David French in David French columns
On Abortion:
A child conceived in rape or incest is every bit as human
It is extraordinarily disappointing to see Representative Renee Ellmers slamming pro-life groups as "childish" for insisting on a rape-reporting requirement in the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. The reporting requirement was reasonable,
defensible, and right.Representative Ellmers (and her sympathizers in the House GOP) fail to understand how much pro-life groups are compromising to support bills with rape/incest exceptions to abortion bans.
A child conceived in rape or incest is every bit as human, every bit as innocent, and every bit as capable of feeling pain when dismembered as a child conceived in different circumstances. Pro-life groups typically support bills with rape/incest
exceptions not because they believe children of rape or incest are any less human but because they understand current political reality--that it's better to save some lives when pushing for purity could result in saving none.
Source: David French column on ACLJ.org, "Late term abortions"
Feb 1, 2015
On War & Peace:
Stop responding to Iranian nukes with fear and timidity
One of the most puzzling aspects of America's relationship with Iran is the reality that--by rhetoric and conduct--the United States acts as if it fears Iran, while Iran behaves as if it has nothing to fear from the US. Iran commits repeated acts of war
against the US, unlawfully holds our citizens and violates their human rights, wages proxy wars against us, and vows to destroy our close ally Israel. Yet we constantly respond to these provocations--if we respond at all--with fear and timidity, as if
Iran is the greater power.In the real world, we have the power to end their nuclear program at any time. In the real world, we have the power to collapse their economy without war. In the real world, Iran has by far the most to lose in any
pre-nuclear confrontation. But that calculus changes if and when Iran gets the bomb. It would immediately present a true existential threat to Israel and the US.
The United States is the superpower in this confrontation. It's time we acted like it.
Source: David French column on ACLJ.org, "We're a superpower"
Mar 1, 2015
On Abortion:
Denounce Planned Parenthood as largest abortion provider
What about the areas where Trump fans argue that he'd clearly be better than Clinton? On abortion, we know what she'd do--protect Planned Parenthood, and appoint the standard-issue leftist legal technocrats to the bench. How much better would Trump be?
It's impossible to know if his recent pro-life conversion is genuine, but it can't be a good sign that he still refuses to denounce Planned Parenthood, consistently using Democratic talking points to praise the nation's largest abortion provider.
Source: David French column in National Review, "Trump & Hillary"
Mar 29, 2015
On Free Trade:
Punitive tariffs increase prices & trigger trade wars
On trade, Clinton will almost certainly be superior to Trump. Trump pledges to "win" through punitive tariffs that would increase the price of consumer goods and trigger trade wars, but he gives little indication that he
understands the economics of trade, the reality of the American economy, or even the truth about American manufacturing.
(It is not, in fact, disappearing.) Clinton, by contrast, would probably maintain the trade-policy status quo, and while that status quo creates winners and losers--as any status quo would--
free trade has long been an overall positive for American families.
Source: David French column in National Review, "Trump & Hillary"
Mar 29, 2015
On Health Care:
Don't trust those who praise single-payer health care
Yes, Trump has praised single-payer health care during this election, but trust him. He'll do better than Obamacare. Yes, Trump has advocated touchback amnesty and increased legal immigration, but trust him. He'll protect American workers.
Yes, Trump has supported abortion-on-demand and gun control, but trust him. He's changed. Yes, Trump has written large checks to leftist politicians, but trust him. He'll fight them as president. He'll appoint good people.
Source: David French column in National Review, "Trump & Hillary"
Mar 29, 2015
On Immigration:
No path to citizenship, no touchback-amnesty
What about the areas where Trump fans argue that he'd clearly be better than Clinton? On immigration, we know what she'd do--try to enact a path to citizenship, and appoint the standard-issue leftist legal technocrats to the bench.
How much better would Trump be? On immigration--aside from that big, beautiful wall, which is a pipe dream at best--he's all over the place.
And his corporate record indicates that he's exactly the kind of "jobs Americans won't do" legal-immigration and touchback-amnesty advocate [requiring that illegals return home
but then immediately re-apply for a legal visa] who would be all too willing to open the door so wide that no one would have to scale the wall.
Source: David French column in National Review, "Trump & Hillary"
Mar 29, 2015
On Tax Reform:
Increasing taxes or increasing debt are both miserable
The Clinton and Trump tax plans are both miserable. Clinton offers the standard Democratic package of tax increases for the rich and vastly increased spending, while Trump's tax cuts would blast a hole in the budget, adding as much debt as Obama did--
without the burden of a historic recession. Clinton's plan would probably slow economic growth, but would be closer to revenue-neutral. Trump's plan would spur more growth but would also increase the national debt by up to $10 trillion. Pick your poison.
Source: David French column in National Review, "Trump & Hillary"
Mar 29, 2015
On Environment:
Junk science underpins environmentalist scare-mongering
My colleagues and I at ACLJ represented Dr. James Enstrom in his successful settlement of his lawsuit against UCLA. Long a dissenter against environmentalist scare-mongering, Dr. Enstrom sued UCLA officials after they fired him shortly after
Dr. Enstrom discovered that new California regulations of diesel emissions were based on junk science advanced by a scientist with a fraudulent degree--a doctorate purchased from the fictional "Thornhill University."
The public should be suspicious of arguments based largely on appeal to "consensus" or the "mainstream." Consensus is all-too-often created through censorship, suppression, greed, and opportunism. Willful blindness to dissent is common in the academy,
and scientists can be just as susceptible as the most ideological professors.
After all, science that doesn't consider dissenting views--that doesn't even bother to familiarize itself with contrary research--isn't science. It's groupthink.
Source: David French column on ACLJ.org, "Scientific consensus"
Apr 1, 2015
On Foreign Policy:
ICC should focus on Hamas war crimes, not Israel in Gaza
The International Criminal Court "welcomed" Palestine as a "State Party." Most of the coverage focused on the implications for Israel, as the PA has declared its intentions to file complaints against Israel for its conduct in the 2014 Gaza conflict.
A non-ideological ICC would laugh these claims out of court on a number of grounds--including that Israel goes far beyond the historic requirements of the Law of Armed Conflict in its concern for minimizing civilian casualties and because it has its
own robust means of investigating and punishing alleged war crimes. A non-ideological ICC would focus on Hamas's consistent intentional war crimes, including deliberately targeting civilians, its use of civilians and civilian buildings to shield its
own military activities, and its refusal to fight in uniforms or other distinctive insignia to help distinguish between combatants and non-combatants. The list could go on. For Hamas, war crimes represent the totality of their military strategy.
Source: David French column on ACLJ.org, "War criminals"
Apr 1, 2015
On Gun Control:
Second Amendment is an individual, not a collective, right
Progressives like to insist that the Second Amendment protects a collective, rather than an individual, right to "keep and bear arms." Or, put another way, they say that the only right Americans have to the ownership of lethal weaponry exists within the
context of state-sanctioned military service.In 2008, the Supreme Court decided the landmark case of District of Columbia v. Heller, ruling--by a bare 5-4 majority--that this relatively recent view is incorrect.
The Second Amendment, the majority concluded, protects the rights of the individual.
Naturally, neither the Constitution nor the Bill of Rights spells out every individual liberty. But, in the face of pressure from those who were skeptical of
the new government, a few core rights were given special protections to which the people might appeal if the government attempted to take them away, including the Second Amendment.
Source: David French column in National Review, "Second amendment"
Apr 13, 2015
On Civil Rights:
When identity politics rule, racism and polarization thrive
I can't recall the first time I heard the phrase "white male" hissed as if it were some form of particularly vile insult. I know it happened in law school, where it was used as a short-hand way of saying that I should be silent, that my views were not
welcome. For those soaked in progressive identity politics, skin color was a stand-in for virtue. It was impossible for a black person to be racist; it was impossible for a white person not to be.When identity politics rule, racism and polarization
thrive. It is no coincidence that we are seeing a resurgence in outright white nationalism--embodied in the so-called alt-right--at the same time that America's leftist cultural elite are decisively rejecting Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream that
Americans be judged by the "content of their character" and not the color of their skin. When one side decides that skin color is a virtue, then--as sure as the sun rises in the east--the other side will eagerly agree.
Source: David French column in National Review, "Identity politics"
May 18, 2015
On Immigration:
Executive amnesty illegally let in 100,000 immigrants
A federal district judge blasted Department of Justice officials for misleading the court during the course of executive amnesty litigation, [writing in the court opinion] "this Court and opposing counsel were misled on multiple occasions[regarding]
Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) program and amending the DACA program."In other words, the Obama administration launched its executive amnesty program behind the court's back, and lied about it--
ultimately granting lawful residence to more than 100,000 illegal immigrants until the court halted the program with an injunction. The Obama administration circumvented Congress by attempting mass-scale executive amnesty via memorandum, then its
lawyers attempted to circumvent judicial accountability by lying to a federal judge. And through it all, the administration and its defenders are unashamed--because, after all, when it comes to matters of social justice, the ends justify the means.
Source: David French column in National Review, "Executive amnesty"
May 19, 2015
On Crime:
Don't prosecute police for wrongful arrests; intent matters
If anyone doubted whether it was reasonable for police officers to feel a "chill wind" blowing against law enforcement, they had only to look at the prosecution in Freddie Gray's death. The charges against five police officers sounded impressive--accused
of 2nd-degree assault and reckless endangerment--but those charges were dangerous. Prosecutors claimed that arresting officers had a "right to stop" Gray--but that they did not have grounds to handcuff him, place him prone on the ground, and search him.
Baltimore veered dangerously close to essentially arguing that there are only two kinds of stops: lawful arrests and assaults. That's not to say that arrests should be a zone of immunity for police, but rather that intent matters. Police officers
chase fleeing suspects all the time, and if they can go to prison for chasing a man, searching him, handcuffing him, and arresting him after finding what seemed to be an illegal knife, that "chill wind" they feel will become a lot chillier.
Source: David French column in National Review, "Freddie Gray"
May 23, 2015
On Civil Rights:
Don't treat "gender identity" as a protected class
The legal counterattack against the Obama administration's latest round of lawlessness is now under way. The administration directed publicly-funded colleges and schools to treat "gender identity" as a protected class under Title IX. Congress has never
expanded Title IX or Title VII to include sexual orientation or gender identity as additional protected classes. Indeed, it has explicitly declined to do so. Moreover, the drafters of Title IX specifically and unequivocally indicated that it was
not intended to prohibit schools and colleges from maintaining sex-segregated bathrooms and living facilities. Rather than persuading Congress and the American people that legal change was necessary, the administration attempted to circumvent
constitutional process by executive fiat--without even bothering to go through the formality of a public notice-and-comment process. It just declared the change, and now seeks to enforce the change.
Source: David French column in National Review, "Transgender"
May 25, 2015
On Homeland Security:
Lionize the valor of every life given honorably in service
The bravery of soldiers sustains the whole nation. Few holidays illustrate America's civilian/military divide quite like Memorial Day. For millions of Americans, Memorial Day marks the beginning of summer. For a smaller population, however, Memorial
Day reminds you of days of grief and pain.Some of the greatest moments in American military history have occurred when members of the most powerful military in the world found themselves in hopeless circumstances, surrounded and cut off.
We rightly lionize that valor, and it inspires present and future generations to live up to that legacy. That bond of shared sacrifice, of the willingness to die for your brother, sustains our nation and our culture. That's not to say
that there shouldn't be accountability for errors--that politicians and generals shouldn't pay a high price for their failures--but rather to note that every life given honorably in service to our nation leaves behind an enduring and powerful legacy.
Source: David French column in National Review, "Memorial Day"
May 30, 2015
Page last updated: Jun 13, 2016