Political Commentary & Opinion

The Daily Signal organized a series of debates during this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference about seven hot-button issues. Our reporters and editors moderated these debates. Now we’re asking you to pick the winners. Watch the videos below and vote. Then share with a friend on Facebook and Twitter.

U.S. leaders should learn the history and motivations behind Islam in order to defeat radicalized terrorists, human rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali told an audience of conservative activists. “To discuss Islam as a set of ideas does not make you a racist. It doesn’t make you Islamophobic,” Ali said to cheers Friday at the annual…

Heritage Foundation President Jim DeMint praised conservative leaders and activists Friday for espousing policies that help conservative candidates win. “When Republicans run on bold, positive, conservative ideas, they win,” DeMint said. DeMint, addressing the crowd at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, reflected on his own days in Congress representing South Carolina, including six years in…

In a year dominated by mudslinging and name-calling, Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, bucked the status quo and delivered a speech to conservative activists today that highlighted the need for courage and confidence in the conservative movement. Quoting former diplomat and first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Love implored attendees of the 2016 Conservative Political Action Conference, or…

House Speaker Paul Ryan called Thursday for a change of strategy in the nation’s 52-year-old War on Poverty. The Wisconsin Republican said he wants to empower communities, not the federal government, to wage their own battles for economic opportunity. Ryan renewed his anti-poverty campaign by taking aim at a legion of “about 92 federal programs, spending…

American leaders can learn something from British Prime Minister David Cameron in responding to Islamic radicalization at home, policy experts said at a forum in Washington, D.C. Promoting patriotism is the best way to counter domestic terrorism, panelists agreed at an event on Cameron’s approach held by The Heritage Foundation. “Support for democracy, the rule…

Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., believes that the country is in a time of “constitutional crisis,” and he served up a history lesson at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference on the founding fathers and the roots of American exceptionalism and conservatism. Sasse, who has emerged as one of the Senate’s most conservative voices since taking office in…

Speaking in front of a room filled with conservative grassroots activists, Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, took on President Barack Obama’s foreign policy strategy, arguing that the country needs to elect a new leader who is willing to confront the “real and dangerous threats” facing the nation. “We’ve all got to come together and find conservative leadership…

One year after the Federal Communications Commission decided to regulate Internet service as an essential public utility, the contentious net neutrality policy is being challenged in court, and Republican lawmakers are seeking to overturn it. But even as net neutrality faces an uncertain future, supporters and opponents of the rules are measuring their impact, and…

Pressure is building for Secretary of State John Kerry to include Christians in a declaration of genocide against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS. An online petition asking Kerry to end U.S. silence about the “ongoing genocide against Christians and other minority groups in Iraq and Syria” had over 42,500 signatures as of Tuesday….

Too many college students are more interested in silencing opposition than fostering ideas, education experts said at a forum in Washington, D.C. “The burning irony of today’s popular campus movement is that it’s built on supplanting knowledge with ignorance, inquiry with activism, and freedom with conformity,” Peter Wood, president of the National Association of Scholars,…