Columns ‹ Opinion
The Question That Will Decide the Election
In the 1980 presidential debate, Ronald Reagan secured his landslide by asking the American people: “Are you better off than you were four years ago?”
Today, Congressional Republicans can turn the tide in a close midterm contest by posing a similar question: “Are you better off than you were two years ago?” By every standard, the answer...
Read More
McCain’s Memory Should Make GOP Proud
The passing of Senator John McCain reminded me of why I feel proud to be a Republican. Beginning in 1980, the GOP fielded nine presidential nominees, each of whom displayed exemplary patriotism and fundamental decency.
Ronald Reagan and George Herbert Walker Bush both ran for president three times, and Bob Dole, George W. Bush, John McCain and Mitt Romney...
Read More
Explaining the Left: Part II
The governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, did Americans a favor last week. He provided that which is most indispensable to understanding anything: clarity. “America … was never that great,” he announced. In one sentence, the governor revealed the left’s true view of America. This is rare — because leftists are masters at hiding what...
Read More
Opinion Explaining the Left: Part II
The governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, did Americans a favor last week. He provided that which is most indispensable to understanding anything: clarity. “America … was never that great,” he announced. In one sentence, the governor revealed the left’s true view of America. This is rare — because leftists are masters at hiding what...
Read More
The Evidence for Faith
I recently received an e-mail from a thoughtful listener who challenged my commitment to faith and God. “You’re a smart person,” she wrote, “who emphasizes evidence and logic. How then, can you give such importance in your life to something illogical for which there is no evidence.”
My answer described my experience getting involved in traditional...
Read More
The Real Meaning of “Government of Laws, Not Men”
In middle school, I first heard the phrase that America had been blessed with “a government of laws and not of men.” That description, originating with John Adams, at first made no sense to me: men make the laws, and change them. Laws don’t draft themselves, or enforce themselves – ultimately, we rely on decent people to give life to the law and to...
Read More
The Republican Challenge with Young Voters
Political analysts give plenty of attention to our partisan divisions according to race or gender, but not enough to the stark differences based on age.
The good news for Republicans is that the Democrats are entirely reliant on young voters. Among Americans over 30 in 2016, Trump won the popular vote by a decisive margin, but among the 19% of voters below 30...
Read More
A Pointless and Pathetic Confrontation
When asked his opinion of the Iran-Iraq War, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger reportedly commented: “It’s a shame they can’t both lose.” Sensible observers should have the same reaction to the nutty, alt-right protestors planning to assemble in another “Unite the Right” rally in the nation’s capital, and to the...
Read More
Voters Can Say “No” to Rail Boondoggles and Taxpayer Rip-Offs
Voters in California and Washington will decide this November whether it makes sense to sharply raise gas taxes while government squanders billions on unneeded rail lines.
In California, voters should support an initiative to overturn the liberal legislature’s latest tax increase and in Washington they can block a punishing new “carbon tax”...
Read More
Pope Francis Rewrites Catholicism … and the Bible
Last week, the Vatican announced that Pope Francis had changed the Catholic catechism. After 2,000 years of teaching that a moral use of capital punishment for murder is consistent with Catholic teaching, the pope announced that the catechism, the church fathers and St. Thomas Aquinas, among the other great Catholic theologians, were all wrong. And […]
The...
Read More
Pope Francis Rewrites Catholicism … and the Bible
Last week, the Vatican announced that Pope Francis had changed the Catholic catechism. After 2,000 years of teaching that a moral use of capital punishment for murder is consistent with Catholic teaching, the pope announced that the catechism, the church fathers and St. Thomas Aquinas, among the other great Catholic theologians, were all wrong. And […]
The...
Read More
“Say Little, Do Much”
Contemporary leaders can learn from ancient wisdom, and President Trump will benefit from the 2,000-year-old advice of Rabbi Shammai to “Say Little, and Do Much.”
The President has certainly done much in his time in office, but he would gain greatly from saying less–and avoiding statements that undermine admirable actions. For instance, his...
Read More
What Are Your Child’s Passions?
If you ask most young people today if they have any hobbies, you will receive one of four answers: 1. “No.” 2. “What do you mean?” 3. “Yeah. I play video games/watch TV/watch movies.” 4. “Yeah…” and then they may actually cite a hobby. The fourth is the least common. Dan Scotti, lifestyle writer at...
Read More
What Are Your Child’s Passions?
If you ask most young people today if they have any hobbies, you will receive one of four answers: 1. “No.” 2. “What do you mean?” 3. “Yeah. I play video games/watch TV/watch movies.” 4. “Yeah…” and then they may actually cite a hobby. The fourth is the least common. Dan Scotti, lifestyle writer at...
Read More
“Corruption”, In Context
News media portray today’s politics as incomparably corrupt, focusing on endless scandals to tarnish politicians in general and the Trump administration in particular.
But in historical perspective, corruption is far less rampant than in the past: prominent officials in the Johnson, Nixon and Reagan administrations faced criminal prosecution and a hundred...
Read More
Are Two-Thirds of Us Really “Smarter than Average”?
Two Pennsylvania psychologists conducted a ground-breaking survey that asked 3,000 respondents to agree or disagree with a simple statement: “I am more intelligent that the average person.”
Amazingly, 65 percent agreed, and only 23 percent disagreed—a statistical impossibility, since just as many people must count as below average as above average....
Read More
