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Seth Leibsohn: Lessons From Our Visitors Jun 17, 2026

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A new poll from NBC reveals another low percentage of Americans who feel proud of their country. One NBC reporter put it that we are seeing “a steady 21st century decline.” The disappointment in these and similar results is exacerbated by the timing of our birthday as a nation, when national affections should be at their height.

If only more Americans would listen to our foreign visitors. Ever since Marquis de Lafayette, many a foreigner has come here to show and remind us of our greatness. In fact, it was another Frenchman—Alexis de Tocqueville—whose two-volume book about us in the 19th Century, still taught today, gave us the best explanation of our politics and our culture.

Now, we’re seeing reminders from soccer fans coming here—with social media posts and titles like, “World Cup fans embrace American culture.”

They’re reminding us not least of Thomas Paine’s words, “What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly.” Let us hope this sinks in. Too many here still have a lot to learn.

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Albert Mohler: Faith, Politics, and a Big Question in Texas Jun 15, 2026

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Just recently, Ken Paxton secured the nomination for the GOP looking to represent Texas in the US Senate. Paxton will be facing a state senator and Presbyterian seminarian James Talarico. The question is, as the New York Times put it, are Texans ready for Talarico's kind of Christianity?

Ruth Graham and David Goodman begin by talking about Talarico's pastor, Jim Rigby at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Austin. The article begins, "Jim Rigby, a pastor who rarely uses the word God, is a key to understanding the Senate candidate trying to pull off something unusual in Texas."

Later, the reporters refer to a sermon where Pastor Rigby refers to "the creative impulse of the universe, which can be called God, but doesn't have to be called God." I do not think that the majority of people in Texas understand the Bible in those terms.

What we're talking about here is light years outside of biblical orthodoxy. So let's ask the question. Is Texas ready for that?

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Ed Morrissey: Finish What We Started in Iran Jun 12, 2026

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The Iranian regime has waged war against the United States for nearly 47 years.

The president clearly thought that we had sufficiently weakened the regime—and he’d be able to strike a deal. Indeed, he spent 60 days trying.

But the shootdown of our Apache helicopter may have changed things.

The Iranian regime has given Trump plenty of reasons to walk away from the negotiating table, starting from the very first hours of the so-called ceasefire in the Persian Gulf. Vahidi violated the agreement from the very start, imposing an extortionate "fee" system for sailing through the international waters of the Strait of Hormuz and firing on commercial vessels that refused to comply.

Trump has invested a lot of his credibility and trust in the IRGC's negotiations. Now, however, Trump sounds as though he suddenly woke up to the Sunk Cost Fallacy, saying they’ve taken too long and “now they will have to pay the price!!!”

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: This war has to be fought to the finish.

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Hugh Hewitt: The Declaration: A Gift That Needs to Be Defended Jun 11, 2026

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The 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence is approaching quickly.

The document—as I often point out to my listeners—is, to quote Abraham Lincoln, an “apple of gold” protected by the “frame of silver” that is the Constitution he borrowed from Psalms there.

All Americans—indeed all the free world—have a lot to celebrate in this our 250th year of independence.

The Declaration asserted the existence of "rights" of individuals that exist before any government — no matter the form of that government— comes into being:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

The great day of the fourth is, from beginning to end, about love of our country because our country defends our individual rights, rights derived—back to the Declaration— from “the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God.”

It is quite a gift that we have been given—a gift that needs to be defended.

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Seth Leibsohn: California Fueling Distrust Jun 10, 2026

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Ronald Reagan used to ask: “if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else?” But to have self-government, we must depend on many things, foremost among them: Trust. Over the past decade, credibility in major institutions has plummeted.

Given the delays and changing results in the recent California elections, we have another exhibit of the growing distrust in our elections. Alleging fraud in seeing Spencer Pratt sink to third place after the now-second place finisher had previously conceded her loss is said to be paranoid. But here comes the New York Times, with a headline: there is “a lack of evidence of any widespread fraud.” The word “widespread” carries a lot of water in suggesting at least some fraud, no?

Voting day needs to be voting day, not month. ID must be required; ballot harvesting, stopped; mailed ballots, postmarked. Nothing could undermine our experiment in self-government more than distrust in the legitimacy of our elections.

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Ed Morrissey: Misfiring on Ceasefires Jun 09, 2026

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Over the past couple of weeks, President Trump has shifted pressure for ending the war from Iran to Israel. He pressed for a ceasefire in Lebanon to incentivize the IRGC to make a deal. Hezbollah refused to comply, continuing to launch missile attacks on Northern Israel. That escalated over the weekend, with Iran launching missiles at Israel and the IDF responding.

Trump insists the attacks are distracting from a deal that—for two months—he’s promised is close to completion. Thus far, though, the IRGC refuses to comply with the terms of the current ceasefire.

Israel has waited for 20 years for Lebanon to disarm Hezbollah and for the terrorist proxy to comply with the ceasefire brokered last year.

Trump’s current pressure strategy is misplaced.

Israel is not an obstacle to peace in the region. Trump needs to apply pressure to the regime in Iran, and to Hezbollah and Hamas as well to comply with the agreements they have already made.

Until they do, what value is there in negotiation?

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Hugh Hewitt: Democrats Go All-In on Platner Jun 08, 2026

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The Maine primary is this Tuesday.

Why is it that Democrats are sticking with their deeply flawed, Nazi-tattoo-wearing Graham Platner?

Drip, drip, drip come the revelations, but Democrats are standing proudly behind the deeply troubled candidate.

On Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was pressed by reporters about his backing of Platner after the latest batch of awful headlines about Platner’s increasingly chaotic campaign.

“I met with Graham Platner today. We will beat Susan Collins and take back the Senate.” Shumer went on to repeat that refrain four more timesbefore ending the interview.

“Sunk costs” have crippled many a business and life decision, and they plague politics too. Sunk costs are expenses or investments that have already been incurred and cannot be recovered. Rational decisions focus on future costs and benefits, not past expenditures. Sunk costs can lead to emotional decisions in business and personal finances. And politics.

Both politically—and morally: Democrats are sinking in Maine.

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Hugh Hewitt: Three Monumental Anniversaries for Our Nation Jun 05, 2026

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The next few months are anniversary-heavy for our nation.

Before the fireworks of the 250th Fourth of July begin, try with family and friends to agree on what we are celebrating. Try as well to articulate how we defend what our country has long been committed to.

We’re also only three months away from the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks by Al Qaeda.

The great and the awful anniversaries are connected by that which the first proclaimed and which the second attempted to end: freedom.

We ought also to spend part of this celebration in reflecting on admiration for the courage of not just those who voted “yes” on the Declaration, but also to who had the courage to actually sign their names to it on August 2, 1776.

This brace of anniversaries should remind every American that ours is a unique and enduring commitment to human liberty.

May we all renew our commitment to the country’s first principles.

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Seth Leibsohn: Cause for Concern as We Approach Our 250th Jun 04, 2026

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As we close in on our nation’s birthday, more and more data give us cause for great concern.

As Abraham Lincoln put it in his time, so too is it true today: “At what point is the approach of danger [to us] to be expected? [I]f it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”

Look around at our civic health just now. Article IV of our Constitution guarantees us a republican form of government—but, in our major states and cities, we now see elected leaders and political candidates from one of our two major parties that embrace both national and democratic socialism, fascism and communism—we see a party fully embracing hatred of free enterprise as much as constitutionalism and Americanism.

And: It all comes with a large dose of antisemitism.

This must be pointed out—and reversed.

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Carol Platt Liebau: America’s 250th: Hard to Get the Party Started Jun 03, 2026

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.America is celebrating its 250th birthday, but it's been hard to get the party started.

Many Americans remember our bicentennial in 1976. It wasn't long after Watergate and the Vietnam War. It was even a presidential election year, but we put all of that on hold to celebrate our great nation.

How long ago that seems. This year, the administration launched a nonpartisan freedom 250 initiative to give America a spectacular birthday party. But left-wing activist targeted artists scheduled to perform at the national concert, leading some to withdraw and turning what should have been a patriotic event into a political fight.

Instead of bringing Americans together, the celebration has become another arena for political conflict. That's unfortunate and revealing. It shows how much work remains to restore unity in our country, pride in our history and confidence in our future.

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