Commentary

Darrell Ehrlick, Daily Montanan I watched nearly 100 minutes of Donald Trump’s speech that he gave a week ago in Bozeman, one of his few recent public rallies. Listening closely to it, it struck me as more of an impromptu jam session for the MAGA crowd than any serious policy …

Greg LaRose, Louisiana Illuminator You might know 50 Cent best for his smash hit “In Da Club,” which was all the rage back in 2003. But the rapper, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, has been pursuing other business ventures, including a liquor brand and a film studio in Shreveport. …

Karyn Amira, College of Charleston It’s common to hear Americans complain about the media throughout presidential elections. Partisans tend to believe the press is biased against their side. These perceptions may lead people to believe the media can affect how people vote. Political scientists have found some evidence that media …

Commentary Diane Roberts, Florida Phoenix Why would Ron DeSantis rather destroy Florida universities than allow our students encounter ideas he doesn’t like? What’s he so afraid of? Is it that the preservation of slavery was indeed one important factor in getting the white South to support the American Revolution? That …

Commentary Vanessa Gallman, Kentucky Lantern The fallout of the 2020 Breonna Taylor killing by police, resulting from an invalid warrant, made clear that the Louisville police department has serious problems in management and training. But a two-year federal investigation into the department exposed the depth of the bullying and overall …

Jay Bookman, Georgia Recorder Marjorie Taylor Greene is an idiot, and idiots, as a rule, aren’t interesting people. They aren’t interesting because their idiocy overshadows all other aspects of their personality. Greene is more an exemplar of that rule than an exception to it. Nonetheless, in their wisdom, the voters …

Commentary Al Cross, Kentucky Lantern Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has become one of the most outspoken advocates of stronger support for Ukraine, even as his party displays a deeper split on the issue. McConnell made his position clear last Friday at the Munich Security Conference, repeatedly calling for accelerating …

Greg LaRose, Louisiana Illuminator Recent actions from the far right give proof that they have no interest in tackling the pressing concerns of our country – just the opposite in fact. What’s more important to them is earning meaningless merit badges from a dwindling flock of followers swayed more by …

Commentary Deborah Fisher, Tennessee Lookout If the video footage from the Tyre Nichols beating in Memphis tells us anything, it’s that we need to keep protecting the tools that allow public accountability for corruption. Two bills in the Legislature last year sought to reduce a citizen’s ability to view body …

Ray Landis, Pennsylvania Capital-Star The United States government is lurching toward a financial crisis, brought on by the desire of the Republican majority in the US House to use chaos to change the political dynamics of the country. Attempting to predict exactly how the debt ceiling situation will unfold is …

Dick Polman, Pennsylvania Capital-Star Decades ago, Holocaust scholar Hannah Arendt warned: “The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, i.e. the reality of experience and the distinction between true and false, i.e., the …

Juan Carlos Ordóñez, Oregon Capital Chronicle If you could prevent millions of children from falling back into poverty, would you? Most of us, I imagine, would answer “yes” without hesitation. But not Congress. For nearly a year, lawmakers in Washington, D.C., have dithered as the policy directly responsible for a …

Jim Jones, Idaho Capital Sun Every year on Nov. 11, Americans gather at Veterans Day observations to honor and thank America’s veterans for their service to the country. It is certainly right and proper that they do so, but is that the extent of what our countrymen must do to …

James E. Garcia, Arizona Mirror Election Day is just around the corner. Let’s take stock. It’s been said, I know, but it has to be said again and again, until it sinks in: The future of our democracy is on the ballot on November 8. On Wednesday, President Biden repeated …

Justin Nix, University of Nebraska-Omaha, Arkansas Advocate In the lead-up to the 2022 midterm elections, Republican candidates across the nation are blaming Democrats for an increase in crime. But as a scholar of criminology and criminal justice, I believe it’s important to note that, despite the apparently confident assertions of …