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
Iran’s Dwindling Influence on Shipping
For decades, Iran’s clout was based on far more than missiles, proxies, or a nuclear file. It was about its ability to control shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. Geographic location has given the regime significant strategic leverage and an ability to hold global energy markets hostage on a whim. What happens to oil… -
opinion
Children Should Not Be Trained to See Parents as the Enemy
A parent’s first duty is not complicated. It is to love a child, form a child’s character, and prepare that child to be a productive member of society. Schools exist to help with that work by teaching children. They do not exist to replace it. That distinction is now under pressure. In some academic circles,… -
opinion
California Dictates What Cars You Can Buy. Here’s What Congress Can Do About It.
No state should get to decide what type of car or lawn mower Americans across the country can buy. Yet that is the result of an arrangement under the Clean Air Act that allows California to seek federal waivers to impose more stringent vehicle emissions standards than those adopted by the federal government. Congress now… -
opinion
Trump Transforms the UN’s Failures Into American Savings
As the 81st session of the United Nations Assembly concludes, President Donald Trump has departed after keeping the pressure on the U.N. to reform. Trump lambasted the U.N. for “criticizing the United States for protecting our children from transgender mutilization and transgender insanity.” The president observed that U.N. agencies seem to have “little to say… -
opinion
Education Department Reinstates Title IX Regulations Protecting Women’s Sports and Rejecting Gender Insanity
Supporters of women’s sports and sex-based protections have reason to celebrate. The Department of Education announced Sept. 28 that it is formally rescinding the Biden administration’s 2024 Title IX rule and reinstating the 2020 Title IX regulations promulgated under the first Trump administration. Ongoing litigation has prevented the Trump administration from being able to formally… -
news
Victor Davis Hanson: The Counterrevolution, Explained
Decorated historian, Hillsdale college professor and Daily Signal senior fellow Victor Davis Hanson explained the reasoning behind his New York Times bestseller “The Counter-Revolution” during Heritage Action’s Sentinel Summit in Orlando on Saturday. As Hanson stated in both his video appearance at the summit and in his book, the Left’s challenge is to create a… -
opinion
Ground Broken on a Rust Belt Powerhouse: Shippingport’s Data Hub Rises in the Age of AI Anxiety
SHIPPINGPORT, Pa.—The last time that I stood on these grounds along the Ohio River in Beaver County was 1976, 19 years after the first commercial nuclear power plant in the United States opened here. My Perry High School physics teacher, David Burrows, had loaded a handful of us into a van for a field trip… -
opinion
The Camp Mystic Flood Tragedy Exposed a Systematic Failure
The New York Post reported on Sept. 23 that Texas Rangers are investigating whether crimes, including manslaughter, were committed in the deaths at Camp Mystic during the July 2025 floods. Investigators are seeking evidence; no finding of criminal guilt has been made. Whatever that inquiry concludes, it raises broader questions: Why do we keep building… -
opinion
Introducing the American Investor Initiative
The Heritage Foundation’s Free Enterprise Initiative is now the American Investor Initiative, a name that says plainly what its predecessor implied: that the American economy runs to no small degree on the decisions of ordinary people who own shares—in their 401(k)s, their pension funds, their modest brokerage accounts—and who have a personal stake in how… -
opinion
Alex Clark on What It Will Take to Make America Healthy Again
Do you really know what’s in your food? The Make America Healthy Again movement is top of mind for swathes of Americans concerned about what they’re putting into their bodies. To understand more about these Americans, I sat down with Turning Point USA’s Alex Clark, host of the “Culture Apothecary” podcast, and discussed the fight… -
opinion
Digitization and the Housing Crisis
Americans are struggling with everyday expenses from fuel and food to health care and housing. Polling consistently shows that housing affordability is a top concern for Americans, and the underlying data makes it clear why. Rents have grown faster than take-home pay, and down payments take longer than ever to save for—exceeding 20 years in… -
opinion
Democrats Say They Hate Data Centers—While Using Data Centers
Top Democrats hate nothing more than President Donald Trump, but data centers are a very close second. And yet Democrats and data centers are the best of frenemies. “We need a federal moratorium on AI data centers,” insists Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. He also said on Sept. 15, “AI is an existential threat to humanity.” Even… -
opinion
Fetterman Talks Like a Republican, but His Record Says Democrat
A year ago, Sen. John Fetterman’s estrangement from the Democrats seemed like an amusing political sideshow. Now the Pennsylvania Democrat is appearing at a GOP convention and being openly courted by Republican leadership. Fetterman made a surprise video appearance at the GOP midterm convention in Dallas earlier this month to introduce his Pennsylvania colleague, Republican… -
opinion
Marxism and Islamism Are Making Our System Blink Red—and Green
By the summer of 2001, “The system was blinking red” from threats related to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. These included known planning and training for hijacking airplanes. That is the testimony that then-CIA Director George Tenet told the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. The 9/11 Commission preserved Tenet’s statement in… -
opinion
Patrick Clancy’s Riveting Interview
Patrick Clancy’s interview on “60 Minutes” was among the most riveting, painful, and spiritually challenging conversations I have witnessed in years. It was not merely an interview about a criminal trial or a family tragedy. It was the testimony of a father attempting to remain alive after the world he knew was destroyed. Patrick lost… -
opinion
A 6-Pack, an Airplane, and Excessive Fines
Imagine a judge imposing a million-dollar fine for jaywalking. Or suppose a shoplifter stole a tube of toothpaste from CVS and was ordered to pay $10,000. Those punishments would strike nearly everyone as outrageous—not because the offenses are imaginary, but because the penalties would be wildly disproportionate to them. The Eighth Amendment’s excessive fines clause… -
opinion
Putting Law Schools Back on Track
The U.S. Department of Education says the country’s largest legal association shouldn’t be allowed to accredit law schools. A long track record of ideological bias and a cozy relationship between an accrediting committee and the American Bar Association proves that public officials are correct in their judgment. Even with major changes to the ABA, law… -
opinion
Federal Reserve Chair Treats Inflation With Quack ‘Cure’
Kevin Warsh—the new, spiffy Federal Reserve chairman—just offered an old, threadbare “therapy” for nagging inflation. On Sept. 16, the central bank increased the federal funds rate from 3.75% to 4%, up 0.25%—the first such hike since Aug. 1, 2023. This move was both disappointing and counterproductive. Betraying his supply-side supporters, Warsh is peddling the exhausted… -
opinion
China Tried to Silence the Philippines. Instead, It Proved Teodoro Right.
China tried to intimidate the Philippine defense secretary in the middle of an international security conference. Instead, Beijing gave the world a live demonstration of the coercion its neighbors have been writing about for years, and the Philippines gave a master class in how to push back against Chinese bullying. On Sept. 8, Philippine Secretary… -
opinion
Canadian Socialists Are Not Leading the ‘Free World’
Loathing of President Donald Trump and his trash-talking trade wars has launched Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney into the socialist stratosphere. Try not to laugh at this headline from Rolling Stone Canada: “How Mark Carney Became Leader of the Free World by Standing Up to Trump.” This is the hot anti-Trump take: Socialists can run…