Cal Thomas Column: Can Joe Biden Be Trusted?

October 20th, 2020 11:35 PM

Can Joe Biden be trusted? It was President Richard Nixon who said in the midst of the enveloping Watergate scandal: “People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook. I earned everything I've got.” That standard should be applied to Joe Biden before the election. He should be pressed to explain his son Hunter's financial dealings in Ukraine and Beijing…

Progressive Trick Is No Treat

October 13th, 2020 11:08 PM

Halloween, like so much else, will be different this year from previous years, but it also offers an analogy that can be applied to the current presidential campaign. The purpose of Halloween masks is to hide the identity of the person wearing them. They are also supposed to be scary. Inversely, as I see it, the purpose of the "masks" being worn by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris is to soothe…

Alaska’s Governor on the Virus and the Election

September 25th, 2020 8:08 PM

ANCHORAGE — From the moment Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a Republican, was made aware of the threat of COVID-19, he acted faster than most other states and the federal government. In an interview, I asked him why he moved so quickly when others did not? “We got a call from the (U.S.) State Department in January asking for assistance with a charter (plane) that was coming out of Wuhan with State…

The Lesson Behind Falwell’s Fall

September 3rd, 2020 7:36 PM

The ouster of Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr. over allegations of sexual misconduct and other behavior that falls short of the university's code of conduct -- not to mention Scripture -- is another in a long list of lessons each generation of Christians seems to have to learn anew.

Law(lessness) and (Dis)order in Seattle and Elsewhere

August 13th, 2020 9:39 PM

What would you think if local politicians decided to cut the size of their fire department while buildings in their city were ablaze? What about a general who orders his soldiers to stop fighting and surrender to the enemy? Something similar has occurred in the once tranquil city of Seattle, Washington, where in the midst of riots and over the objections of the mayor and police chief, the city…

Cal Thomas: Trouble with Biden’s VP choices

August 7th, 2020 3:16 PM

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden appears to have painted himself into a corner with his promise to select a woman — and apparently from the candidates on his short list, an African-American woman — to be his running mate. While it is just the latest example of his party's tribalism in which externals such as race and gender are preferred over actual ideas, in the end it will make no…

John Lewis Funeral Was a Political Event

August 5th, 2020 7:12 PM

Traditionally, funerals are supposed to serve at least three purposes: honor the life of the deceased, comfort those who mourn his passing and preach a message about eternity and the brevity of life. Tradition was discarded during John Lewis' funeral last week in Atlanta. Like the memorial service of the late Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-MN) in 2002, the Lewis service was a political event that…

Rioters Are Seditionists, Not Protesters

July 28th, 2020 6:01 PM

The violence perpetrated in the streets of cities across America continues because state and local elected officials (all Democrats) refuse to do what is necessary to stop it. These acts no longer fit the definition of protest. Rather, sedition defines them: “Incitement of discontent or rebellion against a government.” President Trump has ordered agents from the Department of Homeland Security…

Spending as If There Is No Tomorrow

July 22nd, 2020 5:26 PM

I am not in the habit of quoting leftist Noam Chomsky, but this line seems relevant when one considers our growing national debt: "When you trap people in a system of debt, they can't afford the time to think." Perhaps now is not the time in the middle of a pandemic, job losses and threats of even higher unemployment, to mention the national debt. Or, perhaps it is.

Who's ‘Divisive’?

July 9th, 2020 4:02 PM

As near as I can tell, it began in 1995 when Republicans won control of the House of Representatives for the first time in 40 years and captured a Senate majority. By "it," I mean the accusation that Republicans, and especially conservatives (not always the same), are "divisive." One reads and hears this from every media outlet and the Democrats in Congress. President Trump is dividing America…

The Shame Is Ours

June 16th, 2020 7:24 PM

It is a gift, as Robert Burns wrote, to see ourselves as others see us. One of those “others” is Caroline Glick, who writes on her webpage from Israel: “Americans are now expected to kneel for the Star Spangled Banner and disavow American history while swallowing whole a false, malicious new history that claims America has been a force for evil at home and worldwide since it was nothing more…

An Unusual Conversation

June 4th, 2020 11:55 PM

Which of the following would you consider the most unusual and least likely to occur? 1) President Trump calls Speaker Nancy Pelosi to invite her to lunch. 2) Rioters and looters agree to pay for the damage they caused to businesses and individuals. 3) Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh appears on "The Breakfast Club," a nationally syndicated radio program that features discussions on…

Name-Calling

May 26th, 2020 7:10 PM
Writing and making public one’s opinions guarantees people will respond. Writers, performers and every human likely desire his or her thoughts, and even their life, to matter to others. The alternative is to become hermits. Like other opinion writers I get my share of positive and negative letters, but during the Trump administration the level of invective for those questioning anything the…

Opening Up America

May 14th, 2020 5:06 PM
The choice before us seems to be no choice at all: stay inside and have no human contact with another soul, keep businesses closed, denying a livelihood to millions, or step outside and risk death. Though I believe the risk is small when comparing the number of people who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and have recovered with the number who have died, fear may be the greater threat.