Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Thursday, March 23, 2017
Medicine That Hurts
The Republican-proposed American Health Care Act (AHCA) that the House of Representatives is expected to vote on this Thursday has been called a bill that everybody dislikes for one reason or another.
Wednesday, March 22, 2017
We’re Against Emotionalism, Except When We’re Not
Conservatives have rightly taken pride in Neil Gorsuch’s calm and cerebral performance at his Senate confirmation hearings. Many commentators, along with Republican senators, have mocked Democrats for presuming to evaluate Gorsuch based on the outcomes of his cases. Did he “side with the little guy” or with big corporations? The right answer, conservatives have correctly chided, is that justice is supposed to be blind.
School Orders Boy to ‘Tolerate’ Undressing With Girl and Make It ‘Natural’
A teenage boy was told by his principal that he had to “tolerate” undressing in front of a female student and to make it as “natural” as possible, according to a blockbuster lawsuit filed in a Pennsylvania federal district court.
All In
President Trump is all in when it comes to passing the legislation that begins the process of repealing Obamacare. The president went to Capitol Hill Tuesday morning to speak directly with House Republicans in advance of Thursday’s vote. The bill, which continues to undergo last-minute changes, still faces resistance from members of the House Freedom Caucus.
Time to Stop Taxpayer-Funded Propaganda
The defunding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is long past overdue. No president, including Ronald Reagan, has seriously pushed an immediate winding down of this corrupt and outdated waste of taxpayer funds. Who would have ever imagined that Donald Trump would be the first to do it?
Bring Assata Back ASAP
If FBI agents have time to track down Tom Brady’s stolen Super Bowl jerseys, why can’t they bring back AWOL convicted cop-killer Assata Shakur? It is time for one of the agency’s most wanted women in the world to pay her dues. And President Trump is just the man to force this militant and unrepentant escapee to face justice.
Gorsuch v. Death, Inc.
St. Augustine, who has not been nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court, made a straightforward argument against a right to suicide. Neil Gorsuch, who has been nominated, makes a subtler argument against such a right. But Gorsuch’s argument is not subtle enough for Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who fears the principle at its foundation may also form the foundation of an argument against abortion. Feinstein is right to be fearful.
Looking for Justice in Gorsuch
More than a decade ago, Neil Gorsuch had an interesting way of describing judicial confirmation hearings. “They’re just another avenue of political warfare,” he wrote. And today, he’s finding out just how true those words are. In the second day of his own hearing — which would have seemed like a distant dream when he penned those words 12 years ago — he’s putting his theory to the test with Democrats who are having trouble finding anything wrong with the Supreme Court nominee.
Kindest Cuts
“Devastating!” shouts Chuck Schumer. Even Republicans are unhappy. Big spending “conservative” congressman Hal Rogers calls President Donald Trump’s proposed budget cuts “draconian, careless and counterproductive.” But Trump’s cuts are good! Why do politicians always assume that government spending helps people? It always has unintended consequences.
Why Does It Feel Like Everything’s a Scandal?
Over the past two weeks, Democrats have begun to acknowledge that they have virtually no evidence demonstrating meaningful collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. They proclaim that circumstantial evidence shows ties between Trump staffers and President Vladimir Putin — former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and former Trump advisor Roger Stone allegedly had significant contacts with the Russians. But to this point, they’ve got nothing.
A Nation of Law, Not Politics, With Gorsuch
My first experience with Senate confirmation hearings for a Supreme Court justice nominee was in 1991 at the hearings for Clarence Thomas. I came to Washington with several hundred black pastors from around the country to support Justice Thomas. The hearings were a national embarrassment. The main focus turned out to be about neither the Constitution nor about Thomas’ jurisprudence.
Republicans Are Finding It Hard to Play Defense
Monday’s House Intelligence Committee hearing, billed as the first public inquiry into Russia’s election meddling, was a spectacle with an obvious lesson: Offense is easier than defense.
Transgender Challenges
Determining one’s own sex or that of another used to be a simple matter. First, there was the matter of appearance, whether a person looked like a male or looked like a female. If appearance produced some uncertainties, one could determine sex by examining a person’s birth certificate. If appearance and a birth certificate produced uncertainties, the ultimate, absolute proof of sex was a person’s chromosomes; XX marked a female, and XY marked a male. Case closed.
Tuesday, March 21, 2017
Why Trump’s Immigration Order Is Legal and Constitutional
What kind of judges fill the ranks of the federal judiciary these days? More often than not, unfortunately, it’s the kind who refuse to follow the law and the Constitution, and whose biases and personal views distort their decision-making.
A 140-Character Flaw
The Trump administration is in the throes of one of the greatest self-inflicted distractions of the modern presidency. The latest chapter comes from James Comey in his highly anticipated congressional testimony. The FBI director said that he has no information to support President Donald Trump’s infamous weekend tweets alleging he was wiretapped by President Barack Obama during the campaign. This was treated as a bombshell, although what would have been truly surprising is if he said Trump’s allegations had a sound factual basis.
Purity and Politics
Readers of a certain age may recall ads for Ivory Soap, which claimed to be 99 and 44/100ths percent pure. If the soap could have reached 100 percent purity, the company would likely have made the claim.
Where’s the News?
To say there is a lot going on in Washington this week would be a “YUGE” understatement. Major issues on the president’s agenda (healthcare vote) and issues impacting his legacy (Gorsuch hearing) are coming to a head this week.
Trump Budget Drains the Swamp
Everyone in Washington hates Donald Trump’s new budget. So it must have something going for it. This is a budget plan that will surgically remove trillions of dollars of wasteful spending from the obese $3.9 trillion federal budget. Many agencies will have to live with cuts of 5, 10 and 30 percent, while other outdated, duplicative or unproductive programs will go to the graveyard.
Sock Campaign Toes the Pro-Life Line
St. Patrick’s Day may be over, but Planned Parenthood still has green on its mind. In the fight of its financial life, Cecile Richards is doing everything she can to keep her grip on the $550 million dollars her group rakes in from taxpayers each year. And that includes keeping a lid on the organization’s latest numbers. While Congress debates the future of Planned Parenthood funding, the nation’s largest abortion business is being unusually tight-lipped about its services in 2015-16.