A newspaper story several years ago reported about an elementary school teacher who held elections in his class. The students picked their candidates — one little boy competing against one little girl. The little boy stood up before the class and shared his ideas for changes that would improve their lives. The little girl stood up and promised that everyone who voted for her would get ice cream.

In June 2022, The Supreme Court, in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, overturned Roe v. Wade, the decision that defined the law of the land regarding abortion since 1973. Now we are in active national discourse about which abortion regime will fill this vacuum. ...

My organization, CURE, Center for Urban Renewal and Education, organized a delegation of 20 prominent pastors to travel to Israel to host a press conference on Oct. 7 as a show of support for and solidarity with Israelis on the one-year anniversary of the horrendous, savage terrorist attack that took place. A few days ago, we were notified by Delta Airlines that our flight was canceled. Airlines are canceling flights in light of the ongoing hostilities and instability in security in the region.

Over the years 1934-1961, British historian Arnold Toynbee published his 12-volume "A Study of History." Toynbee studied the rise and fall of 23 civilizations. His conclusion was that great civilizations die not from external causes but from internal causes. They commit suicide.

The appearance of Sean O' Brien, president of the Teamsters Union, in a key speaking slot at the Republican National Convention, raised a lot of eyebrows across the political spectrum about what is going on both with unions and with the Republican Party. The union agenda and the traditional Republican agenda — free markets, free trade, free labor market competition — is not a cocktail that we usually think of as going together.

The Supreme Court recently ruled to overturn the Chevron doctrine precedent that has stood since 1984. Recent precedent reversals, such as the overturning of Roe v. Wade, have gotten much more attention. But this change is of enormous importance, and everyone should know what it’s about. ...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed this past week, at the invitation of House Speaker Mike Johnson, a joint session of Congress. The prime minister’s job that night was to make clear to the Congress, to the nation and to the world the "what" and "why" of Israel’s operation in Gaza, following the murderous attack by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023, and why Americans should identify with and support Israel’s struggle.

In President Joe Biden’s announcement on social media of his decision to not run for reelection, he ticked off the many wonderful achievements during his three and a half years in the nation’s highest office. But if things are so great, as Biden seems to think, why are Americans so dispirited? Biden’s personal polling is horrible. General polling shows an American public in a sour state of mind.

We now have, as we would expect, a tsunami of commentary regarding the horrible assassination attempt on Donald Trump. It is not trivial to observe that at least the good news is that just about everyone agrees what happened is very bad and not an encouraging sign about the state of our nation. After that point of agreement, we have many different and diverging opinions about who or what is to blame. Republicans, Democrats, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, etc., etc.

Homelessness, unfortunately, has become a persistent and growing problem in the United States. The Supreme Court, in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, just dealt with one big issue associated with this problem — the ability of cities to prohibit camping on public property.

South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott hosted an event in Washington, D.C., marking the Juneteenth holiday, which showcased why he has been included among the candidates Donald Trump is considering as his running mate. Juneteenth, now a national holiday, commemorates June 19, 1865, the date of the final implementation of the Emancipation Proclamation in the State of Texas. It’s considered the official end of slavery in the United States.

A lot of attention is being given to support being picked up by Donald Trump among non-white voters. But the change taking place among young voters is even more dramatic. In the elections in 2016 and 2020, Donald Trump was soundly defeated among voters 18-29.

A Gallup poll of several months ago asked, "On the whole, would you say that you are satisfied or dissatisfied with the position of the United States in the world today?" Only one-third, 33%, said they were satisfied. This down from 53% in February 2020 at the conclusion of Donald Trump’s presidency. It’s a wonder that even a third of Americans are comfortable with President Joe Biden’s disastrous leadership. Many scholars now liken the world today to the 1930s, the years preceding World War II.

The trustees for Social Security have just issued their annual report. And, as we have learned annually over recent years, the system cannot meet its obligations. According to this latest report, the Social Security system will not be able to meet its obligations to retirees by 2035. In 2035, the system will be adequate to meet just 83% of its obligations.

Headlines are now filled with names reported to be on Donald Trump’s "shortlist" of possible VP candidates. These individuals, some of whom I know, indeed have serious qualifications and experience and are appropriate to be considered for the No. 2 position in the executive branch of the nation’s government.

The current demonstrations on college campuses against Israel remind some of the unrest on college campuses during the 1960s. But the comparison is not a good one.

Author Herman Wouk captured well how to understand heroism. "Heroes are not supermen; they are good men who embody — by the cast of destiny — the virtue of their whole people in a great hour," observed Wouk.

Former President Donald Trump’s statement that the attack on Israel by Iran "would not have happened if we were in office," has drawn derision, including from his former National Security Adviser John Bolton. Bolton called the remark "delusional," saying that Trump "has no idea what to do in the Middle East in this situation."

A Wall Street Journal opinion piece by Sen. Mitt Romney regarding the demise of the No Labels political party initiative tells us as much about Romney, and why he failed to ever become a national leader, as it does about the failure of the No Labels effort. No Labels defined its mission "to support centrism and bipartisanship."

Most recent Gallup polling in March shows that 36% of Americans "approve of Israeli military action in Gaza" and 50% disapprove. Last November, a month after the Hamas terrorist attack in Israel that claimed the lives of more than 1,200 innocent Israeli civilians, 55% approved of the military action that Israel initiated.

Our nation's Declaration of Independence begins with the famous statement that "all men ... are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." But according to the latest Gallup World Happiness Report, Americans' success in the "pursuit of happiness" is diminishing. For the first time since the annual report was first compiled in 2012, the United States is not among the top 20 happiest countries in the world. In this latest 2024 report, the United States ranks 23 in the world, down from number 15 in 2023.

Abortion is a winning issue for Republicans The visit by Vice President Kamala Harris to a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in St. Paul, the first ever visit by a president or vice president to an abortion clinic, is getting the considerable attention it deserves...

In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed. It marked the end of an experiment that lasted almost a century testing the premise that godless secularization, turning control of people's lives over to other people to rule them, who decide what others need and how they should live and conduct their lives, is the answer for mankind...

President Joe Biden stirred up controversy during the last presidential campaign, when, in an interview with a Black radio host, he said, "If you have a problem figuring out if you're for me or Trump, you ain't Black." Biden got pushback on this, but he captured a pretty common view among liberals...

As part of Black History Month 2024, my organization, CURE, Center for Urban Renewal and Education, has announced the release of "The State of Black Progress," published by Encounter Books. This is a follow-up to "The State of Black America," published by CURE in 2022...

Universities are not alone among our institutions that have lost their way. How about America's corporations, which now seem to think social justice is their job, beside efficiently delivering goods and services to the American public? In a recent panel discussion at the Bipartisan Policy Institute, Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan, the nation's largest bank, rang the alarm about the nation's debt...

Data shows that winds of political change are blowing among Black voters. In volatile times like now, predictions can be made with only the greatest caution. However, it seems clear that something is going on and Black voters are breaking with past voting patterns...

Some 1,000 Black pastors nationwide are reported to have weighed-in to pressure President Joe Biden to force a cease fire in the war in Gaza. According to one pastor, the war "has evoked the kind of deep-seated angst among Black people that I have not seen since the civil rights movement."...

One picture worth a thousand words is a graph on the U.S. Department of Defense website showing U.S. annual Defense spending as a percentage of GDP, going back to 1953. Two things jump out. First, the lowest over the 70-year period was in 1999, at the end of the Clinton administration, when it stood at 2.7%. This is a little more than half the previous low, which stood at 4.5% 20 years earlier, in 1979...

It seems many still harbor, or want to perpetuate, the illusion that our Social Security system is not in trouble. Let me quote here from a news release from the Social Security Administration released March 31, 2023: "The Social Security Board of Trustees today released its annual report on the financial status of the Social Security Trust Funds. ...

Speaking in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, on Jan. 6, President Biden said that the 2024 election is about whether "democracy" is "still America's sacred cause." But is democracy "sacred?" Is the process by which we make choices "sacred," or is what we choose "sacred?"...

This year, 2024, marks the 60th anniversary of the signing into law of the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act. Soon, we observe the national day set aside to note and honor the leader of the movement that led to that act becoming law: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr...

With migrants now flooding our Southwestern border at a reported 10,000 seeking entry daily, it is essential that we take steps to crystallize a national immigration policy. Republicans insist that $74 billion in funds that the Biden administration is asking in aid for Ukraine and Israel be part of a larger package that deals with border security and comprehensive immigration policy. Agreement on such a package will benefit the whole nation. At first glance, linking U.S. immigration policy and border control to aid to Ukraine and Israel may seem like a politically motivated version of linking apples and oranges. But that’s not the case. The issues are related. We are dealing with the issue of national territorial integrity. The current conflicts in Ukraine and Israel are the results of such violations — in Ukraine, aggression from Russia; in the case of Israel, the crossing of the Gaza border into Israel by Hamas operatives who murdered and committed atrocities against more than 1,200 Israeli citizens in one day. Nations are physical entities that are based on principles that define what their existence is about. Borders define the area where this unique national reality exists. Whether borders are violated by an army, by terrorists or by undocumented migrants amounts to the same thing: a violation of national integrity. Those who have violated the territorial integrity of Ukraine and Israel — Russia and Hamas, backed by Iran — are also our enemies and look to hurt our country as they have hurt the nations they have violated. Let’s recall that the pilots who flew planes into the World Trade Center and crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, resulting in the death of almost 3,000 Americans, trained on American soil. The price of being lax in a dangerous world is high. Israelis are paying a dear price for some moments of laxness toward an evil and lethal enemy. Every day that we allow hordes of migrants into our country without knowing with clarity who these individuals are threatens our national security in two significant ways. First, the most obvious, is the horrible damage that can be done by one terrorist among the hordes we are letting in. Second, demonstrating laxness, humanitarian inclinations devoid of the values that define our national integrity, broadcasts to our enemies that we are confused and weak. Perceived confusion and weakness encourage evil forces to act. For sure the hasty exit of America from Afghanistan broadcast this message to an evil and ambitious Vladimir Putin, who then took aggressive action in Ukraine he might not otherwise have done. Iran and their Hamas operatives are for sure very happy to see American leftists celebrating the atrocities that were committed against Israelis. Last June, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi traveled to Latin America in a visit that included Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua. Iran is doing business with the most corrupt and mismanaged countries in Latin America to solidify its anti-American and anti-Israel base there. In 1994, the Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, was blown up and 85 were killed. Investigations in Argentina concluded it was the work of Iran. Republicans are right to push for raising the bar for defining asylum, setting up a border extradition authority and exercising greater care in allowing anyone into our country without a visa. Regarding the many already here undefined and undocumented, I propose reopening some of our closed military bases to house these individuals until their status is clarified. They would have status as refugees but without constitutional rights that would include 14th Amendment coverage granting automatic citizenship to the newly born. We can’t forget that the eternal principles that define freedom in our country are relevant everywhere. We must defend them at home and abroad to the interest of all who want to live in a better world. Star Parker is president of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education.

A special election will be held in New York's 3rd Congressional District on Feb. 13 to replace George Santos, world-class conman, who Republicans recently expelled on ethics charges. Republicans have picked a uniquely exciting candidate to run for this now open seat in Mazi Melesa Pilip...

I have written in the past about the similarities of the stress and tensions in our country today to the stress and tensions that were taking place in the years before the Civil War. A free country will always have debate and differences of opinion. ...

After some 10 months blocking hundreds of promotions for senior military officers, Sen. Tommy Tuberville relented and backed off, allowing some 400 promotions to be confirmed by the Senate. Tuberville stalled Senate confirmation for military promotions in order to pressure the Defense Department to back off its newly hatched policy on abortion ...

The new projections for the U.S. population from the U.S. Census Bureau show dramatic ongoing changes in the ethnic makeup of the nation. In 2022, the percentage of the U.S., per the report, that was non-Hispanic white was 59%. In 1980, the U.S. population was 80% white...

Recently published projections for the U.S. population from the U.S. Census Bureau present a picture that should concern every American. It's a snapshot of a dying society. It's surprising and shocking that it's not getting more attention. The Census Bureau projects that the U.S. population will stop growing toward the end of the century. After peaking at 370 million in 2080, it will drop to 366 million in 2100, less than 10% higher than where it stood in 2022...

Moderator Lester Holt kicked off the last Republican debate by asking Vivek Ramaswamy, "Why should you be the nominee and not the former president?" Ramaswamy ignored the question and chose instead to attack Republican National Committee Chairperson Ronna McDaniel, calling for her resignation, calling his party "a party of losers" and placing the responsibility for this accusation on her shoulders...

Sen. Tim Scott left the door open for a future presidential run with his announcement that he is withdrawing from this one. I hope it's the case. Although Scott's presidential campaign never ignited, his presence and campaign contributed immeasurably to our national politics, and perhaps this first experience of his in the national spotlight will make him that much more effective the next time around...

This week, my organization, Center for Urban Renewal and Education, held an event in Michigan's 12th congressional district, the district of Rep. Rashida Tlaib. Forty Christian pastors — white, Black, Hispanic — attended to speak out in support of Israel...

Over the last week, one conservative Republican rose up, and one conservative Republican stepped down. Former Vice President Mike Pence, a consistent and unwavering Christian and constitutional conservative, announced the termination of his presidential campaign, saying, "It's become clear to me; this is not my time."...

According to a survey done by the Harvard Crimson in 2022, 80% of the faculty at Harvard University self-identified as "liberal." Thirty-seven percent self-identified as "very liberal." Only 1% self-identified as conservative. This snapshot of the politics of the faculty at the nation's oldest and leading university is not exceptional. Surveys of most university faculties show them overwhelmingly on the left...

Latest RealClearPolitics presidential match-up polling shows Nikki Haley defeating President Joe Biden by 4.3 points, former Presidential Donald Trump winning by 0.7 points and Gov. Ron DeSantis losing by 1 point. Haley is capturing hearts and minds, and this warrants attention...

The last time I wrote about Gaza and Hamas was 13 years ago, in 2010. The point of the column was the striking contrast between how Israelis deal with life's challenges and how Hamas leads its Palestinian constituents in Gaza. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 and turned it over to the Palestinian Authority. Within two years, with local elections, Hamas was in charge...

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley got to the heart of the government shutdown fireworks in her appearance on Fox News Sunday. "Let's be clear what the Freedom Caucus is really trying to do; they are trying to cut spending." That's of course correct. One would be hard-pressed to find any Republican, Freedom Caucus member or not, who does not understand the gravity of the state of our federal budget and spending...

Recently I wrote about Mesha Mainor, who represents a deep blue district in Atlanta in the Georgia state legislature, announcing that she is switching parties and becoming a Republican. Mainor specifically noted her frustration with the Democratic Party in its opposition to improving education through parental choice and ongoing Democratic weakness in building strong law enforcement...

If there is one overriding theme of the Biden years, it is the systematic degradation of American freedom, pushing the lives and freedom of private citizens aside as government expands and takes over. This is done under the rubric of the left that "government knows best."...

This past week, the nation noted the 60th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I Have a Dream" speech. The speech is without question a historic landmark, both in terms of recalling the unique stress of the time and in terms of King's eloquence in capturing the situation...

As I noted in my column of several weeks ago, it's a plus for everyone that Donald Trump will not show for the Republican debate. And now it's official. He's not showing up. Now we can have a debate about issues and not about Trump. Let's also keep in mind, regarding the debate, Republican voters must be able to walk and chew gum at the same time...

The resounding defeat of Issue 1 in a statewide vote in Ohio is rightly seen as a repudiation of pro-life forces and cause for soul-searching in the movement. The initiative, which would have raised the threshold vote for amending the state constitution, was understood to be about abortion, because a ballot measure is expected in November to amend the state constitution to secure abortion "rights"...

With Mike Pence now qualifying for the Republican debate in Milwaukee on Aug. 23, there are now eight candidates qualified to participate. However, one of those eight is former President Donald Trump, who suggests that he is not inclined to show up...

Republicans have a new shining star for the 2024 presidential election in the way of Georgia State Rep. Mesha Mainor. Mainor, an African American who has been serving the Georgia state legislature since January 2021, announced two weeks ago that she is leaving the Democratic Party and becoming a Republican...

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is getting a lot of media -- way out of proportion to the impact he has made as a candidate, measured by his low standing in the polls and the very modest amount of money he has raised. The explanation for this seems clear. The media loves his sharp and aggressive animosity to and criticism of former President Donald Trump...

Following the Supreme Court decision finding preferential treatment, i.e., affirmative action, in college admissions unconstitutional, the president of Harvard issued a statement to "Members of the Harvard Community." This statement tells us how those managing one of the nation's most prestigious universities understand justice, knowledge and learning...

Using statistics from the Department of Labor, The Wall Street Journal reports that real hourly wages during the Biden presidency have declined. When President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, the average hourly wage adjusted for inflation was $11.39. Now, 29 months later, it stands at $11.03, a 3.16% decline...

The series of decisions handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court in its latest session are so consequential that I would call it "a new birth of freedom." These are, of course, the words of Abraham Lincoln at the bloody battlefield at Gettysburg. There is a deep and meaningful connection between Lincoln's words then, in 1863, and the words of our Supreme Court now in 2023...

With one year since the Dobbs decision, in which the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, how should we be thinking, as a nation, about this crucial issue? Commentary in the press is conveying that Dobbs was an unpopular decision and that it has strengthened sentiment in the country for legal abortion...

Mike Pence is trailing former President Donald Trump by some 50 points in national polling. It's no great revelation that the former vice president needs some major breakthroughs to be considered a serious and viable candidate for 2024. But all is possible, and here is one approach. I call it the Pence Black Plan...

With the most recent entry of former Vice President Mike Pence and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie into the presidential race, I count now 12 Republican candidates in the field. Former President Donald Trump retains a strong lead in the polls, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis a strong second...

In 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Lawrence v. Texas, found Texas' anti-sodomy law unconstitutional. This is a free country, the Court proclaimed, and individuals can engage in whatever private consensual sexual activity that they wish. But freedom is not the value that LGBTQ activists seek. They will not rest until their values and lifestyle are imposed and accepted by every American...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has announced he's in. He's running for president. I caught DeSantis' remarks in Orlando at the annual meeting of the National Religious Broadcasters the day before he formally announced. It was immediately clear that this is no ordinary politician...

The Congressional Budget Office has just released its latest projection for the next 10 years. "In the agency's updated projections, annual deficits nearly double over the next decade, reaching $2.7 trillion in 2033 ... As a result of those deficits, debt held by the public also increases in CBO's projections, from 98% of GDP at the end of this year to 119% at the end of 2033."...

I was proud and moved to participate in opening ceremonies, at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C., commemorating National Police Week. President John F. Kennedy signed the proclamation, in 1962, designating May 15 as Peace Officers Memorial Day, and establishing the week in which this occurs as National Police Week...

The most perplexing thing about President Joe Biden's stance on the debt ceiling issue is that the staggering national debt does not seem to bother him. In remarks Biden made the other day, he noted that the national debt has "accumulated over 200 years." And he also noted the debt increased under President Donald Trump...

President Joe Biden has made his bid for a second term official, and the first big news following the announcement is his latest approval rating released by Gallup. It shows Biden's approval reaching a new low in his presidency -- 37%. But let's take a quick look at history before Republicans start celebrating...

Hillary Rodham Clinton writes in The New York Times that Republican insistence to link any increase in the nation's debt ceiling to spending control and cuts threatens our national security. "It's a sad irony that Mr. McCarthy and many of the same congressional Republicans seemingly intent on sabotaging America's global leadership by refusing to pay our debts are also positioning themselves as tougher-than-thou China hawks."...

Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina has announced the formation of an exploratory committee for his candidacy for president. You may have noticed that Scott is Black. We may ask, in this woke age of ours, the extent to which this matters in his candidacy...

It is a unique and special time now because Christians, Jews and Muslims all are engaged in major holidays of religious contemplation and renewal. Christians with Holy Week and Easter, Jews with Passover, and Muslims with Ramadan. We're talking billions around the world. So, although in our time there has been a retreat in various circles from religion, it still remains a major force and presence in our world...

Historian Arnold Toynbee observed "an autopsy of history would show that all great nations commit suicide." It's hard not to think about this reading the results of the latest Wall Street Journal-NORC poll, appearing under the headline "America Pulls Back From Values That Once Defined It."...

Widely reported in the press is that President Joe Biden called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to express his concern about judicial reforms that are currently being considered in Israel. We must wonder why Biden, who demonstrably cannot run our own country, feels behooved to tell others, particularly one as successful as Israel, how to run theirs...

President Ronald Reagan once said, "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are 'I'm from the government, and I'm here to help.'" Shock waves are rippling through the country after the announcement of the second largest bank failure in the country's history last week -- Silicon Valley Bank...

The 2024 presidential race gets more exciting each day. Now 37-year-old entrepreneur business owner Vivek Ramaswamy has entered the race as the newest Republican candidate. Whether this political novice has a chance at winning the highest elective office in the land remains to be seen. But for sure he has something to say and contribute...

The Republican Party's newest presidential candidate, former South Carolina Gov. and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, introduced herself by showcasing her roots as a child of immigrants. Haley's family, originally from India, immigrated to the United States in 1969 and settled in a small, segregated town, Bamberg, South Carolina, where she was born three years later...

Per CNN and other media outlets, when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ran his first campaign for Congress in 2012, he expressed support for "privatizing" Social Security. They predict, with little surprise, that this should provide red meat for attacks from former President Donald Trump and from Democrats, should DeSantis announce a presidential run...

Once again, the nation is traumatized by horrible video of police brutally beating to death a Black man. Need I note the victim was Black? Would we be less or more traumatized if the victim were white? But the rule seems to be the victims are Black...

As tensions about raising the nation's $31.4 trillion debt ceiling build, the headline that should be flashing in front of every American is that our country is not working. Nothing is going to get fixed -- really fixed -- until we come clean about this basic, sad and distressing fact...

Friday, Jan. 20, 2023, pro-life Americans attended the March for Life in Washington, D.C. Hundreds of thousands marched, as they have marched since 1973. But this year, it was different. This year, the march took place, for the first time, in an America where Roe v. Wade is no longer the law of the land...

Amid the post-mortems of the four-day, 15-vote marathon to elect Kevin McCarthy House speaker, I remind readers of the headline of my Nov. 30 column, "Kevin McCarthy, a Republican Leader for Complex Times." I thought then that captured our reality, and I think the process that followed confirmed it...

By now, just about everyone has heard about the massive campaign of lies that Republican George Santos fabricated that just got him elected to a congressional seat from New York. In his various appearances and interviews to explain himself, the lack of shame he seems to feel is almost as uncanny as the lies themselves...

Schools in the Rochester school district in Michigan include in their curriculum a course called "History of Ethnic and Gender Studies." If my child were attending school there, I would wonder why this is in the curriculum as part of K-12 education and what is taught...

Schools in the Rochester school district in Michigan include in their curriculum a course called "History of Ethnic and Gender Studies." If my child were attending school there, I would wonder why this is in the curriculum as part of K-12 education and what is taught...

Some thoughts about our country as Christmas and the new year approach. In his Farewell Address to the nation in 1796, America's departing first president, George Washington, observed: "It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring to popular government."...

There are plenty of post-mortems about Raphael Warnock's defeat of Republican candidate Herschel Walker in the runoff for the Senate seat in Georgia. Yes, in the same state, Republican Brian Kemp won a decisive victory in the race for governor. And, yes, to be kind, Walker was not a great flagbearer to draw voters, particularly Black voters, to the Republican Party...

The Respect for Marriage Act, codifying same-sex marriage as federal law, already decided as such by the Supreme Court in the Obergefell decision in 2015, has now passed the Senate and the House, and President Joe Biden will sign it into law. Let's take a moment and consider what is going on...

Republicans are rightly wondering what to expect from the upcoming House of Representatives controlled by their party. Conservatives are chomping at the bit to move a hard-core conservative agenda. My own beliefs and convictions are known. We need dramatic change to pull the nation out of its fiscal, cultural and moral chaos...

Among the key headlines from the 2022 election were gains by Republicans among minority voters. According to the AP VoteCast survey, Republican House candidates got 14% of the Black vote, almost twice the 8% of the Black vote that Republicans captured in 2020 and 2018...

President Joe Biden's $400 billion 2022 election bribe -- also known as student loan forgiveness -- has been now stopped in its tracks on two fronts. First, in Texas, federal district court Judge Mark Pittman, one of nearly 300 federal judges appointed by former President Donald Trump, ruled the initiative unconstitutional. ...

The Supreme Court just heard arguments in the case Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina. It's about affirmative action — universities using race and ethnicity in their admissions policies...

As Democrats see the likelihood of the House and the Senate shifting to Republican control, they have rolled out their biggest gun to try to minimize the damage. Former president Barack Obama, the most popular Democrat in the country, has hit the campaign trail to try to salvage victories in close and critical races...

As November elections approach, the glaring and deeply troubling headline I see is Americans becoming increasingly alienated from their own country. There has never been a greater need for a new generation of leaders to restore clarity about American principles and plant them in American hearts and minds...

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his political activist wife, Ginni, are a high-profile Washington conservative power couple. Power couples are a common Washington phenomenon. Each spouse wields political power and influence in a certain arena. Together they concentrate power and influence...

Republicans are gearing up for elections in November by drawing a clear line in the sand between their party and Democrats. Republicans have rolled out what they call Commitment to America. And this is exactly what it's about. Our country embodies a worldview, and it is that worldview, and the principles that capture that worldview, that made and makes America a great nation...

In August of 1790, President George Washington visited Rhode Island, which a few months earlier had ratified the U.S. Constitution. Among those who welcomed the new president was the Hebrew Congregation of Rhode Island, founded in 1763. Now known as the Touro Synagogue, it is the oldest standing synagogue in the nation...

New polling data from Gallup show Americans are not having an easy time through this period of rising prices. According to Gallup, 56% of Americans say now that rising prices are causing severe or moderate hardship. Drilling down, we see that the hardship is not shared equally...

President Joe Biden traveled to Philadelphia, to Independence Hall, the place where the nation's founders signed the Declaration of Independence, to make his case for "The Continued Battle for the Soul of the Nation." Indeed, the president, in his remarks, said we are at an "inflection point" regarding where we stand and the path we'll take for the future...

No sooner had President Joe Biden announced his plan for student loan debt forgiveness -- $10,000 for non-Pell grant recipients and $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients -- the president of the NAACP was complaining that it should be more than twice as much. At least $50,000...

I wrote a column in 2011, as the presidential politics of the upcoming year were starting to unfold, with the headline "Why 2012 looks a lot like 1860." The deep fracturing of the American electorate -- remember the Tea Party? -- leading up to the 2012 presidential election was starting to look like what happened in the presidential election in 1860, which occurred amid another massive splintering of the American electorate...

A central pillar of the just-passed Inflation Reduction Act is $80 billion going to the IRS to hire some 87,000 new agents, doubling the current force, to chase down U.S. taxpayers who allegedly are not meeting their tax obligations. The rationale is we have a large national budget deficit -- that is, government is bringing in less money than it spends -- so a larger army of IRS agents chasing down tax deadbeats will help solve our nation's fiscal problems...

A runoff election will take place in Oklahoma Aug. 23, which will decide who the Republican candidate will be to run for the Senate seat held by James Inhofe since 1994. Thirteen candidates ran in the primary. But no one got 50% of the vote, hence the Aug. 23 runoff...

A favorite game of politicians, when reality does not conform to the facts they want, is to simply redefine reality. Democrats want big government, a lot of spending and taxation, the former of which we are now paying for in inflation, so the new strategy of Democrats is to now claim that spending and taxes reduce inflation...

When Abraham Lincoln gave his famous address in Peoria, Illinois, in 1854, slavery was the issue tearing apart the country, and Congress had just passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act championed by Sen. Stephen Douglas. A central issue was whether slavery would be permitted in new territories entering the union...

New polling from Pew Research and from NY Times/Siena College, released a few days apart, cast similarly dismal pictures regarding the popularity of President Joe Biden. Overall approval for Biden from NY Times/Siena College stands at 33% and from Pew 37%...

The Gallup polling organization seems to serve up endlessly bleak news about how Americans feel about God and country. I wrote recently about their report of the historically low percentage of Americans that say they believe in God. Now Gallup reports that a historically low number of Americans believe in ourselves and our country...

With the Supreme Court concluding one of the most historic and consequential terms in its history, it leaves in its wake consequences and implications for the direction of our country. One very important result may well be a movement of Black and Hispanic voters to the right...

The cries from the left predicting the end of the world in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade is a familiar sound. We heard the same after the historic reform in welfare in 1996 when Aid to Families With Dependent Children, which effectively subsidized low-income women to have children out of marriage, was replaced with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families -- which introduced the idea of workfare...

Per a new report from Gallup, the percentage of Americans now saying they believe in God is the lowest since they first started doing the survey. In 2022, 81% of Americans say they believe in God. When Gallup first asked this question in 1944, 96% said they believed, and in the early 1950s, it was up to 98%. It remained over 90% until 2013, when it dipped down to 87%...

President Joe Biden spoke at the Port of Los Angeles the other day and addressed the issue foremost on the minds of Americans today — inflation. And in the spirit of a tried and true liberal, he blamed everyone in the world for a problem that he is responsible for...

As the House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan, 6 Attack on the United States Capitol starts public hearings, we must ask what motivates those on the committee. Is the sole concern the ideals of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States? Or is it to get media to attack and undermine political opponents?...

I am so pleased and proud that the annual edition of the "State of Black America" (Encounter Books), published by my organization, CURE, Center for Urban Renewal and Education, in conjunction with the Claremont Institute has just been released. CURE was founded to provide a platform for an alternative vision of what "Black America" is about and what the real challenges are of our citizens of color...

Once again, the nation has witnessed a horrible, pointless act of violence, with innocent children the victims. And, once again, we hear from liberals that the answer is gun control. If we look at what generally characterizes the mindset of those -- generally young men -- who commit these acts, we see what generally characterizes the mindset that has taken hold of our whole culture...

Recent remarks by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, noting the institutional damage caused by the leak of Justice Samuel Alito's opinion on Roe v. Wade, have gotten exhaustive coverage in the press. But, not surprisingly, the venue where Thomas made these remarks has gotten little attention by these same journalists...

In 1955, an unmarried pregnant University of Wisconsin graduate student left her home and traveled to San Francisco to a doctor who took in unwed expectant mothers, delivered their babies and helped arrange adoptions. The baby son she delivered and put up for adoption grew up to become the legendary business and technology entrepreneur Steve Jobs...

Lending money is not, as they say, rocket science. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, in the last quarter of 2021, of the total of all outstanding business loans from all commercial banks, 1.08% were delinquent. Per the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, as of second quarter 2021, a little over 2% of the $1.4 trillion outstanding in auto loans were delinquent...

The New York Times demonstrates why Gallup polling late last year showed only 36% of Americans saying they trust media a "great deal" or "fair" amount. Times reporters have brought fire to the feet of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, reporting on a recording of private remarks that McCarthy made to other Republicans in the days following the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol...

The crises of recent years tend to erase from memory those that preceded them. One, as you may recall, was the financial collapse of 2008 -- a collapse deemed by many as the worst since the Great Depression. That collapse swept into power a government like the one we have now -- the White House and both houses of Congress controlled by Democrats...

Periodically, in what seems like a never-ending assault on our basic values and the rule of law, good news emerges. The good news now is the unanimous decision of a panel of three judges on an Ohio Court of Appeals, supporting a jury decision in favor of Gibson's Bakery in its case against Oberlin College...

I have been writing for years about how progressive policies championed by the Democratic Party and served up under the guise of caring about low-income Americans wind up hurting these very communities. The latest chapter in this saga is the newly unleashed round of inflation, the worst our country has seen in 40 years...

Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas is once again in the crosshairs of liberals. This has been going on since his confirmation hearings in 1991, when President George H.W. Bush had the temerity to nominate a Black conservative to take the Supreme Court seat of Thurgood Marshall...

The distorted rhetoric -- should I say lies? -- labeling Florida's legislation about parental rights in public schools as, "Don't say gay" demonstrates the hypocrisy of LGBTQ activism. I say hypocrisy because this movement has always showcased itself as being about freedom, rights and social justice...

Regardless of what any American feels about what steps we should take in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin's aggressive incursion into Ukraine, for sure most are appalled by what he has done. As Putin moves to regain Russian control over nations that once were part of the Soviet sphere, we ought to think about the circumstances under which the Soviet Union collapsed to consider how it all might be reversed...

A new report from Pew Research shows that the sharpest drop in approval for President Joe Biden is among the Democratic Party's most loyal and consistent supporters -- Black protestants. In March 2021, shortly after he took office, Biden's support among Black protestants stood at 92%. By January 2022, this was down to 65%, a drop of 27 points...

February is Black History Month. Why do we need Black History Month? Why don't we set aside special occasions to observe the history of other ethnicities in our country? My answer to this question is that Black history tells a uniquely important story in our nation. It is a story that no other race or ethnicity shares. It is a story that must be grasped and understood if we are to understand our country as a whole, where it has been and where it needs to go...

With all the attention directed to President Joe Biden's commitment to nominate a Black woman to replace retiring Associate Justice Stephen Breyer on the Supreme Court, sadly lost is what we expect from our court and what we expect from our nation. If we have detached from what our nation supposedly is about, what idea could we possibly have about what its top judiciary body is supposed to be about?...

"Mr. Biden's campaign promise that he'd appoint a Black woman to the Supreme Court is unfortunate because it elevates skin color over qualifications." Thus, The Wall Street Journal editorial page captured, in one sentence, the sentiment of many if not most of right-of-center white Americans about the president's campaign pledge, which he appears to have every intention to fulfill...

With Democrats' multitrillion dollar Build Back Better initiative hitting a wall in the U.S. Senate, President Joe Biden has suggested that components of the bill be advanced separately. One of these components is a plan for government funded universal pre-K schooling...

After a COVID-19 driven timeout last year, March for Life returns this year to Washington, D.C., for the 49th year, noting the anniversary of and support to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision of Jan. 22, 1973. This began the era of legal abortion in the USA...

We celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day on the third Monday of January -- this year, Jan. 17. On Aug. 28, 1963, King delivered one of the great speeches in American history, popularly known as the "I Have a Dream" speech. It is a speech that must be dusted off and studied anew today, because it contains the very message that our nation sorely needs to hear and digest now. A message that has been tragically lost and buried and replaced with great and destructive distortions...

As we await findings and conclusions of the House Select Committee on the Jan. 6 attack, let's take a moment and do our own soul-searching about what is going on. The House Select Committee is engaged in Washington's favorite pastime — looking for whom to blame. The sidelight of this pastime is the pretense that things that are very complicated can be made clear and simple...

One great mystery is the persistent refusal of those on the left to abandon what is clearly not true. That is, that the means for reducing the burden of poverty is more government spending. It all really started in the 1960s under President Lyndon B. ...

The saying, "One man with courage makes a majority" has been attributed by historians to different sources. But regardless of who said it, there is one man who stands out today worthy of this description. It's West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin. Manchin has been a one-man show in the Democratic Party, standing often in solitude, holding feet-to-the-fire of his president and his party's leadership, pushing back on the massive and irresponsible spending avalanche in the Build Back Better act...

Nikki Haley, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, has served up a kind of Christmas present to the nation in the form of a new comprehensive policy book, issued by her organization Stand for America, serving up conservative solutions for our nation's many challenges -- domestic and foreign...

The Supreme Court will hear this week Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. At issue is the law in Mississippi banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. A decision finding the Mississippi law constitutional will fundamentally change the abortion regime in our country, defined by Roe v. Wade since 1973...

It is ironic when Democrats complain about sensational use of language. Thanks to progressives, practically every white person in America has been labeled a racist. But now, Democrats are screaming because Republican Sen. John Kennedy suggested Saule Omarova, whom President Joe Biden has nominated to head the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency — the nation's top banking regulator — might be a communist...

As Democrats regroup to try to pass their $2 trillion Build Back Better Act, pressure grows for shining the light of fiscal responsibility on all this. Given President Joe Biden's crashing approval ratings, there is some hint that the American people smell a rat...

In a new USA Today/Suffolk University poll, President Joe Biden's approval is down to 38%. Which looks pretty good compared to Vice President Kamala Harris, whose approval now stands at 28%. Democrats have just been reprimanded by voters, with the upset victory of Republican candidate and political novice Glenn Youngkin in the governor's race in Virginia, an almost upset victory in New Jersey by Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli, who came within 2% of the vote of winning, and revolts in school board elections nationwide, pushing back against critical race theory and COVID-19 government interventions.. ...

Rep. Cori Bush, a Democrat left-wing "squad" member in the House, attacked Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin for his opposition to the multitrillion-dollar Build Back Better Act. Manchin is "anti-Black, anti-child, anti-woman and anti-immigrant," according to Bush because of his opposition to this megaspending welfare bill...

The joke goes that a slip of the tongue for a politician means that they accidentally said what they actually believe. Now Democrats are trying to clean up the mess created by Virginia Democratic candidate for governor Terry McAuliffe when he said in a debate on Sept. 28, "I don't think parents should be telling schools what they should teach."...

Despite being a politician all his life, and never having worked in a blue-collar job, President Joe Biden declared, "I'm a union man," when he announced his presidential campaign at a Teamsters union hall in Pittsburgh in April 2019. What our president really loves is big government and political power, and there is no more reliable money trough for Democrats than unions...

Cancel culture has reared its ugly head once again, and this time in a new and unprecedented way. A lecture by a physicist was canceled at one of America's premier institutions of science, MIT, for reasons having nothing to do with the subject of the lecture. The lecture was canceled not because of its scientific content but because of the politically incorrect views on diversity of the scientist scheduled to give the lecture...

Going back to the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, the party of first-term presidents gained seats in House midterm congressional elections only twice. Karl Rove reminded readers a few months ago in his Wall Street Journal column that, since World War II, the average loss of House seats of the party of each first-term president in congressional midterms is 28...

The Census Bureau has just issued its latest annual report, "Income and Poverty in the United States: 2020," and American Enterprise Institute economist and blogger Mark Perry has extracted and summarized its highlights, as he does every year. Perry's work is always illuminating because the data shows how much healthier the country is socially and economically than anyone would believe who listens to the naysayers on the left, who want to transform America into a giant, socialist welfare state...

Last week, Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas arrived at the University of Notre Dame to speak about the Declaration of Independence. Speaking invitations like this that Thomas accepts are few and far between. Anyone who cares about our country and listens to this address will wish that he would agree to speak more...

In 1983, Tom Cruise starred in the film "Risky Business." It's about wealthy parents in Chicago who go on vacation and leave the house under the stewardship of their high school-age son. In short order, the boy throws a wild party, and the rest of the film is about the chaotic fallout...

The Democratic Party is rolling out its left-wing big guns to go to California to support Gov. Gavin Newsom in the recall election scheduled for Tuesday. In California, the bluest of blue states, where, in 2020, challenger Joe Biden defeated incumbent President Donald Trump by a margin of almost 2-1, the polls are within the margin of error showing Newsom holding on in the recall...

According to a new report from The Washington Post, America's corporations have committed "at least" $49.5 billion to the cause of "racial justice" since the George Floyd murder last year riveted our national attention on race. This amounts to a little over $1,100 for every Black man, woman and child in America...

After the attacks on our nation on Sept. 11, 2001, President George W. Bush took to the airways to address the American people. Speaking to a nation in shock, he cast what had occurred in the framework of good and evil. "Today, our nation saw evil," the president said...

President Joe Biden was right in his speech to the nation about our withdrawal from Afghanistan, that a long legacy of American involvement there preceded him. But across the board, in domestic as well as foreign policy, any new president inherits realities that precede him. The issue confronting every president is what principles and policies will he put in place to deal with these existing realities that will define his administration...

The enabling tool of what we call "cancel culture" or "wokeness" is language. People are put in categories to which names are assigned, and this supposedly captures who they are and what should be done with them politically. Unfortunately, the whole business of racial identification and categorization is not about advancing the quality of the human condition and human dignity but about progressive politics...

Ben & Jerry's, noted for its ice cream made from "contented cows," has produced not such contented consumers in many circles following its announcement to stop selling its ice cream in Israel's West Bank and in East Jerusalem. Although the announcement calls these areas "occupied territories," more accurate would be to describe their status as "disputed" territories regarding Israel's sovereignty...

Since the new wave of race consciousness that has been sweeping our country, precipitated by the graphic video of the killing of George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin, something very strange has happened. Somehow, what is perceived as a problem has become widely understood to be the solution. And it is endangering our country...

The Poor People's Campaign has announced a "season of nonviolent, moral direct action," targeting the U.S. Senate with disruptive activities every Monday, July 12 through Aug 2. According to the campaign's co-chair, the Rev. William Barber II, "The Senate must end the filibuster, protect and expand voting rights, and pass a minimum wage of $15 an hour."...

It is one of the unfortunate ironies coming out of the Biden administration that, with all the obsession about so-called equity, policies they are putting forth will only hurt the very low-income Americans they pretend to want to help. The Biden administration is growing government at a record pace...

The issue of critical race theory is raising a more fundamental question about our nation: education. Education is about more than teaching children to read and write. It is about transmitting values, transmitting a worldview, that will define how our youth think and how they will live...

The Supreme Court's recent decision, Fulton v. Philadelphia, is justifiably getting mixed reviews. Catholic Social Services sued the city of Philadelphia, through the Philadelphia Archdiocese, for canceling its 50-year contract with the Catholic social services agency because it refuses to certify same-sex couples as foster families for the purpose of foster care...

For sure, Democrats rejoiced as they watched Republicans painfully twist in the wind at the beginning of LGBTQ Pride Month, trying to figure out how to position their party on this issue. Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel got flak from the right and from the left, as she essentially waved a white flag, declaring Republican Party neutrality on a key issue of our cultural conflicts...

Listening to all the rhetoric in the popular media, you would think America is the most unfair, racist nation in the world. You would think that Black Americans are uniformly living in oppression and poverty, with no hope for the future, save the federal government arriving on the scene to their rescue...

If there is one reason why problems associated with race in America persist, it is because we pretend to address problems caused by one sin by exchanging them with other sins. President Biden has just issued a proclamation recognizing 100 years since the race massacre that occurred in the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1921...

Americans may not have to wait until 2022 to sense the potential for Republicans to move the nation back in a conservative direction. The race for governor in Virginia, one of just two major elections taking place this year, could be a barometer of national sentiment...

In 1867, American writer Mark Twain visited the Holy Land. He recorded his impressions in a book titled "The Innocents Abroad." Twain was appalled when seeing the abandoned and desolate land that was the home of the Bible. "The further we went, the hotter the sun got and the more rocky and bare, repulsive and dreary, the landscape became," he wrote. "There was hardly a tree or shrub anywhere. Even the olive and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil, had almost deserted the country."...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that births in the USA reached another historic low in 2020. For the sixth consecutive year, the birth rate dropped -- this time by 4%. The average annual drop in the five previous years was 2%...

When I began my work 25 years ago, my vision for fixing our poor, broken communities was driven by my belief in America and what made it successful. It's what I call the 3 C's: the principles of Christianity, the virtues of capitalism and the rule of law outlined in our Constitution...

It is indeed rare, if not unprecedented, to see a highly diverse group of organizations such as the conservative Alliance Defending Freedom, the liberal American Civil Liberties Union, the libertarian Cato Institute and the Reason Foundation on the same page as the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund on the same issue...

The president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Alexis McGill Johnson, has used The New York Times as a confessional to fess up to the racist history of Planned Parenthood's founder, Margaret Sanger. "We must reckon with Margaret Sanger's association with white supremacist groups and eugenics," she writes...

Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas raised ire from conservatives for vetoing legislation passed by the Arkansas state legislature that would have banned "gender-affirming" medical treatment for transgender minors. This includes treatment such as hormone therapy, puberty blockers and surgery associated with gender identity...

The controversy surrounding the new voting law in the state of Georgia raises important issues regarding the governance of our country and the role of corporations. Corporations are big and have a lot of economic clout, so there is justified concern about them abusing this economic power...

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas summed up our border crisis in a statement he released March 16: "We are on pace to encounter more individuals on the southwest border than we have in the last 20 years." According to The Wall Street Journal, Border Patrol agents made about 75,000 arrests of migrants crossing illegally in January...

The Office of Management and Budget is the largest office in the executive branch of the federal government. First and foremost, the OMB prepares the federal budget proposal that the president sends up to Congress. Given we're talking about the allocation of spending for almost $5 trillion of taxpayer funds, this is no small task...

Donald Trump showed up at CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, and reminded everyone why, with all his provocations, so many are still on board with him. Our country IS in trouble -- big trouble. No parent reading this would not be up in arms if his or her children were threatened...

The issue of reparations to Black Americans as payment for damage done as a result of years of legal slavery and subsequent discrimination is back on the table. The House Judiciary Committee just held hearings on H.R. 40, which would establish a commission to look into ways in which African Americans could be compensated, including possible payments of trillions of dollars to individuals...

Former President Donald Trump captured the core of the problem in his official statement following his acquittal in the Senate impeachment trial: “It is a sad commentary on our times that one political party in America is given a free pass to denigrate the rule of law, defame law enforcement, cheer mobs, excuse rioters, and transform justice into a tool of political vengeance, and persecute, blacklist, cancel and suppress all people and viewpoints with whom or which they disagree.” ...

A recent Reuters headline read, "Yellen, Rice tout economics as key to fixing American inequality." According to Susan Rice, President Joe Biden's new domestic policy adviser, "The evidence is clear, investing in equity is good for economic growth."...

The Congressional Budget Office now projects that economic recovery in 2021 will be faster than it predicted last July. It projects that the economy will be back to its pre-pandemic levels by mid-2021. This very good news reflects the fact that the economic turndown was not as severe as the CBO had expected, and that the recovery was stronger than expected...

President Joe Biden focused on the theme of unity in his inaugural address. "Today, on this January day, my whole soul is in this: bringing America together, uniting our people and uniting our nation," he said. It sounds so nice. But only a career politician can be this disingenuous and speak the words as if he were so, so sincere...

As the new Biden-Harris administration assumes power, the most basic American freedom of speech and expression is under unprecedented threat. For the first time ever, I am concerned about my freedom to do my work, to run a policy institute addressing issues of culture, race and poverty from a conservative perspective...

There seems to be only one area of common ground in our country today: agreement that something is wrong. But regarding what that "something" is, and what we need to do, there is profound disagreement throughout the nation. The violence in which the sacred ground of our nation's Capitol building was violated by unruly hooligans, resulting in the death of five, is a low point in our history...

While sitting in the Delta lounge in the Atlanta airport waiting for my flight back to Washington, a white gentleman approached me and struck up a conversation. Politics was on his mind, and seeing me, a Black woman, he was sure that he had found a kindred spirit to share his hopes that Democrats will prevail in both U.S. Senate runoff races in Georgia...

One of the many beauties of freedom is there is always surprise. Georgia voters might consider what is happening in California as the nation's blue-state poster child turns purple. Why? When the left seizes power, they don't know when to stop. But voters know how to say, "Whoa, enough."...

Sometimes, the legacy of great men is that the world doesn't realize how great they were until they are gone. This might be the case with Dr. Walter E. Williams. Dr. Williams passed away last week. He was the John M. Olin distinguished professor of economics at George Mason University, where, for six years, he served as chairman of the economics department. He was a prolific author and columnist (writing for Creators, which also syndicates my column). And he was a dear friend...

There is no word more overused in political life than "historic." But considering the runoff races for the two U.S. Senate seats in Georgia, "historic" is the right word. There is little of what we once thought of as middle ground remaining in the nation. Today, we've got the left, the right and not much in the center...

Big questions remain about what exactly happened in the 2020 election. I’ve been looking over history, compiled on the Statista website, of total votes cast in presidential elections compared with the number of eligible voters. 2020 seems very, very odd...

I'm a conservative, and I guess I should be writing a column about my great distress resulting from this election. But I'm not going to write that column, because it's not what I feel. I'm actually quite upbeat and optimistic about the country that I love...

In this current era of no compulsory military service, Veterans Day takes on personal meaning to fewer and fewer Americans. When the country transitioned to a voluntary military in 1973, about 1% of the population served on active duty. Today, it is less than one-half of 1%...

Submitting my weekly column on the morning of the 2020 presidential election was surreal. But not as surreal as walking to work through an apocalyptic cityscape of boarded-up buildings. No, this isn’t communist Cuba; this is Washington, D.C., the supposed center of the free world...

During the course of the COVID-19 crisis, an ongoing, and very legitimate, national debate has continued about the wisdom of lockdowns. The decision to shut down social and commercial activity in the name of health is itself arbitrary. Then, the decision to decide what to shut down and what not to shut down, what activities are more essential than others, adds more arbitrariness...

I recall several presidential elections ago, an elementary school teacher wrote a newspaper column about a mock election he held in his class. Two students were nominated by their classmates, and then they campaigned for their votes. Who won the election? One of the students presented an agenda and reasonably argued for the merits of that agenda. The other student promised ice cream for everyone who voted for her. She won...

The Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Judge Amy Coney Barrett provide a fitting warmup act to the presidential election that will follow in a few weeks. The rancor pouring forth from this confirmation flows from the very deep divide in the nation -- conservative versus liberal -- that will decide who will be our next president and what kind of nation we will pass on to our children and grandchildren...

New York City is becoming an economic basket case. "'We're at war': New York City Faces a Financial Abyss," screams a New York Times headline. New York City's unemployment rate stands at 16%, double the nation's average. Yet, even in the midst of a "financial abyss," the animosity of New York's liberal elite remains undeterred in its hostility toward free enterprise and entrepreneurship, the pillars of job creation and economic recovery...

President Donald Trump just rolled out his new "Black Economic Empowerment Platinum Plan." The plan focuses on building on his achievements since 2016 to improve the lives of Black Americans by creating more opportunity to participate in a growing economy and to achieve greater security in life and property...

Chuck Schumer, Senate minority leader, says, "Our No. 1 goal must be to communicate the stakes of this Supreme Court fight to the American people." He continued, "nothing is off the table." Nothing? Not even violence? After the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, members of the Trump administration were being assaulted in public spaces, in restaurants...

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman observed in a column he wrote in 1996 that "no two countries that both have a McDonald's have ever fought a war against each other." Some have looked into how ironclad this rule is. But, in general, the point is pretty powerful...

I have returned with some regularity over the years to compare what is going on in our country today to what was going on in the 1850s, the years preceding the Civil War. America has always been about freedom of expression. And that freedom has often led to protests and tension. Generally, we've gotten through these tough and challenging times and moved on...

As so much despair has gripped our nation during this difficult time, I decided to go into our nation's most distressed communities with a message of hope and truth. I have been working on policy issues dealing with race and poverty through my organization, UrbanCURE, for 25 years...

The Trump administration recently rescinded the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule, adopted in the early months of the Obama administration. The rule was an add-on to the 1968 Fair Housing Act. The act was about preventing discrimination in the sale, rental or financing of housing...

By the time you read this, Joe Biden may have already announced selection of his vice presidential running mate. From everything we read, it is certain that it will be a woman, and a good chance that woman will be black. But why, when so much of what dominates our national discussion today is the alleged importance of elimination of racism and sexism, is there open and unabashed talk about how sexism and racism must be the basis for choosing the candidate for the nation's second-highest office?...