The old saying ‘if the only tool in your toolbox is a hammer, you will begin to see every problem as a nail’ is particularly true in the political world. Pollsters continually advise candidates that they need more polls; media gurus argue more radio and television ads; direct mail consultants claim the key to victory is their message in every voter’s mailbox. Social media experts dismiss all of the above as antiquated and inefficient. However, few political or real-world problems are susceptible to one-size-fits-all solutions. The tendency to reach for the hammer is nowhere more apparent than in the progressive…
Author: David A. Keene
David A. Keene
David Keene has been at the center of conservative politics for decades. He is a former Chairman of the Young Americans for Freedom and the American Conservative Union and has served as the elected President of the National Rifle Association. He worked as a campaign consultant, lobbyist and commentator. His writing has appeared in Human Events, National Review and many other conservative publications and remains Editor at Large for The Washington Times after more than four years as the paper’s Opinion Editor.
Last week, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee asked his state legislature to provide armed protection for her public and private schools. Tennessee’s United States Senators, Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty simultaneously urged Congress to provide the same protection nationwide in response to the murder of six students and staff last month at an unprotected Nashville school. (RELATED: Tennessee Advances Armed Teacher Bill) Conversely, others, including President Biden and his Vice President, blamed the tragedy not on the shooter but on conservatives, the lack of universal background checks, red flag laws and an assault weapons ban. Governor Lee knew from reports streaming…
In the Midwest of the fifties and sixties, parents rarely gave kids a key to their house. We never bothered to lock the door, and cars were unlocked when parked in front of the house. We were never robbed, and no one tried to steal the family car. There were car thieves around, of course, and burglars as well, but not as many as today. We live in a different world today. Cars and houses are double-locked and security systems are ubiquitous. An unlocked vehicle is an invitation to thieves that seldom get caught or prosecuted. Until recently, burglars, car…
In early 1979 following President Jimmy Carter’s official recognition of the People’s Republic of China, the mainland’s Communist rulers opened their embassy in Washington. Jim Lilley, my good friend and fellow critic of Beijing, and I attended its official opening in the old Windsor Park Hotel. Lilley had been born in China, spoke fluent Mandarin, and had spent the bulk of his career at the CIA where he had on at least two occasions managed to delay Carter’s desire to recognize the Beijing regime. He would go on to serve as our nation’s representative in Taiwan, ambassador to Korea and,…
Mike Long, who served as Chairman of the New York State Conservative Party from 1988 to 2019, died on Sunday. His friend, George Marlin, former head of the New York Port Authority and author of a history of the party, described him when he retired as party chairman in 2019 as “the quintessential street corner conservative.” Mike Long was that and much more. Mike was born and raised in Brooklyn, was a Marine, a family man and a devout Catholic. His backbone, like his faith, was rock hard. He never flinched and never backed down. His importance to his party…
Texas Senator John Cornyn, a former judge, justifies his role in putting together and passing…
Words matter. When Hillary Clinton was running for president and began comparing Russia’s Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler, a former Kennedy speechwriter told me that he was there during the Cuban Missile Crisis when President John F. Kennedy, his brother Bobby and his top advisors discussed the advisability of likening Nikita Khrushchev to the Nazi leader. “We decided we just couldn’t go there,” he said, “because it is absolutely the worst thing one can call a Russian whose country lost millions of men, women and children fighting Nazi Germany.” He added that “Once you liken a Russian leader to Hitler…
As the bloodshed and suffering continue, Ukrainians and Russians are meeting to try to find what Western “experts” like to call an “off-ramp” that might allow Putin to back down, save face and leave Ukraine intact while bringing an end to the fighting. It’s a tall order because Putin, if he cannot win outright, is seeking a settlement that includes a disarmed Ukraine that will be defenseless should he decide to invade again at some future date. Zelenskyy and his countrymen know they cannot depend on NATO or the United States when the chips are down. Oh, their friends to…
Times change but the tactics employed by politicians to bend a reluctant electorate to their will don’t, as the arguments to massively boost the Internal Revenue Service’s budget attest. Tax increases are never popular, so their advocates search for ways to convince voters that they are desperately needed to avoid cuts in truly vital services. Growing up in the Midwest decades ago, I couldn’t help but notice that advocates of increased local taxes could be counted on to warn that unless the increases they proposed were approved, the first cuts that would have to be made would be to the…
The late Bob Squier was a leading Democratic strategist in 1992 who had been retained to produce a video tribute to Democratic Senate leader George Mitchell. I had lunch with Squire just after he and his camera crew had completed a lengthy interview for the project with Senator Bob Dole who was on his way to winning the Republican presidential nomination that year. As we sat down to lunch, Bob said he hoped that Dole’s managers didn’t appreciate what he’d seen while doing that morning’s taping. He said he and his crew had seen the Bob Dole that one rarely…