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-Eddie Damstra | Thursday, September 27, 2018
This Tuesday, I had the opportunity to hear a lecture given by Dr. Arthur Brooks. Brooks is the president of the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, and a columnist for The New York Times. While I felt the entirety of the lecture was impressive and insightful, Brooks’ discussion of polarization and contempt particularly
Eddie Damstra | Monday, September 24, 2018
According to some political pundits, comedians and many people on Twitter, Donald Trump is not simply a bad president; he is an authoritarian fascist. Some have even likened the president to Adolf Hitler, arguing that policies like the travel ban or those dealing with border enforcement are not too dissimilar from the oppression carried out
Eddie Damstra | Thursday, September 13, 2018
Outside of freedom of religion, there may be no right or political principle more central to the identity of America than that of freedom of speech. The recognition of one’s right to freedom of speech has conventionally been viewed as an ideal that unites Americans. Unfortunately, I believe this is changing. It seems that freedom
Eddie Damstra | Thursday, April 19, 2018
A couple of weeks ago, a piece entitled “Pro-Life movement: Where were you?” was published in The Observer. Throughout the letter, the author argued that the Right to Life group on campus should have organized a cohort to attend the March for Our Lives, which took place in major cities to protest the current status
Eddie Damstra | Thursday, April 5, 2018
Recently, controversy has surrounded the reboot of the famous television show “Roseanne.” In the revived season of “Roseanne,” the main character, Roseanne Conner, is a supporter of President Trump. Some writers and viewers of the show found this troubling. Some people seemed to suggest that watching the show would be tacitly supporting Donald Trump and thus have
Eddie Damstra | Thursday, March 22, 2018
In addition to a conservative advantage on the Supreme Court, the presidency, both houses of Congress, a majority of governorships and a majority of state legislatures are controlled by the Republican Party. Given the sheer number of Republican office-holders across the country, one would expect Republicans to feel confident in the security of their power
Eddie Damstra | Thursday, March 1, 2018
Relative to the rest of the industrialized world, the United States is a rather violent place. The Stoneman Douglas High School shooting was yet another example of this incredibly sad reality. Both mass shootings and gang violence are far too common in the United States. The explanation for these high rates of violence is multi-faceted
Eddie Damstra | Thursday, February 15, 2018
Donald Trump has been the president of the United States for over one year now. And contrary to what many alarmists predicted, our republic is not destroyed and the world is not ending. Freedom and equality are just as preserved today as they were in past administrations. Stock prices experienced a brief drop recently, but,
Eddie Damstra | Thursday, February 1, 2018
Earlier this week, a bill aimed at banning abortions after 20 weeks was struck down in the Senate. All but three Democrats voted against the bill, preventing any hope for passage of the legislation in the Senate. The bill, titled the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, was drafted with the goal of outlawing the abortion
Eddie Damstra | Thursday, December 7, 2017
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard arguments in the controversial case of Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. The case will determine whether a bakery owner has the right to refuse to provide a wedding cake to a gay couple. This case will result in one of the most important Supreme Court decisions in