Opinion and commentary on news, politics, culture, and policy impact.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday heard oral arguments in this term’s marquee case, United States v. Skrmetti. The case, out of Tennessee, nominally involves a state law banning minors’ use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for purposes of so-called gender-affirming care—which, stripped of all euphemism, means genital mutilation and chemical castration. And the justices…
President-elect Donald Trump made stunning gains with black men, Hispanic voters, and younger Americans in the 2024 presidential election, challenging long-held political assumptions. One person saw it coming more than a year ago. Patrick Ruffini, founding partner of Echelon Insights, published “Party of the People: Inside the Multiracial Populist Coalition Remaking the GOP” in November…
“For every American who is discouraged about the American present and the American future, whatever the reason for that is, it’s time to saddle up, because we’re going to take our country back,” Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts promises. Roberts made that vow in a discussion with Joshua Treviño, chief transformation officer at the Texas Public…
Imagine seeing this on tomorrow’s front page: Biden Announces New ‘Give It to Gaza’ Parole Program: 1,000 Palestinians per Week to Fly in From Designated Middle East Airports to Chicago, Detroit, and New York. That’s not a real headline—but it could be. “They can’t do that!” you say? Not so. Previous presidents realized they were…
The most thorough report ever released on America’s reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic has concluded that virtually everything that would have gotten you banned from social media for spreading “misinformation” was true. After a two-year investigation, the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic released its 520-page report (titled “After Action Review of the COVID-19 Pandemic: The…
Many Democrats dream of ways to ensure they never lose power again. This is why they want to eliminate the Electoral College, pack the Supreme Court, and make the District of Columbia a state. As D.C. celebrates 50 years of “home rule,” here are five reasons that autonomy—let alone statehood—isn’t a good idea. 1. The…
Deflated by the resounding November defeat, the Left now believes it can magically rebound by destroying President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees. Many of Trump’s picks are well outside the usual Washington, D.C./New York political, media, and corporate nexus. But that is precisely the point—to insert reformers into a bloated, incompetent, and weaponized government who are…
“Pretty disgusting” and “grotesque.” That’s how a Florida parent described an online session for students on “gender” provided by two K-12 virtual public schools in November—a session that virtual school officials held without first informing parents. These schools’ attempt to sidestep families is just the latest in a long list of examples demonstrating that some…
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s visit to the Philippines in November underscored the importance of the archipelago nation assisting the United States in the broader effort to deter the belligerence of the People’s Republic of China in the Indo-Pacific. As our treaty ally, the Philippines is showing initiative in the face of Chinese aggression through…
Some union leaders are self-destructive idiots. America’s ports have fallen behind. Not a single one ranks in the top 50 worldwide. A big reason is that dock unions stop innovation. This fall, the International Longshoremen’s Association shut down East and Gulf Coast ports, striking for a raise and a ban on automation. They got the…
Everyone has heard the old saw “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” Well, perhaps we should add judges with life tenure to the list of those we ought not to anger. Just before exiting stage left Sunday for Africa to seek refuge from a hungry press, President Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter…
A continent once widely skeptical of Giorgia Meloni now looks to the Italian prime minister for a solution to the problem of rampant mass migration in Europe. A core tenet of Meloni’s 2022 campaign involved curbing illegal immigration flows to Italy. Italian dissatisfaction with the crisis partially propelled Meloni’s political success, as mass waves of…
Bring on the DOGE revolution. An explosive new report from Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, who chairs the Senate DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) Caucus, notes that fewer than 1 out of every 10 federal employees (6%) work in an office full time, citing an April survey. “If you exclude security guards & maintenance personnel, the…
Senators, yes, it’s the holiday season and a lame-duck session, but don’t get distracted from the reason you’re in Washington—namely, to improve Americans’ lives. Unfortunately, some Republican senators are failing to show up for votes to block outgoing President Joe Biden’s nominees, allowing Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to easily shepherd eight federal Biden…
In August, the nation’s second-largest school district announced a major policy shift that caused the soon-to-be-unemployed minds at the Los Angeles Times editorial board to collectively explode last month. Why? Because in the wake of a federal civil rights complaint filed by Parents Defending Education in 2023, the U.S. Department of Education forced the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) to open up its $120 million…
Although Donald Trump’s election was widely seen as a rebuke to the Left’s obsession with race, California Gov. Gavin Newsom has promised to “Trump-proof” his state, and that likely applies to the Democrat’s ongoing plans to give race-based handouts. This year alone, Newsom signed a slate of reparations bills into law. And although California won’t…
Prior to the Biden-Harris administration, electricity prices had been flat for a decade at around 13 cents per kilowatt-hour. They’re now at 18 cents per kWh—an increase of nearly 30% since 2020. U.S. consumers are paying more for everything, especially electricity, as price increases ripple through the economy. Although food and housing inflation receive a…
When President George W. Bush stood in front of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 20, 2005, and gave his second inaugural address, as this column has noted before, he argued that maintaining freedom in the United States would require spreading freedom all around the world. “We are led, by events and common sense, to one…
This week, I visited Buenos Aires, Argentina, to speak about free markets and socialism at the Conservative Political Action Conference. It was a fitting location: Argentina is now ground zero for the revitalization of capitalism in the West. In a time when the Right often laments “late-stage capitalism” in terms reminiscent of Noam Chomsky, while…
The dean of the nation’s political analysts, Michael Barone, sat down with The Wall Street Journal to discuss the 2024 election. The headline that emerged from that discussion was “Donald Trump’s Rainbow Coalition,” noting that the monopoly of the Democratic Party over the nation’s black vote seems to be over. If this is true, and…