Agatha Christie never spun a mystery as perplexing as that of white liberal women going all in on protecting criminal illegal immigrants. Screaming, screeching, blowing whistles, cursing like sailors with Tourette’s who just hit their thumb with a hot hammer. The other day, a poor Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent tried to explain to horn-honking protesters, “We’re here to arrest a child sex offender. … That’s who you guys are protecting.” He may as well have been speaking Sanskrit. “Insane,” he said, as he drove away. Insanity? If not, close enough to be its doppelganger. Theories abound. Perhaps it’s the middle-age equivalent of dating the “bad boy” in high school. Except, we’re not seeing any indication that the women blocking ICE from its noble work have any interest in transforming the killers, rapists, and traffickers they’re protecting. Perhaps it is, as some have speculated, a generation of women who have been taught to discount the value of motherhood, and their hardwired instinct for nurturing and protecting has been short-circuited in the service of the criminals. Think of Renee Good leaving her own child behind before trying to turn an ICE agent into a speedbump. Except mothers are bringing their children to the protests, sincerely believing it’s good for their budding Zohrans to witness Mommy standing up to the Gestapo. Perhaps noted feminist Naomi Wolf hit the mark with her theory that the lashing out stems from sexual frustration, that the aggression toward ICE officers is a physical release. Yes, it’s clear from their unhinged antics why most of those women wouldn’t be getting any action. Hunter Biden would turn down those women even if they were wearing parkas packed with cocaine. Ultimately, we could be seeing what we’re seeing because men didn’t see the signs of the coming white liberal women apocalypse and try to nip it in the bud—be it through love, or prayer, or galloping through the countryside warning, “The women are coming! The women are coming!” I’ll be the first to apologize. Around 2020, a strange thing happened. In short order, three women who’d been important in my life—three wonderful, intelligent, women—got uncharacteristically, disproportionately, perplexingly irate at me over politics. My college girlfriend, who I’ve known since I was 12, never got mad at me back when I deserved it. If temperament were a city, she’d be San Diego. But one day, she snapped at me like a starving crocodile for defending Rush Limbaugh’s Presidential Medal of Freedom. Shocking? Like Rep. Ilhan Omar applying for membership to Mar-a-Lago. Then there’s my former colleague, partner, and office mate. We worked side by side for years, with a closeness, chemistry, and intimacy that had people assuming we were hitched. Never an argument. Twenty years later, we reconnected on Twitter. Within 10 minutes, she was going full Joy Reid on me over politics. (OK, maybe not full Joy Reid. Never go full Joy Reid.) Strangest of all, a woman I briefly dated in the mid-90s, and had not had any contact with since, tracked me down after coming across an article I’d written. Not to say, “Hi, how’s it going?” But: “Is this the same Al Perrotta who used to live in Southern California? You used to be so tolerant!” “I hope it’s me,” I replied. “I’m using his driver’s license.” Helpful Guy Hint: When you’re getting chopped down by childhood friends, smacked around by professional soulmates, and harassed out of the blue by sensitive, gracious clairvoyant poets, it’s wise to ask, “What gives?” But I missed it, males missed it, and conservatives missed it. The anger festered during the Biden years, turned into rage with the overturning of Roe v. Wade. And the reelection of Donald Trump, King of the Alphas? Like hitting the nucleus of Uranium-235 with a neutron. And Ground Zero, at the moment, is Minneapolis. It’s fair to ask how these women would react if Trump had embraced the criminal illegal immigrants, the rapists, and sex traffickers. If he’d been the one sipping margaritas with Kilmar Abrego Garcia. One suspects they’d be screaming just as loud at Trump for increasing their peril because of his “hatred of women.” So perhaps it’s not about ICE agents and illegal aliens, after all. Or Venezuela. Or the Department of Government Efficiency. Or whatever will be on the pre-printed signs next week. Then what is this about? Perhaps at its core the women are suffering PTSD. The psychic injury from the Sexual Revolution indoctrination, the radical mutation of the women’s rights movement, the desecration of motherhood at the altar of “abortion rights,” even the transgender usurpation of what it means to be a woman.White, liberal women have been told, “You’ve come a long way, baby.” “Yeah,” they replied. Looked around, and asked, “But where am I?” I think I’d be lashing out too. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.   The post The Unhinged Rage of White Liberal Women, Explained appeared first on The Daily Signal.

America is finally having to reckon with the issues of transgenderism in athletics and schools. From classrooms to locker rooms to athletic fields, the radical transgender agenda has collided head-on with common sense, fairness, and the safety of our children.   The Supreme Court has now heard the oral arguments for two different cases that involve biological male athletes competing in female sports. These cases hold high importance, and we are hopeful that the court will rule in favor of protecting women and girls. But as critical as athletics are, this battle represents only one front in a much larger cultural and constitutional war.   It must be said, this issue extends far past athletics and commonly finds its way into the locker rooms and bathrooms of our young children. Whether it be our fight against Letitia James and the New York State Education Department where school board members can be removed for even allowing a parent to speak about the need for privacy in bathrooms, or going up against President Joe Biden’s Department of Education, Southeastern Legal Foundation has long been arguing to protect the rights and privacy of young men and women who are faced with having to share a locker room with someone of their opposite sex. Children should not be forced to surrender their privacy because adults refuse to acknowledge biological reality.   These incidents are not hypothetical. They are happening in states all across the country. This could happen to any family, in any school district, and make no mistake about it: they affect every child. It doesn’t matter if your daughter is in band or on the athletic field, all children use the bathroom at school. And no girl should have to use the bathroom in the presence of a biological boy. It is an outrage that parents are being told to just accept this.   Children already face enough challenges growing up. They should not be burdened with navigating radical gender ideology. The root of the problem is that we live in a society that can no longer agree on what “sex” is.   During the recent oral arguments on trans athletes, American Civil Liberties Attorney Joshua Block suggested that the term “sex” should not even be defined legally. Additionally, public officials and medical professionals increasingly refuse to acknowledge biological facts, such as when OB-GYN Dr. Nisha Verma refused to admit that a man cannot get pregnant when confronted with the question by Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo.    If we cannot agree on that basic truth, then no ruling no matter how favorable, will be enough to top what comes next.   This is why these cases cannot simply be the end of the discussion. If we cannot get on the same page on men not being able to get pregnant, sex meaning the biological sex that you were born with, I can ensure that this floodgate will not close.   It is in the best interest of all parents and students that the courts confront this reality without delay. Children already face enough challenges growing up; they should not be burdened with navigating radical gender ideology imposed on them by adults.  While I am hopeful the Supreme Court will resolve the issue of transgender athletes in a way that protects fairness in women’s sports, the deeper problem remains: Truth itself must be acknowledged. Without a shared understanding of biological sex, no ruling will be sufficient.  As a mom of two young children, I am proud to stand with Southeastern Legal Foundation’s brave clients all across the country whose children are being harmed by these destructive policies. Whether it’s a student being forced to share a locker room with a member of the opposite sex or a female athlete being stripped of a fair competition, SLF will be there to support those who stand up against this radical agenda.    We should not accept a future where these injustices are normalized. That future only changes when the courts recognize, and enforce, the truth.  And that reckoning must happen now.  We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.   The post Why the Supreme Court Must Clearly Define Biological Sex or the Battle in the Courts Will Never End appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan has urged Minnesotans to take trainings to monitor Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and to support groups that organize opposition to ICE on the ground. Her support came after the death of Renee Good at the hands of ICE while she appeared to have been using her car to interfere with ICE operations. It came before anti-ICE agitators invaded Cities Church in St. Paul in the middle of a service, and before a U.S. Border Patrol agent shot and killed Alex Pretti. Activists claim to be training “legal observers” merely to observe ICE activities and to alert the neighborhood to the presence of agents. However, some of the anti-ICE groups have also trained to directly oppose ICE operations, either by using their cars to block arrests or by using their bodies to prevent ICE from arresting illegal aliens. Flanagan’s Comments “Everyone is less safe because ICE is on our streets,” Flanagan, a Democrat, said in a Jan. 14 Instagram video from her personal account. In addition to serving as the state’s lieutenant governor, she is running for U.S. Senate in the November elections. “On the local level, I’m asking you to sign up for a legal observer training, so that you can protect your neighbors when they need it,” she adds. “Our phones and our ability to document unconstitutional behavior is one of the most powerful tools that we have in this fight.” “The Immigrant Defense Network and Monarca both offer trainings for folks to learn more about their rights and how to become legal observers,” Flanagan explains. “I’ve taken the training and I hope that you’ll join me. And for folks that are watching outside of state, please contribute to these organizations who are doing the important work here in Minnesota.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Peggy Flanagan (@peggyflanagan) Monarca and Unidos Monarca, whose training Flanagan endorsed, describes itself as a “coalition of thousands” that has “trained over 20,000 everyday Minnesotans as neighborhood observers to help protect people’s rights where it matters most—on the ground, in our communities.” The project hosts a “rapid response line” for people to report ICE sightings, along with trainings on the First Amendment (the right to observe ICE) and the Fourth Amendment (the right to keep ICE out of your home without a warrant). The 501(c)(3) nonprofit Unidos MN appears to have launched Monarca as a project. Unidos MN has helped organize sit-ins at Target locations and listed a set of demands: that the company distance itself from ICE; post placards warning ICE not to enter franchise locations without a warrant; and prevent ICE from using Target parking lots as staging areas. Flanagan’s necklace in the Instagram video resembles the butterfly logo of Monarca. The Immigrant Defense Network Flanagan also endorsed the training of the Immigrant Defense Network, which describes itself as “a network of over 90 immigrant, labor, legal, faith, and community organizations” working as “a community resource hub, immigration policy watchdog, and engine for rapid response to violations of immigrant rights & due process.” Its “rapid response strategy includes maintaining helpline infrastructure, deploying observers, and organizing public demonstrations.” The group’s website explains that “Immigrant Defense Network is a project of COPAL Education Fund,” so donations go to the Comunidades Organizando el Poder y la Accíon Latina. The Bush Foundation (no relation to the former presidents) gave COPAL a $995,000 24-month grant last year to set up the network. COPAL hosts a hotline for people to call when spotting ICE. The New York Times described COPAL as being “on the front lines of anti-ICE operations.” The Daily Signal reached out to Flanagan’s U.S. Senate campaign, the office of Gov. Tim Walz, Unidos and COPAL for comment. This article has been corrected to remove a reference to Pretti reportedly being part of ICE Watch. The post Why Is Peggy Flanagan Backing Organizers of Resistance to ICE? appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The following is a preview of Daily Signal Politics Editor Bradley Devlin’s interview with Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project, on “The Signal Sitdown.” The full interview premieres on The Daily Signal’s YouTube page at 6:30 a.m. Eastern on Jan. 29. For the first time in my lifetime, conservatives are dominating a battle in the culture war.  And thank goodness they are, because defeat in this battle, the battle against transgenderism, could spell an end to Western civilization as we know it. Civilization begins with an understanding of man and his nature. When a society can no longer recognize the natural difference between men and women, it has abandoned civilization itself.  When we deny the differences, collapse the distinctions, and confuse our definitions of man and woman, that is not a feature of civilization. It is the defining mark of barbarism, and transgenderism is its modern expression. Poll after poll shows a growing majority of Americans are against transgender issues and policies, from men in women’s sports to transgender procedures for minors, to men in women’s bathrooms. Some of these issues are now 80-20 issues. It’s a remarkable feat, and it also makes one wonder how the conservative movement has had such resounding success against transgenderism when it resoundingly lost a very similar battle, the battle to defend traditional marriage. Terry Schilling, the president of the American Principles Project, has been a driving force in combating transgenderism all over the country. He’s one of the few people who really saw transgenderism coming, and he’s smart enough to have learned from the mistakes made in the fight to protect traditional marriage and apply those lessons to fighting transgenderism. Schilling joined “The Signal Sitdown” this week to discuss. Shilling unpacks how transgenderism emerged as a political issue and how the right has managed to make transgenderism so politically toxic that the most effective advertisement in the 2024 election cycle was “Kamala Harris is for they/them.” Despite the successes of the Trump administration and recent votes in the House, however, there’s more work to be done to fully defeat transgenderism. “I think it’s all federal at this point,” Schilling told The Daily Signal. “The states are good for temporary victories that can help build momentum, but we need to get federal victories.” “Ban all sex-change procedures and surgeries for minors and give liability protections for the adults,” which would allow them to sue if they later seek to detransition, Schilling continued, “pass a national women’s sports law,” and “protect private spaces.” The post How Conservatives Are Winning the War on Transgenderism appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Every day, it seems anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement agitators perpetrate a new atrocity against innocent people, and Democrats demonizing ICE arguably bear some of the blame. On Sunday, they effectively laid siege to the Home2 Suites by Hilton Hotel, smashing the windows and spray-painting anti-ICE slogans, leading both state police and federal agents to respond. On Tuesday, Virginia Commonwealth University Health announced that it fired a nurse after she released social media videos urging medical providers to use a “sabotage tactic” against ICE, preparing syringes with saline or succinylcholine, a muscle relaxant that can cause temporary partial paralysis. In arguably the most infuriating example, agitators invaded Cities Church in St. Paul, in the middle of a service, and effectively shut it down. They reportedly screamed in the faces of crying children, prevented parents from getting to their children, and stopped terrified parishioners from leaving. They justified this by noting that one of the pastors works for ICE. The deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both 37, at the hands of immigration enforcement have contributed to the climate of hostility against ICE, but those incidents arguably do not explain this extreme hatred. What leads people to think it’s acceptable to target ICE so much that they’re willing to harass innocents? Seven extreme statements from Democrat officials might provide an answer. 1. Tim Walz “[President] Donald Trump’s modern-day Gestapo is scooping folks up off the streets,” Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., said in a commencement ceremony at the University of Minnesota in May 2025. The Gestapo was the secret state police in Nazi Germany that helped carry out the Holocaust that killed an estimated 6 million Jews, and others. Walz more recently threatened to deploy his state’s National Guard to oppose ICE, and suggested President Donald Trump had launched a “war” against his state. During a commencement ceremony speech at the U of M, Gov. Tim Walz described federal ICE agents as "Trump's modern-day Gestapo.” pic.twitter.com/D6mFIyH9Pm— Alpha News (@AlphaNews) May 18, 2025 2. JB Pritzker Gov. JB Pritzker, D-Ill., also suggested that federal agents enforcing immigration law was akin to the oppression of Nazi Germany. “How do you prove to somebody that you’re a U.S. citizen? The color of your skin? That’s not the country we live in,” he said. “You shouldn’t have to walk around with papers, the way that they did in the early days of Nazi Germany, to prove that you belong.” JB Pritzker demonized ICE, says ICE arresting criminal illegal aliens is the same as "Nazi Germany"Today an anti-ICE lunatic shot up an ICE facility. Any comment @JBPritzker?https://t.co/4VdEUE34dA— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) September 25, 2025 Pritzker stood by the comparison on Tuesday in an appearance on the “I’ve Had It” podcast. “Maybe you heard about a year ago, I think it got a lot of national play when I talked about defending Illinois and the fact that we’re living in a world that looks a whole lot like the early ’30s in Germany,” he said. “People on the right attacked me and said, ‘How dare you!’” Now, he said, “A lot more people … among Democrats are saying, yeah, this feels a lot like Germany in the 1930s.” He repeatedly compared Trump to Hitler throughout the podcast episode. Yes, the governor of Illinois is standing by his absurd suggestion that President Trump is effectively today's Adolf Hitler. (That would be Trump, whose son-in-law @jaredkushner is Jewish, by the way.)Here's the video, from a podcast appearance just yesterday. pic.twitter.com/opRvyLJzpA— Tyler O'Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) January 28, 2026 3. Ilhan Omar Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., called ICE an “occupying force.” When U.S. Border Patrol agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, Omar described the incident as “an execution by immigration enforcement.” She said ICE and Border Patrol are “terrorizing our communities, violating rights, and taking lives with zero accountability.” She accused Trump of turning the state into a “war zone where unchecked federal forces murder our neighbors.” While Pretti’s death remains under investigation and the Border Patrol agents involved have been placed on leave, Omar’s rhetoric demonizes ICE beyond what the facts suggest. This appears to be an execution by immigration enforcement. I am absolutely heartbroken, horrified, and appalled that federal agents murdered another member of our community. It is beyond shameful these federal agents are targeting our residents instead of protecting them. This… https://t.co/s6CufGSJEH— Rep. Ilhan Omar (@Ilhan) January 24, 2026 4. Jason Crow Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., wouldn’t rebut Pritzker’s Trump-Hitler comparison. When CNN’s Kasie Hunt asked Crow about Pritzker’s claim, he said, “This president is in Chapter One of the autocrat‘s playbook. There‘s no doubt in my mind.” Here's Rep. Jason Crow essentially agreeing with JB Pritzker comparing Trump's presidency to Nazi Germany. pic.twitter.com/8xpCnsx0LE— Tyler O'Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) January 28, 2026 5. Jim McGovern “Trump is using ICE like a secret police force,” Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., wrote on X. “They’ve used Gestapo-like tactics to terrorize communities for nearly a year, and now they’re literally killing people.” Trump is using ICE like a secret police force. They’ve used Gestapo-like tactics to terrorize communities for nearly a year, and now they’re literally killing people. This can’t be America.I was the first member of Congress to call for abolishing ICE. November’s elections can’t… https://t.co/e1gkY0PaW7— Rep. Jim McGovern (@RepMcGovern) January 7, 2026 6. Gavin Newsom California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, compared America under Trump to foreign dictators before signing a law prohibiting ICE from wearing masks while carrying out raids in the Golden State. (ICE has started wearing masks in response to record threats and attacks against federal agents.) “This is about the secret police,” Newsom said in a September press conference. “We’re not North Korea, Mr. President, we’re not the Soviet Union, we’re the United States of America, and we’re pushing back against these authoritarian tendencies and actions of this administration.” 7. Mark Warner Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., compared ICE to the secret police of Venezuela under Nicolas Maduro. “This relates to Venezuela in the sense that sort of authoritarian, fascist state is what was existing,” he said. Virginia Democrat Mark Warner equates ICE agents deporting criminal illegals to the brutal dictatorship of narcoterrorist Nicolas Maduro:WARNER: "This relates to Venezuela in the sense that sort of authoritarian, fascist state is what was existing." pic.twitter.com/6NqkD7xy5A— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) January 8, 2026 These Democrats haven’t attacked a hotel, urged nurses to paralyze ICE agents, or invaded a church, but their hyperbolic condemnations of immigration enforcement arguably contributed to the climate of hatred that gives agitators permission to harass innocents in the name of fighting Nazis. If ICE is the modern-day Gestapo, their reasoning goes, that justifies an aggressive response—even if that means harassing innocent people. The post 7 Extreme Democrat Attacks on ICE Help Explain Why Some Americans Are Losing Their Minds appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Fox News Channel continued its unprecedented dominance of cable news in January, marking 24 consecutive years as the top-rated network.  The cable channel’s ratings rivaled those of broadcast TV networks and beat CBS, even though those channels are more widely available to a bigger audience. CBS suffered its worst ratings this century across multiple programs, according to Nielsen data released Tuesday.  “This milestone reflects the dedication and hard work that has defined the network since its launch 30 years ago,” Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott said in a statement. “We are not only leading cable, but rivaling the broadcast networks.”  In January, Fox News averaged 2.4 million viewers in weekday prime time, topping CBS’ 2.2 million viewers. Against its cable-news competitors, Fox News commanded nearly 60% of total viewership across both total day and prime time.  Top 5 Shows  The five most popular shows on Fox News during the first month of the year included:   “The Five,” the 5 p.m. roundtable-style discussion show that reached a total audience of 3.7 million people and recorded an average audience of 2.765 million.   “Jesse Watters Primetime,” the 8 p.m. show hosted by Jesse Watters that reached up to 3 million viewers and held an average audience of nearly 2.3 million.  “Gutfeld!” which averaged an audience of 2.1 million while it reached up to 2.7 million people.  “Special Report with Bret Baier,” the popular 6 p.m. nightly news show, which is in constant competition with its broadcast TV rivals. It averaged an audience of 2.024 million and reached up to 2.706 million.  “The Ingraham Angle,” the 7 p.m. show with host Laura Ingraham that reached an audience of upward of 2.5 million in January.   Beating the Competition  Over the past several months, Fox News has challenged broadcast TV news for viewers.  “Special Report with Bret Baier” beat CBS’ evening newscast in 15 major markets, including Chicago, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and Tampa, while also topping ABC’s nightly news show in four markets.  Fox News swept cable news’ top five programs in total viewers, led by “The Five” with 3.7 million viewers. Greg Gutfeld’s late-night program outperformed all broadcast and cable competitors, drawing 2.8 million viewers compared to Stephen Colbert’s 2 million on CBS and Jimmy Fallon’s 1.1 million on ABC.  Morning show “Fox & Friends” maintained its lead for the 59th consecutive month in the key 25-54 demographic, beating “CBS Mornings” in 21 major markets and topping ABC’s “Good Morning America” in 14 markets.  Fox News also dominated weekend programming, with every hour winning in total viewers over CNN and MSNBC by double to triple digits. Fox’s “Sunday Morning Futures” remained the most-watched cable news show of the day, with 1.8 million viewers. The 11 a.m. show that follows, “The Sunday Briefing,” anchored by Peter Doocy and Jacqui Heinrich, earned the No. 2 spot in cable news with an average of 1.7 million viewers.  Fox’s viewership throughout Monday-Sunday prime-time hours was up 11% from December, surpassing CNN by nearly 1.4 million viewers.   The post Fox News Just Beat a Broadcast Giant in TV Ratings appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Columbus, Ohio—Vivek Ramaswamy is on a mission to make Ohio the state everyone is talking about by making it affordable for young people. On Wednesday, the Republican candidate for governor spoke at a Young Republicans meeting where he was joined by Senate President Rob McColley, his lieutenant governor running mate. Affordability is the Name of the Game Ramaswamy’s campaign is focusing on affordability. The entrepreneur stressed to The Daily Signal that he aims to deliver “lower costs, bigger paychecks, and better schools.” He spoke about the future he envisions for Ohio: a state where young people and their children choose to stay. The success that Ramaswamy aims to achieve won’t happen in “some distant future,” he assured. “As soon as we get into office, we’re going to be able to clear the culture of red tape,” he offered. “We’re going to be able to get a lot of the excess government overgrowth out of the way. Make home ownership more affordable, bring down those electric bills, put more money in your pockets, both figuratively and literally.” Ramaswamy also explained how affordability now will be linked to Ohio’s future success. “Under our watch, a new generation of leadership in Ohio will pave the way for the next generation of leaders in Ohio to make our state the top state in the country to raise a young family, to grow your income, to get a job, to become an entrepreneur, to grow a business, and one day to give your own kids a world class education right here in our state,” he enthusiastically told the crowd. It’s Ohio’s Turn Ramaswamy said he wants to make Ohio a model for conservative governance, like Texas and Florida. While he praised those states, Ramaswamy noted it’s time for Ohio to be a model for the nation, one businesses seek out. It’s a plan that Ramaswamy believes young Republicans can help him achieve. As Ramaswamy told attendees, they can be “the generation that leads Ohio to be the state that actually paves the path for our country, not Texas, not Florida.” “What we have going for us is Ohio is actually a far more affordable state to realize the American dream than a lot of where young people have gone in the past,” Ramaswamy told The Daily Signal. “And so we have that going in our favor, but part of my job as governor, Rob [McColley’s] job as lieutenant governor, is to both deliver policies that create incentives for those young people to stay here, but also to do a better job of marketing our state to the rest of the country.” The post EXCLUSIVE: Ramaswamy Will Make Ohio the Model State appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The United States has been suffering from a crisis of the imagination for a long time. When Donald Trump first came on the political scene with the “Make America Great Again” slogan, it looked like he was part of the problem. MAGA was nostalgia bait, but Trump continues to govern with more optimism about the future than most Americans are even comfortable with.  According to Pew data released in December, the American psyche is engrossed in “futurephobia.” When asked which time period they would choose to live in if given the chance, 45% of U.S. adults said they would leap into the past, with 1 in 5 yearning to go back 50 years or more. Meanwhile, 40% would cling to the present and the status quo.  If life were a poker table, almost everyone would check or fold. Only 14% of Americans would take a shot on the future. The skeptics who want to pause or retreat are responding to genuine fear and a sense of loss, whether it’s the decline of community, pessimistic economic prospects, or feelings of obsolescence in the face of artificial intelligence. Trump’s “MAGA” motto intentionally spoke to this malaise while still offering an unapologetic, high-octane kind of optimism embedded in his policy agenda. A key ingredient of Trump’s politics is not apologizing for the past, because most people look back on it fondly, one way or another.  MAGA’s starting point was to appreciate the past and recapture parts of it in the future. That’s the best kind of nostalgia.  In his book “Past Forward,” Clay Routledge argues that nostalgia is “the past isn’t the true destination; it’s just where we go to grab supplies for the trip.” The president’s critics have focused for 10 years now on his ability to signal nostalgia and neglected the part of Trump’s character that is fond of building skyscrapers.  Overly nostalgic people don’t knock down the White House’s East Wing. His administration recognizes that to save the American dream, we have to build new things.  In energy, the administration is embracing the ambitious goal of making America an energy powerhouse. Back in May, the president signed an executive order aiming to quadruple U.S. nuclear capacity to 400 gigawatts by 2050. Meta recently announced a new infrastructure project that would yield 6.6 gigawatts of nuclear energy. Energy Secretary Chris Wright was correct in his response, “It takes a massive amount of electricity to generate intelligence.”  It has allowed for the powering of next-generation technology while simultaneously trying to keep a lid on energy prices for consumers. For the Trump administration, it’s about reinstituting a culture where companies are encouraged to think big again. It has done this by dismantling a litany of regulatory hurdles that have stalled energy infrastructure projects.  It has gone all-in on a high-energy future.  On tech, the precautionary principle, which crept out of Brussels and into the Biden administration, has largely been cast out. There’s less carnal fear over technology. Look at Trump’s announcement of the Genesis Mission for November, which would leverage the power of AI to double research and development productivity over the next decade. That means faster production and lower prices of goods and services for consumers.  If you ever wondered why “flying cars” haven’t happened, look no further than the inflexibility of federal aviation rules. Even here, things are being loosened up. A longstanding federal ban on civilian aircraft exceeding the speed of sound over land was lifted in June, allowing for more supersonic flight. The Federal Aviation Administration has been directed to establish noise-based standards rather than blanket speed limits, which clears the way for potential 90-minute flights between New York and Los Angeles. Still, no Jetsons cars, but this is what it looks like when the government isn’t scared stiff by progress. Unimaginable things can happen in transportation if the government signals an openness to allowing change.  Of course, there’s still the final frontier and the Artemis II mission. The Trump administration is setting hard deadlines for astronauts to return to the moon in 2028. They aim to establish a permanent lunar outpost by the end of the decade, which must be a delight to former presidential candidate and moon base enthusiast Newt Gingrich. Artemis II is in final testing with Feb. 2 as a dress rehearsal for launch, an adventure that offers Americans an opportunity to grow beyond fondness for the past and to get excited about tomorrow.  Fear of the future is natural, but it does not have to be our destiny. MAGA may have started as a nostalgia movement dedicated to remembering why we should be proud of being Americans, but Trump is more focused on the future than any administration in recent history. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.  The post Trump Is Breaking Our National Addiction to Pessimism appeared first on The Daily Signal.

“Dry January” is almost over—the annual reset when people swear off alcohol for a month, whether for health, discipline, curiosity, or recovery.  While some are opting to detox from alcohol during the month of January, something bigger is happening beneath the surface: An entire generation is quietly walking away from alcohol altogether.  A 2025 Gallup poll found that only 50% of young adults ages 18-34 reported they drink—down from 72% two decades prior. And yet, alcohol still sits at the center of modern social life—networking events, happy hours, girls’ nights out, and dating culture. If you don’t drink, you’re expected to explain yourself.  In a culture that normalizes constant consumption, slipping into sipping habitually can be like a frog in slowly boiling water; you don’t notice the danger until alcohol starts stealing your clarity, your relationships, your peace, and eventually your purpose.  Ericka Andersen knows this song and dance all too well. She joins this week’s “Problematic Women” to make the case for sobriety in a culture so hellbent against it.   Andersen, the author of “Freely Sober: Rethinking Alcohol Through the Lens of Faith,” shares the story of her personal relationship with alcohol and how she leaned not only on facts, but also on her faith, to find her way out.  The post Why the Next Generation Is Ditching Alcohol appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Conservatives could look at today’s incredibly fractured media environment and wonder why anyone would need to worry about the elite media, considering their trust numbers are in the basement (except among liberals) and their audiences keep eroding. But just breathe the media air any day, and what we used to call the “dominant media” still dominates in setting the political agenda—in determining what everyone talks about. There was an old maxim that the media can’t tell you what to think, but they’ll tell you what to think about. This again came to mind when MS NOW host Nicolle Wallace interviewed Oliver Darcy, whose current business is energetically trying to reinforce the ideological rigor of the leftist press. Wallace told Darcy, “I still think that story selection is the most power we have, what you decide to shine a light on, especially now in the second Trump term.” Right now, that dominant story is the allegedly heroic resistance in Minneapolis to federal attempts to enforce the immigration laws. The daily narrative is that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are murdering innocent protesters in the streets. It’s not just choosing the subject. It’s the tone and tenor of the coverage. When it’s 93% negative against ICE on the evening newscasts, it’s a combination of time and tone intended to transform public opinion. The media’s pollsters will announce that President Donald Trump’s approval rating on immigration is slipping. They do polls to see if their journalism is having the intended political effect. Trump sent ICE into Minneapolis after it became apparent there was massive welfare fraud, and federal prosecutors convicted dozens of Somalis. That story was not selected for national distribution for months and months, and when it surfaced, they buried it again under the ICE story. Negative angles against the local Democrats—most especially the hot takes of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey—are disparaged. Right after Wallace touted the media’s power of story selection, she also raised the power of language—“maybe the second most important thing, how we talk about them.” Reporters platform Democrats and leftists, blurring the terms of the moment, calling illegal immigrants “our neighbors,” our “immigrant community,” and describing opposition to deportation as “keeping people safe.” Deportation equals “terrorizing” Minneapolis. The elitist media reject the language of Team Trump—calling the protesters “left-wing agitators” and deeming it hate speech. But Walz can call ICE “Trump’s personal Gestapo” and Frey can tell ICE to “get the f— out of Minneapolis,” and that isn’t treated as regrettable or hateful or inaccurate. Instead, TV hosts helped Frey talk about how all the left-wing agitation is “about love.” When you spit in the face of ICE and call them something like “mother-couplers” and kick out their taillights, feel the love. Wallace used her language powers to describe Alex Pretti (who did all these things) as a “nonviolent bystander.” When an ex-Trump aide blamed Walz and Frey for creating the rhetorical environment for shooting deaths, CNN host Jake Tapper accused him of hating the First Amendment: “You have more of a problem with that than you have with people killing American citizens.” That’s using your language aggressively. We know what liberal journalists would like to call this kind of journalism: “shared facts.” As in, conservatives can’t accept facts that everyone should accept, that everyone supposedly used to accept when there was a much weaker conservative media. ICE personnel are Nazis, and their unglued opponents are angelic. Accept it, or you spread “misinformation.” This kind of arrogance still needs to be exposed and resisted. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.  The post The Elitist Media Still Impose a Dominant Partisan Narrative appeared first on The Daily Signal.