Recent Viewpoints

Kerby Anderson Fifteen years ago, I wrote a commentary about the realignment of America. Now that we have some new census figures, I thought it might be time to write another commentary about the migration from blue states to red states. The issue is more complicated than what I describe here, so you might want to get a free copy of my Point of View booklet on the realignment of America. The general trend is easy to see. The US…

Penna Dexter As we begin 2024, I want to offer a New Year’s prayer for our country. But frankly, it seems a little presumptuous to ask God’s blessing on this nation. In boardrooms, in some states, and in the federal government, leaders are enacting rules and laws that force people to treat men as women and women as men. Other states oppose this. But, before 2023 even ended we received the disappointing news that prolife Ohio Governor Mike DeWine vetoed…

Kerby Anderson Yesterday I talked about some of the problems with the universities in America and focused on the economic issues. Today I would like to talk about ideology. Victor Davis Hanson answers the question: “How Were the Universities Lost?” He begins by acknowledging that most Americans already sensed that universities were a hotbed of liberalism and intolerance. But after the Hamas attack on Israel in October, most Americans were shocked at the level of antisemitic hatred on college campuses….

Kerby Anderson For the next two days, I want to talk about some of the problems with universities in America. Much of what I will be talking about today comes from “Harvard is Big Business at Its Worst” by Allysia Finley. She focuses on Harvard because of the testimony last month by Harvard President Claudine Gay, but her comments apply to most of the major universities. The first issue is the fact that the IRS recognizes most private colleges as…

Kerby Anderson Our federal debt has been soaring to dangerous levels. According to the US Debt Clock, we are about to pass $34 trillion in national debt. As I have mentioned in previous commentaries, the debt to GDP is reaching an all-time high. Even though Congress passed the Fiscal Responsibility Act, there doesn’t seem to be any fiscal responsibility. Members of Congress will be passing another large supplemental bill for wars and border security. Soaring debt is due in large…

Kerby Anderson Who would have ever thought that classical education would be controversial? The fact that Professor Adam Carrington had to write that “classical education is not a threat” is another indication of how everything has become political. He begins by asking the question: “Is education Republican or Democrat, conservative or progressive?” His answer is that in a rightly ordered system, it should be neither. It should instruct students about America’s history and ideals. One of the reasons such education…

Kerby Anderson Let me begin by wishing you a Happy New Year. At the start of this New Year, I wanted to pass on some advice. In previous commentaries, I have talked about the value of using this time of year to change something in your life. There is nothing magical about using January 1 as a start date, but why not use it to improve yourself? First, I would recommend you pick just one thing to change. If you…

Penna Dexter As 2023 ends, we see less evidence than ever of the Christian consensus that used to exist in the United States. Not that we were a “Christian nation.”  But norms existed — I guess you could call them family values — that, although not practiced by everyone, were at least considered good and true. All of that is waning. Author and cultural commentator, Rod Dreher points back to another observer of American society, sociologist Philip Reiff. Dr. Reiff,…

Kerby Anderson Most Americans are already financially worse-off than they were before the pandemic. But here is an arresting statistic. JP Morgan estimates that 99 percent of all Americans will be financially worse-off by next year. The majority of Americans have burned through their excess savings they accumulated during the Covid-19 pandemic. The last few percentages of Americans will have used them up by July 2024. The bank’s top stock strategist points to the fact that most Americans are already…

Kerby Anderson If you visited New York City more than a decade ago, you likely saw this sign on buses or on subway cars. “If you finish high school, get a job, and get married before having children, you have a 98% chance of not being in poverty.” That phrase may sound familiar since I have mentioned it in previous commentaries. It is known as the “success sequence” that was first articulated by two scholars at the Brookings Institution. It…

Kerby Anderson Yesterday I talked about the research by Jonathan Haidt and others on young girls and ended with his comment that his explanation for girls did not seem to apply to boys. His article attached to his commentary is a preview of his forthcoming book, The Anxious Generation. Rates of mental problems rose significantly around 2013, and the impact of social media on girls is the logical explanation. But we didn’t see the same rapid increase for boys. Rates…