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Five takeaways from college football championship game

National Columnists

Hoo, hoo, hoo, Hoosiers! Seeing the Indiana University Hoosiers win the College Football Playoff National Championship Monday night was the culmination of a season filled with notable lessons. Here are a few from my perspective: 1. In sports — as in many other matters — the experts are often wrong. The same people who tried to justify the exclusion of Notre Dame from the college football playoffs dissed Indiana all season long, including leading up to and throughout the playoffs and even just before the national championship game. They were wrong about the talent, toughness and ...

Dairy farmers celebrate Whole Milk Act

National Columnists

When word reached the dairy farmers gathered at the Pennsylvania Farm Show that President Donald Trump had signed the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, cheers echoed through the cavernous 24-acre complex packed with farmers, thousands of attendees, and even a few goats, cows and horses. No one was more exuberant at the news than Dave Smith, executive director of the Pennsylvania Dairymen’s Association, a trade group founded in the late 19th century that supports and advocates the state’s largest agricultural sector: dairy farming. Less than 10 minutes before the announcement, ...

Most powerful weapon is truth, principles

National Columnists

Recently, Michael Reagan, the eldest son of President Ronald Reagan, passed away at age 80. His passing was duly eulogized by the Reagan Foundation and the Young America’s Foundation at the Reagan Ranch. Both noted that Michael, whom I had the privilege to know, devoted his life to writing and speaking about the American principles that so defined his father. No death is ever timely. But there seems something fitting that President Reagan’s legacy would be closed out with the passing of his oldest son in the year of the 250th birthday of our nation. At this time of such ...

‘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 ...