Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Friday, July 12, 2019
Biden’s Electability Is a Myth
Despite a lackluster debate performance, former vice president Joe Biden is still holding on to his lead in the race for the Democratic nomination in large part because Democratic voters see him as the most electable candidate.
The Real Danger of Categorical Politics
Conservatives talk a lot about how we don’t like identity politics. But it’s not always clear what people mean by it. Academics and intellectuals tend to mean one thing, while politicians and activists often have something slightly different in mind.
Iranian Piracy
Iran upped the ante Wednesday when it attempted to seize a British oil tanker, the Heritage, as it was passing through the Strait of Hormuz. This attempt at piracy comes in the wake of threats of retaliation by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani after the Royal Navy impounded an Iranian tanker that was violating U.S. and UN sanctions.
Claremont Would Make Founders Weep
The Claremont Institute was part of the flowering of intellectual conservatism that graced America in the 1970s and ’80s. Founded by students of Lincoln scholar Harry Jaffa, the California think tank was devoted to teaching “the principles of the American Founding to the future thinkers and statesmen of America.”
Democrats: Prisoners of the Past on the Economy
We are all, to some extent, prisoners of the past. Things that have already happened — or that we remember as having happened — constitute the world that we know. Anything else is a product of imagination.
Good News for President Trump
Turns out the winner of the Democrats’ first series of debates was President Trump. According to the Washington Post/ABC News poll, after the Democrats debated, Trump’s approval rating went up to 44% among all Americans. But that is not really the number to focus on.
Barr Is Right: The Trump-Russia Conspiracy Is ‘Bogus’
In a recent interview with The New York Times, Attorney General William Barr reiterated his intention to find out why the Obama administration launched an investigation into the Republican Party presidential candidate’s campaign during the 2016 campaign.
Middle-Class Joe Cashes In
The American middle class just got a lot richer. Joe Biden, who invariably and tiresomely refers to himself as “Middle-Class Joe,” made $15 million the first two years after the end of the Obama administration.
USA Soccer Kicks Politics Into Overdrive
This isn’t 1980. There’s no gas rationing or inflation, no Watergate or the Cold War. But Americans are in uncertain times just the same. Our country could use a team of heroes — another miracle to shake us out of this bitter fog.
Thursday, July 11, 2019
The Battle of New Orleans: Climate-Change Edition
On Tuesday, Weatherbell.com started covering the threat of flooding in New Orleans, and it’s a very real threat. But a storm like this, assuming it makes landfall as far west as we think it will, would not contain the same kind of threat if not for some preexisting conditions that occurred in the winter and spring.
Are America’s Churches Destined to Suffer the Same Fate as Europe’s?
The church bells ring all over Europe. In charming villages and large cities alike, the bells ring. In the tiny ancient town of Beynac, the church in the majestic medieval castle on the hill starts its “song” at 7 a.m. with a continuous, enchanted rhythm of peals for several minutes.
PolitiFact Rates Elder ‘False’ on Democrats and Slavery, but Elder Was Right
Getting fact-checked cuts two ways. Which means I should expect liberal bias from the checkers.
Misrepresenting Themselves at the Border
It’s not just the number of individuals crossing our southwest border illegally that’s surging; it’s the number of families. But many of those “families” turn out not to be families at all, but frauds trying to exploit loopholes in federal immigration laws that allow families to avoid detention and deportation back to their native countries.
Can You Keep a Secret? So Can Your Daughter’s School.
Imagine sending your daughter off to school only to find out that she was headed for an abortion appointment instead. Then imagine this: her teachers knew and never told you. In California, parents don’t have to imagine it. Thanks to a new undercover video, they know — it’s already happening.
Confronting Iran
As you know, Christians United For Israel is wrapping up its annual Washington Summit. This week, six thousand CUFI members heard from an unprecedented number of top administration officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and National Security Adviser John Bolton.
Get Acosta! But Get the Right Guy, Too
Now that the media is finally, at long last, interested in the 2006 Jeffrey Epstein child sex case, perhaps we can get an answer to the most intriguing question: Why does he keep escaping justice on essentially the same child molestation charges?
Here Comes Boris — And Donald, Too
There is the musty smell of a police state here in old London, or should I say an inchoate police state?
Democratic Candidates Are Running a Race of Inauthenticity
An epidemic of false identities, massaged resumes and warped ancestries has broken out among the current Democratic presidential primary candidates.
Hungary’s Sound Immigration Policy
Two summers ago on a visit to Budapest, I asked the spokesman for the Hungarian government about the growing problem of migrants coming into Europe. He told me Hungary doesn’t have a migrant problem because they don’t have welfare programs. So, he said, migrants continue their travels to other European countries that do.
Your Legislature in Inaction
Bay State lawmakers blow off their deadline. So what else is new?