has gradually relinquished its lawmaking role and left it to the administrative state, said a conservative senator at a Capitol Hill event on Wednesday. “Many Americans now feel that they are not in control of their own government,” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said during an event hosted at the… -
opinion
Feminism Drives People to Deny Basic Facts
The number of foolish statements made by men and women who consider themselves feminists is essentially equal to the number of people who strongly identify as feminists. I write "strongly identify" because if asked, "Are you a feminist?" most women will say yes. They will do so for two reasons. One is that there is… -
opinion
Trump’s Expansion of Mexico City Policy Is a Major Victory in Protecting Life
Someday, future generations of Americans will look back on us and wonder how and why such a rich and seemingly enlightened society, so blessed and endowed with the capacity to protect and enhance vulnerable human life, could have instead so aggressively promoted death to children by abortion—both here and overseas. They will note that we… -
opinion
Let’s Hit Left-Wing Colleges Where It Hurts. In the Pocketbook.
Parents, taxpayers, and donors have little idea of the levels of lunacy, evil, and lawlessness that have become features of many of today’s institutions of higher learning. Parents, taxpayers, and donors who ignore or are too lazy to find out what goes on in the name of higher education are nearly as complicit as the… -
news
In New Russia Stir, White House and Allies Call Leaks to Media Real Problem
President Donald Trump’s Oval Office conversation with two Russian officials last week was “wholly appropriate,” national security adviser H.R. McMaster said Tuesday, expanding on his previous explanation about classified information shared by the president. “The president in no way undermined sources or methods,” H.R. McMaster says. When Trump met with the Russians, McMaster said, he… -
opinion
The 1 Change the Government Could Make to Drive Down College Prices
Over the past 20 years, the price of wireless service has fallen 46 percent, the price of software has fallen 68 percent, the price of televisions has fallen 96 percent, and the quality of these services and technologies has improved markedly. But over that same time, the price of college tuition has risen 199 percent,… -
opinion
FCC’s Pai Defiant After Liberal Intimidation: ‘Folks Are Just Going to Oppose Whatever I Do’
The new Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai is not very popular with the left these days. His crime? He believes the free market, not the government, should determine the future of the internet. So aggrieved are the proponents of government-knows-best policies that they have taken to lambasting him on late-night talk shows, mean tweets,… -
news
4 Questions About Declassifying and Disclosing Government Secrets
President Donald Trump did not violate the law when he reportedly revealed classified information about an Islamic State terrorist plot during a meeting last week with Russian officials, intelligence and legal experts say. But the news that Trump shared intelligence with the Russians that was provided to the U.S. by a partner country in the… -
news
OPEC Lost $76 Billion Last Year Due to US Fracking
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries lost $76 billion in 2016 due to low oil prices caused by rising U.S. oil production, according to a report published Monday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The report estimates that in 2016, OPEC earned about $433 billion in net oil export revenues. That’s 15 percent lower and… -
news
‘Be Prepared to Defend Truth,’ Heritage’s Ryan Anderson Advises Graduates
Be persistent in the pursuit of truth, Heritage Foundation scholar Ryan T. Anderson urged graduates Saturday during a commencement address at Franciscan University of Steubenville. “The first thing to say about vocation is that it is intimately connected with truth—both metaphysical and moral truth,” Anderson said. Pursuing and defending truth, he added, will be a…