The renewed debate over presidential war powers, sparked by Vice President J.D. Vance’s dismissal of the War Powers Resolution as “fake” and unconstitutional, exposes more than a technical disagreement about statutes. It reveals a deeper conflict over authority, restraint, and accountability in the exercise of force. At stake is not merely how wars are authorized,…
Compassion Without Authority Invites Corruption
The federal freeze on childcare funding in Minnesota is the predictable outcome of a governing philosophy that elevates empathy and expansion while treating authority, discipline, and enforcement as secondary concerns. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services didn’t freeze funding because Minnesota cared too much about families. It froze funding because federal officials no…
Power, Precedent, and the Perils of Unilateral Force: The High-Risk Gamble of Capturing Maduro
The U.S. military strike on Venezuela and the announced capture of Nicolás Maduro mark one of the most dramatic assertions of American power in the Western Hemisphere in decades. The operation will likely stand alongside the most consequential unilateral interventions of the modern era, not only because of its immediate tactical audacity but because of…
Banning Congressional Stock Trading Is About Moral Order, Not Moral Grandstanding
The renewed push to ban individual stock trading by members of Congress reflects more than a cyclical ethics debate or a momentary populist impulse. It signals a deeper institutional reckoning over whether public office can continue to coexist with private financial maneuvering in markets lawmakers directly influence. For years, Congress has relied on disclosure rules,…
Why Cutting Federal Funding for Gender-Affirming Care Is the Right and Necessary Step
The federal government’s recent move to restrict Medicare and Medicaid funding for so-called “gender-affirming care” for minors has ignited predictable outrage. Activists describe it as discriminatory. Advocacy groups frame it as a moral emergency. Critics accuse policymakers of ignoring “settled science.” But beneath the noise is a quieter, more sobering reality: for the first time…
Stones, Maps, and Misplaced Confidence
Redistricting lawsuits are once again multiplying like rabbits in springtime, gathering at the steps of the Supreme Court as though the justices were oracles perched atop a modern Mount Olympus. Democrats are filing challenges against Republican-drawn maps from coast to coast, Republicans are defending their cartographic handiwork with equal zeal, and legal analysts are circling…
America Doesn’t Need More Drama; It Needs Adults in the Room
If there’s a unifying theme in Washington lately, it’s this: everyone wants accountability, just not for themselves. Whether it’s a shaky ethics probe, a cell-phone-records carve-out, a D.C. National Guard face-off, or the Justice Department playing investigator of the investigators, the common thread is that too many leaders seem allergic to the hard work of…
Truth, Justice, and the Fine Art of Not Looking the Other Way
Washington suddenly seems to be rediscovering the concepts of truth, justice, and responsibility. And honestly? It’s about time. For a town that couldn’t find its own moral compass with a GPS, a map, and three tour guides, we’ll take the progress where we can get it. President Trump’s administration has been busy trying to broker…
Truth Before Feelings: Why Passports Should Reflect Biological Reality
There’s a lot of heat — and very little light — surrounding the Supreme Court’s recent decision allowing President Trump’s administration to enforce a policy requiring passports to reflect a person’s biological sex, not self-identified gender. Predictably, the talking heads went into overdrive, accusing the Court and the administration of cruelty, discrimination, and “erasing” transgender…
Keep the Filibuster and Beat the Shutdown the Right Way
President Trump is right about one thing: Washington’s broken. The endless gridlock, the political posturing, and now another government shutdown. It’s enough to make any sensible American want to throw the rulebook out the window. But there’s one rule we can’t afford to toss: the Senate filibuster. Yes, it’s frustrating. Yes, it slows things down.…
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