Political Commentary & Opinion
Analysis, commentary, and opinion essays on politics and policy from The Daily Signal’s contributors and experts.
-
opinion
Q&A: How Worried Should We Be About Ebola Spreading in U.S.?
Yesterday, it was announced that the first case of Ebola had occurred in the United States. How huge a difference does it make that we now have someone with Ebola in the United States? The difference is not that significant. The Center for Disease Control is the best public health organization in the globe. They… -
opinion
The News Is Fit to Print But Are Major News Organizations Fit to Report It?
Former investigative reporter and producer Lowell Bergman observed, “You can have all the information you want in the world. If you don't have the people raising questions and looking beneath the surface, and people being paid to do this, you're not going to find the answers.” Over the past several months, a variety of polls… -
opinion
This Millennial Mom’s Incredible Sacrifice for Her Daughter
When then-pregnant Ashley Bridges found out she had bone cancer, she refused to have an abortion in order to have the recommended chemotherapy treatment. “There’s no way I could kill a healthy baby because I’m sick,” Bridges told the Los Angeles CBS affiliate. Bridges, who is 24, found out when she was eight months pregnant… -
opinion
Q&A: Everything You Need to Know About Hong Kong Demonstrations
Q: Why are thousands of people demonstrating in Hong Kong now? Because when the former colonial master Britain handed Hong Kong over to China, the latter promised universal suffrage in the choice of their leader, or chief executive, and, under the formula of “One Country, Two Systems,” that their separate way of life would be… -
news
Political Strategists Plot How Libertarians and Conservatives Can Unite to ‘Take Back the White House’
Doug Stafford says he and his boss, Sen. Rand Paul, got into politics the same way: through their church, which inspired them to develop pro-life principles. Stafford, the executive director of RAND PAC and a close adviser to Paul, sat on a panel this past weekend at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C., a… -
news
This Amazing Video Shows Thousands of Demonstrators Flooding Streets of Hong Kong
In Hong Kong, the streets have been filled with huge numbers of demonstrators. -
opinion
This Fighter Pilot Gives New Meaning to ‘Girl Power’
You probably know the United States dropped bombs on ISIS in Syria last week. How the U.S.-led airstrikes in Syria went down last night – http://t.co/oD8JWM2Lez pic.twitter.com/4xI2Kle1lv — CBS News (@CBSNews) September 24, 2014 You might know Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates joined forces with the U.S. to launch the… -
opinion
Need for Greater Efforts to Counter Violent Extremism at Home
About 100 Americans and more than 2,000 other Westerners have joined, tried to join, or travelled to areas controlled by militant groups in Syria. This alarming trend highlights the fact that individuals are being radicalized in the U.S. to wage a war of terror in the Middle East. Even more troubling is that some radicalized… -
news
For Yezidis Displaced by ISIS, a Long Way Home
Yezidis have lived in Iraq’s Sinjar region and Nineveh plains for centuries. But after recent attacks by the Islamic State, most are so scared of returning to their homes that they never want to go back. “They love this place [Sinjar],” said Christine van den Toorn, who has lived and worked in Sulaimaniya in the… -
opinion
Paul Krugman Mischaracterizes Heritage Chart
Paul Krugman has this to say about our chart below: [T]he Heritage Foundation tells us that the top 10 percent of filers are cruelly burdened, because they pay 68 percent of income taxes, it’s hoping that you won’t notice that word “income”—other taxes, such as the payroll tax, are far less progressive. But it’s also… -
opinion
Time to Change Course: Stop Letting Police Seize Property from Innocent People
“[Civil Asset Forfeiture] should be abolished.” That’s the considered opinion of the two men — John Yoder and Brad Cates — who, in the 1980s, oversaw the development of federal civil asset forfeiture as a tool to combat organized crime and the drug trade. Forfeiture does not apply to organized crime or drug crimes alone;… -
news
They Lost Their Bakery, Now Face Bankruptcy: Government’s ‘Discrimination’ Fine Brings Baker to Tears
A bakery owner in Oregon broke down in tears while discussing the fallout of her and her husband’s decision not to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple on the basis of their Christian beliefs. Earlier this year, the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries found “substantial evidence” that Aaron and Melissa Klein, owners… -
opinion
Crying for Freedom: 21 Photos Straight From Hong Kong
Police tear gas, pepper spray and batons flooded the front of Hong Kong government headquarters Sunday afternoon as the authorities cracked down on thousands of protesters who refused to end their three-day rallies and street blockades across the city. The pro-democracy demonstration expanded to unprecedented levels over the weekend. According to the Associated Press, the… -
news
Woman Arrested for Possession of… SpaghettiOs?
A Georgia woman has been released after she was arrested for possession – of SpaghettiOs. According to the Gainesville Times, police arrested Ashley Huff, 23, when they found a “suspicious residue” they believed to be meth on a spoon inside the car she was riding in. Huff was subsequently charged with possession of methamphetamine. Huff… -
news
Why Traditional Marriage Supporters Think 2015 Will Be a Turning Point in Debate
Despite rulings on the Defense of Marriage Act and California’s Proposition 8 from the U.S. Supreme Court last year, traditional marriage supporters are looking ahead to 2015 as a crucial moment in the marriage debate. Supreme Court justices met for the first time today to consider if they will hear any same-sex marriage cases during the… -
opinion
Ebola’s Second Toll: Economies
After nearly 3,000 confirmed deaths and with the possibility that between 550,000 and 1.4 million people could be infected by early next year, the current Ebola epidemic has severely undermined the West African economies of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. While the economic loss related to the outbreak is incomparable to the tragic human loss, serious… -
opinion
The Iron Dome Works
It’s been a rough few weeks for one of America's most vociferous critics of missile defense. Ted Postol, Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor and longtime critic of U.S. missile defense, told National Public Radio just three days into the 2014 Gaza missile wars that Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system “doesn’t work.” He said it… -
opinion
How We Can Turn the Tide in the Culture Wars
There is no sugarcoating it. With each passing year, on most cultural fronts, things have been getting worse. There is a coarseness to our society and a rending of real ties that bind us to one another. Only about half of Americans are currently married, and about half of the children in the U.S. will… -
news
Boehner: Ground Troops Needed to Defeat ISIS ‘Barbarians’
House Speaker John Boehner said today the United States should send ground forces to fight the militant Islamic State if no other country does. .@SpeakerBoehner on ISIS: “Somebody’s boots have to be on the ground.” “At the end of the day, I think it’s gonna take more than airstrikes to drive them outta there,” the… -
opinion
We’ve Spent $22 Trillion on War on Poverty. What Have We Achieved?
It's been 50 years now since the federal government launched its "War on Poverty." But the numbers just released by the Census Bureau suggest we're in a losing battle. The poverty rate now stands at 14.5 percent. That's a drop from the previous rate of 15 percent. But don't celebrate too quickly. The new rate…