Recent Viewpoints

Penna Dexter After some depressing rulings, it was great to get a win for religious liberty and school choice at the U.S. Supreme Court. The 5-4 decision means states that provide assistance to private schools may not exclude some solely because they are religious. In Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, the Court affirmed, by a slim margin, that the Constitution prohibits explicit religious discrimination. In 2015, the state of Montana established a program in which businesses could receive tax…

Kerby Anderson For decades most people knew Bono as a musician with the group U2 and a social activist. But today many of his fans would be surprised to hear him promote some of the benefits of capitalism. At a World Economic Forum, he made this observation. “Capitalism is not immoral—it’s amoral. It requires our instruction. Capitalism has taken more people out of poverty than any other ‘ism.’ But it is a wild beast and, if not tamed, it can…

Kerby Anderson Antifa is a group that is supposed to be “anti-fascist” but actually shows the very characteristics of some fascist groups as well as anarchist groups. As a recent editorial in the Washington Examiner explained, Russians used a similar tactic many years ago. The Soviets coined the term “anti-fascism” as a way to distinguish themselves from Bolshevism. That way they could gain the approval of many credulous Western democracies. It conveyed the idea that Stalinism was not opposed to…

Kerby Anderson Stephen Moore is an economics columnist who has written for the Wall Street Journal and National Review. His recent Washington Examiner column talked about how the pandemic and the lockdown highlighted the differences between the Right and the Left. He discussed eleven differences, but let’s just look at three. “The Right believes that stay-at-home orders and social distancing requirements are counterproductive and should be repealed safely and immediately. The Left believes that those orders must stay in place…

Kerby Anderson Should we play the national anthem before every sporting event in America? We all know the arguments for doing so. But the arguments against are increasing. Even before the protests, we often had sports (like hockey and soccer) where a majority of the players were from countries other than the US. And even the players from America often seemed bored and focused instead on the upcoming game. Even now coaches and owners are considering what they might do…

Kerby Anderson Proponents of expanding mail-in balloting argue that most of the concerns being raised are hypothetical and might not even take place. Well, now we have an example out of New Jersey that is so significant that nearly one in five ballots had to be rejected as fraudulent. Patterson is the third-largest city in New Jersey. In their City Council election, 16,747 vote-by-mail ballots were received, but only 13,557 votes were counted. More than 3,190 votes were disqualified by…

Penna Dexter The foundation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 lies in providing important political and economic protections for blacks. It’s a sweeping law. The Supreme Court tinkered with it recently and not in a good way. Title VII of the law provides powerful protections for women in the workplace. But the High Court’s 6-3 decision, in Bostock v. Clayton County, reinterpreted — really redefined — the phrase “on the basis of sex”, stuffing “gender identity” and “sexual orientation’…

Kerby Anderson Tomorrow is the 4th of July, and I thought I would take a moment to talk about the origin of the ideas in the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson said that many of the ideas in the Declaration came from John Locke. Jefferson also gave credit to the writer Algernon Sidney, who in turn cites most prominently Aristotle, Plato, Roman republican writers, and the Old Testament. Legal scholar Gary Amos argues that Locke’s Two Treatises on Government is simply Samuel…

Kerby Anderson As we approach the traditional time in America in which we celebrate its independence, it’s worth considering the two types of political society that we can find in the world. The first is what we celebrate. We begin with the idea that government is instituted by human beings to provide liberty and security. We need enough government to ensure that we are safe. But we don’t want so much government that we lose our freedom. Ben Shapiro talks…

Kerby Anderson It’s easy to make it onto a liberal blacklist. I discovered that years ago. Disagree with even one plank of the latest politically correct platform, and you make the liberal blacklist. But even liberal people with progressive ideas are finding that you can make the blacklist even if your disagreement should be considered minor. Just ask JK Rowling, famous author of the Harry Potter book series. She ended up on the blacklist for taking issue with an article…

Kerby Anderson Recently the president of iVoterGuide explained on my radio program how COVID shows how elections matter. Debbie Wuthnow said that COVID reminds us that elected officials can make life and death decisions. It may be tempting to think that elections are “just politics.” We learned from the various orders and pronouncements by our elected officials that they have significant power over our lives. She also argued that COVID revealed how vulnerable our religious liberties are. Some elected officials…