Recent Viewpoints

Kerby Anderson Over the next few weeks, we will see many pundits and politicians blaming the president and his administration for the virus crisis. But before we start assigning any blame in the US, we need to go back to the country of origin. China and the World Health Organization should be held accountable for this pandemic. When the first Chinese citizens became sick, doctors tried to connect the dots of these cases and found they went back to the…

Kerby Anderson No doubt you have heard the quote: “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.” The oft-repeated quote is from Rahm Emanuel, who was President Obama’s Chief of Staff at the time. Back then, he was talking about the 2008 financial crisis. This time, a number of progressive groups want to use the virus crisis to attack the president and a few Democratic politicians want to use it to promote their progressive agenda. A Democrat-aligned Super…

Penna Dexter As we all adapt to social distancing, the new normal for daily living, we’ve also got to get serious about economic distancing from China. We have become too dependent on China in key sectors of our economy — like pharmaceutical and medical supply production.  China’s state news agency has issued several warnings that if the United States isn’t careful, China could ban exports of pharmaceuticals and medical protective gear and throw our nation into “a mighty sea of…

Kerby Anderson A number of columnists and political thinkers have tried to explain why there is so much hate in the public arena. Shelby Steele is a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. He has some profound insights on “Why the Left is Consumed With Hate.” He takes us back to the 1960’s when this country “finally accepted that slavery and segregation were profound moral failings.” So the left put itself in charge of righting this wrong, thus giving…

Kerby Anderson America is a divided country. Os Guinness in his book, Last Call for Liberty, argues that the American republic is suffering its gravest crisis since the Civil War. He believes that the root of this disagreement is two different definitions of freedom. One view of freedom is embodied in “1776 and the American Revolution.” The other view arose in “1789 and the French Revolution.” The first can be found in the Declaration of Independence that owes its formulation…

Kerby Anderson By now you have probably received an envelope in the mail that says, United States Census 2020. You are supposed to go online and fill it out before April 1. There are many reasons why you should do so. The most important reason is the fact the census count will determine how many representatives you will have in the future. The state you are living in has changed significantly in the last ten years when the last census…

Kerby Anderson Often when I talk about the “deaths of despair” affecting so many young people, I am asked, “why are so many unhappy?” There are a number of reasons, but first let’s discuss how serious this problem has become. In the US, the suicide rate quadrupled for young men (ages 15-24) and doubled for young women from 1946 to 2006. Another study found that “suicidal thinking, severe depression, and rate of self-injury among US college students more than doubled…

Kerby Anderson Let me begin with a question. What do you think of the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic? Your response probably ranges from a belief that some of the government’s actions could have been better to a belief that it was a botched operation from the beginning. Many pundits and politicians say the administration’s response has been a disaster. That harsh assessment may be overdone and unfair, but let’s assume it is accurate. That leads to a…

Penna Dexter After the Coronavirus pandemic dissipates, perhaps we’ll ask why some countries got a better handle on patient recovery than others? There are early hints that outcomes have a lot to do with how dependent countries’ systems are on direct government financing of health care. In Italy, doctors know how to treat severe cases. But they need ventilators in intensive care units. They simply don’t have enough beds or equipment to do the job. Or enough doctors. We hear…

Kerby Anderson Perhaps you have been involved in a political discussion with people and wondered how they could be so naïve about foreign policy or criminal justice because they just wanted to believe every person is basically good. Perhaps you have been sharing your faith with someone who rejected the idea of a savior because he or she rejected the idea of human sinfulness. So many people in America are naïve about human nature, evil, and sin because they live…

Kerby Anderson Two of the founding fathers that deserve more attention are Alexander Hamilton and James Madison. While the Hamilton musical provides us with some perspective and entertainment, I would recommend the book by Jay Cost, The Price of Greatness: Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and the Creation of American Oligarchy. He was on the Point of View radio program to talk about his book. These two men belonged to a political movement with three fundamental foundations. The first was the commitment…