I awoke this morning to two stories in my news feed I feel are pretty strongly related to one another. First was the results of a Pew Research study into public perceptions of the media. According to Pew, far more right-of-center Americans distrust the journalism industry than their left-of-center neighbors: Fresh data affirm a long-running…
Governor Burgum Says He’d Send National Guard Troops to the Border if Asked
One element of the political posturing around the issue of President Donald Trump’s new zero tolerance policy at the southern border, which has resulted in the side effect of separating families in accordance with past court decisions, is that some Governors are withdrawing their state’s National Guard troops from border duty and vowing not to…
For Democrats Bashing Donald Trump Is Apparently More Important Than Their Policy Agenda
In the Washington Post today Marc Thiessen has a column that, while condemning President Trump’s alleged “sh*thole” comments (and acknowledging there is a dispute over whether he said them), rightly points out that Democrats seem to have some really poor priorities. They apparently think scoring petty political points against the President is more important than meaningful…
NDSU Sends Out Email Supporting “Dreamer” Students Impacted by Trump’s DACA Recision
President Donald Trump, who is visiting North Dakota later today to talk about tax reform, announced recently that he would be phasing out the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy implemented by executive order by the Obama administration. If you’re not up to speed on this issue, that policy is a de facto amnesty for illegal…
A small but committed group of protesters at the Des Moines International Airport were among tens of thousands around the country who protested Trump's ban against Muslims and refugees. Flickr
In the Trump Era There’s No Room for the Sane
I wish it were not so, but I’m afraid this weekend is a preview of what American politics will be in the Trump era. There seems little room for rational, reasoned discourse. It’s either Trumpian bombast and bluster on one side or angry, unhinged mobs headlined by ranting celebrities and journalists inclined to prove they…
Taxing Mexican Imports Means American Taxpayers Will Be Paying for the Border Wall
President Donald Trump insists that Mexico will be paying for his proposed border wall between our two countries. Mexico, meanwhile, has pushed back saying they definitely aren’t paying for America’s wall. Yesterday the Trump administration finally floated an idea for how they might get Mexico to pay for the wall despite their unwillingness to do…
James Kerian: Have Courage And Be Kind To Those Concerned About Immigration
Every year around Thanksgiving my liberal friends post to their facebook walls little memes about native Americans building a wall to keep out the pilgrims or otherwise mocking concerns about our porous borders. This has always struck me as a strange historical parallel for the open-borders crowd to draw. It’s not as if things went…
James Kerian: Our Immigration Policies Will Continue To Be Driven By Demographics
Following the recent attacks in Paris western nations are pretending, once again, to have a discussion about how many immigrants they should allow into their country and where they should allow those immigrants to come from. In this pretend discussion one side emphasizes the plight of refugees and the sense of solidarity that we ought…
Matt Evans: The Republican Demographic Apocalypse
Immigrants and immigration have been in the news for a long time, but recently, there has been increased focus, both locally and on the national stage. Locally, we were treated to the controversy around the refugee resettlements happening in the Fargo area, orchestrated by Lutheran Social Services. There was an outpouring of local sentiment ranging…
Heidi Heitkamp's Choice: Honor Campaign Promises Or Continue To Be A Hypocrite
If there was a theme to Senator Heidi Heitkamp’s 2012 campaign to the U.S. Senate (outside of running as far away from Barack Obama as she could) it was the idea that she is a pragmatic leader who would help cut through obstruction to get things done. On her still-active campaign website Heitkamp said there…