Political Commentary & Opinion
Analysis, commentary, and opinion essays on politics and policy from The Daily Signal’s contributors and experts.
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opinion
California: The Land of Regulation
California’s punishing cost of living isn’t inevitable—it’s policy-driven. Burdensome regulations have sent housing and energy prices soaring, crushing incomes and deepening poverty. Smarter deregulation could bring back the Golden State’s long-lost affordability and historic role as a “land of opportunity.” In 2024, California had a poverty rate of 17.7%, meaning about 7 million people were… -
opinion
Bureaucrats in the Way of Business
Is your business “needed”? Bizarrely, in many states, if you want to start a business, you first must convince bureaucrats that your business is “needed.” Four years ago, Louisiana blocked social worker Ursula Newell-Davis from helping kids with special needs. Bureaucrats said she hadn’t proved her business was needed. “Why does the state of Louisiana… -
opinion
How Do Federal Government Employees Get Away With Not Paying Their Taxes?
We have known for some time that our federal employees have cushy lives compared to the people for whom they work (us). What is particularly infuriating is that so many of them either don’t pay their taxes or are seriously delinquent on what they owe their employer—the federal government. Recently, the Treasury Inspector General for… -
opinion
Stop the Scam: Minneapolis Students Need Education Choice
One classical school in Minneapolis offers a lesson on how to create opportunities in tough areas. Policymakers and special interest groups should pay attention. In May, at a hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce, Rep. Bob Onder, R-Mo., described a reality that has been obvious to parents in… -
opinion
No Great Expectations for New Jersey’s Businesses
It was the based of times, it was the woke of times, it was the age of candor, it was the age of cant, it was the epoch of sense, it was the epoch of pretense. And it was the season when firms started moving from high-tax, high-cost blue states to freedom-loving red states. ExxonMobil’s… -
opinion
Protecting Religion: The Battlefield of the Future
On June 6, 1876, as the United States approached its centennial anniversary, President Ulysses S. Grant addressedthe youth of America. “My advice … no matter their denomination,” is to hold fast to faith, to not merely know one’s religious precepts, but to live them. By Grant’s counsel, in this would be the flourishing of the… -
opinion
African Parliamentarians Gather to Defend Family and National Sovereignty
The fourth African Regional Inter-Parliamentary Conference on Family Values and Sovereignty is convening in Accra, Ghana, this week. There, parliamentarians and civil society leaders from across Africa will seek to respond to the many contemporary challenges affecting African families, cultural identity, and national sovereignty. Topping the agenda at the conference will be a discussion of… -
opinion
Louisiana Schools Wave Goodbye to Bureaucratic Red Tape
Who would have thought education dollars were best used when actually directed toward the education of students? Attempting to follow every letter of federal regulation in education is a monumental task. School personnel spend tens of millions of hours (and dollars) each year on federal compliance. What they get in return for this investment is… -
opinion
Restoring Affordability Starts With Modernizing America’s Freight Network
Americans are still reeling from years of inflation and supply chain disruption. Families are paying more than ever before for groceries, appliances, vehicles, and countless everyday goods. Washington talks constantly about affordability, but one of the most practical ways to lower costs rarely gets enough attention: making it cheaper and faster to move products across… -
opinion
Peter Xu: The Billy Graham of China
This is an adapted excerpt from “China’s War on Faith” by Sam Brownback with Michael Arkush, released May 12 from Republic Book Publishers. Peter Xu never lost faith in his Lord and Savior. Not even when death was near. In 1997, Peter hung from the metal bars of a sliding prison door for nearly four hours…. -
opinion
Time Is Almost Up on California’s Ticking Medicaid Time Bomb
Today is primary day in California—with high-profile races for governor and Los Angeles mayor—so voters should prioritize candidates with strong records of fiscal discipline. The Golden State has a history of fiscal irresponsibility that has strained budgets, and Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program, is the clearest example. The program has expanded drastically over time,… -
opinion
Wall Street’s Dirty Secret: It’s Still Running on a Climate Scenario the UN Just Retired
The Net-Zero Banking Alliance collapsed in October 2025. The Net-Zero Insurance Alliance fell apart even earlier. By the end of last year, every major U.S. bank had withdrawn from the climate cartel that had spent four years pressuring them to choke off financing to American energy producers. It should have been the end of the story. It… -
opinion
Reps. Clyde and Boebert: No Warrants, No FISA
When there’s a real chance of protecting Americans’ privacy, the deep state always runs the same playbook. Slow walk votes on reforms. Allow the clock to run out. Highlight a potential national security scare. And reiterate the status quo while calling it reform. That’s why we must deliver real reforms before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance… -
opinion
Victims Demand Inquiry Into Sanctuary Policies in Virginia and Illinois
A republic is not ordinarily undone by a single dramatic stroke. Instead, it is softened by evasions—failures to comply with rules and failures by officials to do their duties. And so, the present controversies in Fairfax County, Virginia, and in Cook and Lake counties, Illinois, are not merely another quarrel over immigration policy. They are… -
opinion
‘This Will Be FUN!’: The Texas Senate Race Stars an Anti-Texan
“This will be FUN!” So said President Donald Trump about the upcoming Texas Senate race after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton defeated Sen. John Cornyn in the GOP primary runoff. Paxton will square off against Democrat nominee James Talarico in what may turn out to be the most expensive U.S. Senate race ever. It’ll certainly… -
opinion
Fairfax School District Prioritizes ‘Green Initiatives’ Over Academic Proficiency
As Virginia’s largest public school district continues to decline academically, Fairfax County Public Schools’ environmental and sustainability program has exploded in scale since 2020, transforming from a small initiative into a heavily staffed central operation. Meanwhile, despite a $197 million increase from the fiscal year 2026 budget, Fairfax County’s school board members voted last month… -
opinion
Even California Academics Want to Reverse Wokeness
The fruits of another woke revolution are here—and even California academics are fed up. In May 2020, weeks into the nation’s shutdown and days before George Floyd’s death, the University of California regents voted that applicants to the prestigious public higher education system would no longer need to submit SAT or ACT test scores. “I… -
opinion
Who Is God? And Who Am I?
Where did we come from? What are we made for? These two questions cut to the core of what it means to be a human person. We instinctively desire to know the answers to the deepest questions about our existence. Despite meaningless doomscrolling or gossiping, we ultimately desire to know where we came from and… -
opinion
The Story of Churchill’s Great Speech Before Congress
Winston Churchill made 16 visits to America in his lifetime. He traveled here as a soldier, a tourist, and a lecturer, but his winter visit to America in 1941 as a wartime leader was perhaps his most important. The story of that trip—and the speech he delivered to a joint session of Congress the day… -
opinion
Why the American Colonists Rebelled
The following is a lightly edited transcript of a speech delivered on May 28, 2026, at the “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” Reenactment at The Heritage Foundation. Britain’s seven year war with France came at a great cost. Its consequences would alter the world. England accumulated a substantial amount of debt throughout the…