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
Matthew Spalding Tutors Congress on How the Smithsonian Has Attacked Our History
“When in the course of human events …” With those words, Thomas Jefferson began the Declaration of Independence and gave voice to a proposition that would change the world. The phrase is not ornamental. It is the architecture of political history. Nations are born, tested, defended, and sometimes squandered by human events: decisions made by… -
opinion
Trump Greenlighting Ukrainian Patriot Missile Production Is a Good Move
President Donald Trump announced during the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, this month that the United States will grant Ukraine a license to manufacture Patriot missile interceptors domestically, saying to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that “We’ll show them how to do it. It’s very complex actually, but you’ll figure out the complexity quickly.” This decision… -
opinion
Keep Dismantling the Department of Education
Dismantling the U.S. Department of Education is one of the Trump administration’s best and boldest policies. With just a small percentage of staff coming to the office anymore, the agency is downsizing to a nearby building. Some senators are trying to stop much of this welcome reform, however, with a bill to cease implementation of… -
opinion
Why Is Virginia’s Largest Public School District Spending so Much on Lawyers?
In just seven years, Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) has spent nearly $60 million on lawyers. During fiscal year 2026 alone, the district set a new record, spending $14.4 million on legal fees. Fiscal Year Legal Fees 2020 $6,401,078 2021 $5,066,049 2022 $6,312,989 2023 $6,925,475 2024 $11,619,332 2025 $7,656,968 2026 $14,440,784 Total $58,422,675 Source: Freedom… -
opinion
Facing a Lawsuit, Airbnb Finds Room for Its Principles
For a while there, Airbnb seemed bent on taking a vacation from its principles. Happily, a federal lawsuit has driven home to the company the importance of honoring its stockholders. The lawsuit has prompted Airbnb to rethink and reverse its actions from a year ago, when the company refused to include two legitimate shareholder resolutions—both filed before… -
opinion
The Filibuster: An Accident Turned Into Tradition
The filibuster is unconstitutional. Our Founding Fathers spoke against requiring a supermajority threshold to pass regular measures in Congress, yet the erroneous practice continues today via the filibuster. Current Senate practice reaches beyond our Founders’ original plan that a supermajority vote was only to be used for the five instances listed in the Constitution and… -
opinion
The Middle East and the Map Lindsey Graham Left Behind
I have flown to Washington, D.C., more times than I can count over the last 1,000 days, almost always for the same reason: to press for the return of the American hostages held in Gaza, including my son. This week I flew there for a different reason: to stand among the people saying goodbye to… -
opinion
Senate Big Tech Warriors, It’s Time to Confirm Adam Candeub
President Donald Trump is putting America First fighters in charge of the agencies that actually run this country, and his pick last week to lead the Department of Justice Antitrust Division is no exception. Meet Adam Candeub: the guy who helped write the Project 2025 playbook for reining in Big Tech and who has spent his career going after… -
opinion
Trump’s VA Reforms Are Working. Now Finish the Job.
Since President Donald Trump returned to office, his administration has continued advancing reforms that have strengthened performance across the Department of Veterans Affairs. The VA has reduced the disability claims backlog by roughly 70%, opened 35 new health care facilities, completed more than 82 million appointments in fiscal year 2025, and permanently housed more than… -
opinion
Why Democrats Can’t Do Better Than Kamala Harris in 2028
There are only two lanes to the Democrat presidential nomination two years from now, and one of them is already blocked—by Kamala Harris. Get ready for the Kamala comeback, followed, in all likelihood, by a replay of her crushing defeat by the Republican nominee. Believe it or not, the ex-VP occupies what counts as the… -
opinion
Daniel Oliver Understood That the Liberty Tree Demands an Offense
America lost a great patriot just as she prepared to celebrate her 250th birthday. Daniel Oliver died on June 26, 2026, after a life spent in the vineyards of the conservative movement—as a lawyer, editor, public servant, Reagan administration official, chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, chairman of National Review, leader and trustee of conservative… -
opinion
The Right Cannot Defeat the Left by Abandoning Its Own Principles
The ideological excesses of the American Left are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. Political commentator Hasan Piker recently appeared in a Mao jacket—a conspicuous tribute to the Chinese dictator whose regime was responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of people—before addressing college students. Around the same time, Melat Kiros, a Democratic Socialists of… -
opinion
The SPLC’s ‘Hate Map’ Is Still Used to Limit Giving to Conservative Organizations
The Southern Poverty Law Center’s descent from its once-vaunted role as a sentinel against extremism has been precipitous and ironic. An organization whose “hate map” promiscuously equates parental rights groups such as Moms for Liberty with neo-Nazi organizations now stands indicted by the Department of Justice on charges of wire fraud, false statements, and conspiracy… -
opinion
Victor Davis Hanson: The Left-Wing Unicorn Hunt for the White Male Working-Class Voter
The last Democrat candidate to appeal to the white working-class voter was former President Bill Clinton. He needed every one of those voters in his 1992 and 1996 races. Yet he still failed to win 50% of the popular vote because of Ross Perot’s third-party candidacy. Since then, the Democrat brand has lost the white working-class vote in… -
opinion
Protecting Women’s Sports, Including Irish Dance
The June 30 Supreme Court ruling defending states’ right to ban trans-identifying men from women’s sports is already paying dividends, including in sports that had previously skirted U.S. law on American soil. Since 2023, the world’s largest Irish dance organization, An Coimisiún le Rinci Gaelacha (CLRG), together with the Irish Dance Teachers Association of North… -
opinion
Why Would Congress Want to Punish People for Their IRA Savings?
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., rolled out the Retirement Fairness for Working Americans Act this week, and the name alone tells you how Washington sells a bad idea. There is nothing fair about capping retirement accounts and forcing selloffs on people who did exactly what the tax code told them to… -
opinion
The Cold War Never Ended. It Just Came Home.
Under President Ronald Reagan, Americans understood communism for what it was. We knew it wasn’t an ambitious social program or a compassionate alternative to capitalism. Everyone knew—without question—that it crushed faith, confiscated property, silenced dissent, and turned citizens into subjects of the state. Then the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union collapsed. We defeated… -
opinion
The SEC Moves to Repeal Its Ridiculous Climate Disclosure Rule
The Securities and Exchange Commission recently introduced a proposal to rescind its 2024 rule requiring companies to report extensive data on climate change, a much-needed move that will benefit Americans. Everyday citizens can and should use the SEC’s rulemaking portal to comment in support of this proposal. But first, it is worth revisiting the 2024… -
opinion
The Congressional Budget Office, Like the Rest of Washington, Is Not Perfect
How many taxpayer dollars could additional anti-fraud measures save? The Congressional Budget Office can’t give a straight answer. Yet to anyone who’s paid attention to the deluge of fraud cases uncovered, it’s obvious that the answer is “plenty.” CBO says it’s unclear how much money such an investment could save. It has a habit… -
opinion
Requiring Citizenship to Vote Is a Call to Common Sense: Will It Fall on Deaf Ears?
While most eyes on Washington are focused on the SAVE America Act, a new constitutional amendment is percolating in the halls of Congress. Rep. Laurel Lee, R-Fla., recently proposed a constitutional amendment that would codify citizenship as a permanent requirement to vote in federal elections. The amendment is titled “Proposing an amendment to the Constitution…