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Governance by threat, not constitutional order

The Constitution of the United States lays out a complex scheme of governance that has mostly worked for the 237 years since it became effective with the ratification of the ninth state, New Hampshire, in 1788. There have been exceptions, of course. Abraham Lincoln took extraordinary steps to quell the rebellion of 11 Southern states. Franklin Roosevelt disregarded judicial precedent and daily reset the price of gold by whim. President Donald Trump, in his second term, has been doing something like the same thing by employing threats of actions outside traditional norms to get others ...

Dems’ flaws on display

More than 400 elected Democrat Party officials from all 50 states and seven territories huddled in Minneapolis this week before the horrible mass shooting at nearby Annunciation Catholic Church. The proceedings demonstrated a party in the wilderness, and the Democrats in the national media mostly steered clear. For starters, losing vice-presidential nominee and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was on his usual bender that Kamala Harris “would have been a fantastic president,” and that if she had won, “we would wake up to an adult with compassion and dignity and leadership doing the work, ...

Grit is definitely important, but has it been overrated?

Never, never, never give up. This quote is associated with Winston Churchill, based on his famous speech delivered during World War II. It is often used to inspire people to persevere, to hold the line, to refuse to quit no matter what—in other words, to display grit. It is a great quote. But when I started digging deeper, I found it’s actually a shortened version of what Churchill really said: “Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense.” The complete ...

Doing the impossible

Once again, Donald Trump has done the impossible. He has managed to make John Bolton a sympathetic figure. Bolton, who served as the President’s National Security Advisor during his first term, did not share Trump’s views on foreign policy. Bolton is hawkish, and Trump has problems with that approach to foreign affairs. Indeed, Bolton has never seen a military solution that he disapproved of. Bolton has a long record of militancy, which he has often and loudly expressed. The actions that led to Trump having his house in Bethesda, Maryland, inspected were his sharp criticism of the ...

Are we smart enough to save schools?

These days must be particularly troubling for Dr. Dilly as Superintendent of Randolph County Schools. We learned last week that Randolph County ranks 55th among the 55 counties in West Virginia, and WV has a strong hold on the title for the worst state on several educational ranking systems for the United States. Now the WV Board of Education has issued a state of emergency for Randolph County, and the State will take over the management of our county schools unless our Board of Education has a plan to improve the financial situation by December. The State sent efficiency experts to ...

West Virginia moving to offense in Backyard Brawl

For too long, West Virginia has sat at the bottom of health, education, and economic rankings. Policymakers have spent decades trying to solve these problems, but frustratingly little progress has occurred. Action, not platitudes, is needed for true growth. If we want to truly move the needle, we must stop treating the symptoms and instead focus on the real disease: for too long, our state simply didn’t do enough to create an attractive enough investment and regulatory climate. That’s why I signed an Executive Order establishing an economic Backyard Brawl on my first day in office. ...