Breaking News

Opinion

‘Rugged individualism’ leads to community

National Columnists

During his inaugural address, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said, “We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.” Many people have skewered the second part of that statement — and rightfully so. For those who’ve endured it, the warmth of collectivism feels like hell on earth. In the last century, communist regimes slaughtered more than 150 million people. Hundreds of millions more have suffered through scarcity and oppression. Collectivist regimes struggle to keep the lights on and produce enough toilet paper. So much for ...

How Trump finally buried Iraq syndrome

National Columnists

Something crucial happened with President Donald Trump’s recent actions in Venezuela. In fact, taken together with his earlier moves abroad, they mark the substantive death of what might be called the “Iraq syndrome” — a paralyzing mindset that has distorted American foreign policy for more than two decades. The Iraq syndrome emerged after the failure of the Iraq War and the long, costly occupation that followed. To understand Iraq syndrome, one has to go back to Vietnam. In the aftermath of the Vietnam War, America’s foreign-policy establishment fell into disarray. A new ...

This is no way to provide shelter

National Columnists

Americans today are justifiably angry about the price of rents and mortgages. Home prices have roughly tripled over the last 25 years, and the median home price is now $415,000. The 30- and 40-somethings are having a tough time buying a first home. Young families may need to pay a whopping $75,000 on a down payment. Democrats and some populist Republicans have convinced the Trump administration to pin the blame on institutional investors, including large banks, private equity firms and hedge funds. The Trump administration is endorsing a proposal to prohibit these firms from buying ...

Canceling laws some don’t like can cost lives

National Columnists

Americans who remember how an incident in Minneapolis six years ago plunged the whole country into a summer of rioting — then years of elevated criminal violence — should think carefully about where the protests over the death of Renee Good are leading. Like the killing of George Floyd, Good’s tragedy is being exploited for a political purpose, with the radical activists who then called for defunding the police now demanding an end to Immigration and Customs Enforcement — not only the agency, ICE, but the enforcement of the nation’s democratically enacted immigration ...

Martin Luther King’s message still powerful

National Columnists

In pausing to reflect on the Christ-centered teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. this year, I reread his sermon “Loving Your Enemies” that he delivered at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, which is now Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church. Scholars have not pinpointed the exact date King gave this eloquent and time-transcending message, but most agree he spoke to the Dexter Avenue congregation in mid-November of 1957. King took his text from Matthew 5:43-45, in which Jesus says, “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But ...

Is Obama’s red line still red line?

National Columnists

One of the most embarrassing moments of the Barack Obama presidency came in the context of the Syrian civil war. In August 2012, Obama vowed that “a red line for us,” which would thereby necessitate some sort of American intervention, “is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized.” The 44th president continued: “That would change my calculus.” Except it didn’t. A year later, former Iran- and Russia-backed Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad crossed Obama’s “red line,” launching a lethal sarin gas on his own people. Hundreds, ...