Cal Thomas

Plymouth Notch, VT – One hundred years ago on Aug. 2, President Warren Harding died and Calvin Coolidge became America’s 30th president. The contrast between the two men is stark. While Harding was extremely popular with voters, later revelations doomed his presidency to the bottom rungs. Scandals included paying hush money to cover up extramarital affairs (sound familiar?), an out-of-wedlock…

It was in the early ’60s. I was a copy boy at NBC News and the overnight disc jockey for the local radio station called and asked if I’d like to go on a boat ride down the Potomac River with his guest, Tony Bennett. For several hours we cruised past some of Washington’s most famous landmarks. Tony let me take a picture of him, shirtless and with a big smile on his face. He later signed it and…

It began shortly after President Biden’s inauguration. First, there were whispers and what seemed like slander on far-right websites and social media that the president was suffering from cognitive decline. His subsequent slurred speech, his trips and falls, and his confusion even while reading a teleprompter, all have led to denunciations and explanations by the White House press secretary,…

It may not have had the significance of the Emancipation Proclamation, or the civil rights legislation of the 1960s, but last week’s ruling by the Supreme Court that affirmative action in college admissions violates the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause is an important advancement toward equality for all. Reaction to the 6-3 decision has been mostly predictable. Many on the left,…

It is an unfortunate truism of politics that partisans tend to believe the worst about members of the opposite party and no amount of facts — if, indeed, facts can be agreed upon — move people from their entrenched positions. Largely, I think, it’s all about gaining or keeping power and not actually discovering the truth or solving problems.

Many have tried not buying items made in China, but it is a near impossibility. Everything from prescription drugs to you name it seems to originate in a country whose regime is proving to be America’s greatest adversary and growing enemy. Which is why now may be the ideal time for the U.S. to respond to the threat of Chinese expansionism where it hurts the most: China’s economy.

When George W. Bush was running for president in 2000, he spoke to the NAACP’s 91st annual convention where he coined the phrase “the soft bigotry of low expectations.” By that he meant the attitude held by some that if one is Black, it automatically means they should not be expected to achieve much in life because so many start off in circumstances that are difficult, if not impossible, to…

“Where there’s a will, there’s a way” is an old and familiar quotation, often attributed to Albert Einstein, who was on to something almost as significant as E=MC2. What if there is no will, is there still a way? It doesn’t seem likely. In Washington, will has come to die to paraphrase Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida and now Republican presidential candidate. Rarely is anything significant…

That loud clucking sound we are hearing from “sanctuary cities” and other cities run by Democrats is the consequence of lax immigration policies coming home to roost. After declaring with a straight face that the southern border is “secure,” Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas is dispatching civilian employees to the border to help “process” migrants who have been coming in waves…

The very term “debt limit” makes a mockery of any kind of responsible budgeting. Each time the government reaches the “limit” it gets raised with the familiar scenarios that include threats of a government shutdown (an idea that increasingly appeals to some conservatives) and the claim that the “full faith and credit” of the U.S. is at stake. We have faith and credit? Who knew?

PARIS – French President Emmanuel Macron is behaving like many other politicians. Following massive demonstrations against his enactment of a law raising the retirement age in France from 62 to 64, Macron seems to be taking a page from America’s Democratic Party playbook – If you can’t beat them, bribe them. He announced a pay raise for teachers. Despite that, teachers refused a meeting Macron…

Everywhere one looks these days it appears services and products cost more but deliver less than they once did. That seems especially true when it comes to the federal government. President Biden wants to raise taxes again. Unlikely, given the Republican House majority, but this Tax Day offers us our annual opportunity to explore what we are getting in exchange for what we’re paying Washington…

The Biden administration thinks it has found a compromise when it comes to transgender athletes who wish to play on women’s sports teams. New proposed regulations under Title IX, the 50-year-old law passed in 1972 which “prohibits discrimination based on sex in education programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance, will now include partial protection for transgender…

Leaving aside all the sometimes legitimate and sometimes illegitimate responses from defenders of former President Donald Trump following his indictment by a New York grand jury, there is something that would have made all the difference for the 45th president had he focused on it as his top priority, rather than himself. That something is character. Dictionary.com defines the word: “the…