Commentary: The Debate Americans Are Not Having

Voting Line

Tonight, the presidential candidates will have their first debate. But there is one critical election issue the American people are not debating at all. They agree that non-U.S. citizens should not vote in U.S. elections.

This is a convenient opinion for Americans to hold as it is also the law.

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Commentary: Gen Z Is More Religious than You Think

Rosary

Many Americans believe our world’s becoming more secular. While that’s true, many of today’s fastest-growing religious denominations aren’t progressive—they’re traditional. Here’s what the data show.

In the 1990s, 90 percent of Americans identified as Christians on Pew surveys. Today, that number has fallen to about 67 percent. Among young adults, over 40 percent are religiously unaffiliated.

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Commentary: An Ancient Faith Grows in Modern Times

Eastern Orthodox Mass

As a journalist, it’s easy to turn around copy on any of the public policy and political debates of the day, but I struggle to write about religious issues in a meaningful way. My American Spectator columns detail the usual insanity in the California Capitol and Washington, DC, but what can I say about matters of faith, where my usual tool — reason — isn’t entirely useful?

I grew up Jewish, the son of a Nazi Holocaust survivor. Our religion was important, but I was raised in a secular home where religious observance didn’t reflect any deep expression of faith. That led me on a journey to try to make sense of this inexplicable world.

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Commentary: Forced Abortion Is Part of Dark World of Surrogacy

Brittney Pearson was a mother of four and 24 weeks pregnant when she was diagnosed with breast cancer—a tragic enough situation. To make a bad situation worse, though, the Sacramento native was pregnant as a surrogate mother for a gay couple.

Upon being informed of the cancer diagnosis, the two men demanded that Pearson abort the child.

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Majority of Americans Would Not Advise Family Members to Join Military, Poll Finds

Boot Camp

The majority of Americans would not advise their family members to join the military, according to a Defense Priorities/YouGov poll released on Thursday.

Only 37% of respondents would encourage their family to serve in the military, while 63% would not, according to the poll. Several branches of the military have been plagued with recruiting and retention problems in recent years as the Pentagon continues to look for solutions.

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Half of Americans View Large-Scale Migration to Be a ‘Critical Threat,’ Majority Want More Wall: Poll

Border Wall

Half of Americans believe a large number of migrants entering the country poses a “critical threat” to the interests of the United States, and a majority favor expanding the U.S.-Mexico border wall, a Chicago Council survey found.

Fifty percent of Americans view large numbers of migrants and refugees entering the U.S. to be a “critical threat” to the nation, a survey released Friday by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs found. The poll additionally found wide support for a border wall and the use of U.S. troops to stem illegal immigration.

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Study: After COVID Pandemic, Only 40 Percent of Americans Now Say They Trust Doctors

A stunning 50-state survey of U.S. adults has found that trust in physicians and hospitals collapsed during the COVID-19 pandemic, going from from 71.5 percent in April 2020 to 40.1 percent in January 2024.

Roy H. Perlis, MD, MS, Katherine Ognyanova PhD, and Ata Uslu, MS, researchers from the Center for Quantitative Health, Massachusetts General Hospital, Rutgers University, and Northeastern University, surveyed 443 455 individuals in every sociodemographic group aged 18 years or older residing in the US.

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Few Americans Trust the Secret Service to Protect Presidential Candidates After Trump Shooting: Poll

Secret Service Members

Few Americans trust the United States Secret Service to keep presidential candidates safe before the November election, according to a Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll released Friday.

Only about three out of ten Americans say they are “extremely” or “very confident” that “the Secret Service can keep presidential candidates safe from violence before the election,” according to the AP-NORC poll. U.S Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle resigned from her position on July 23 following an evasive testimony before Congress about the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania.

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National Study Finds Giving Americans $1,000 per Month Results in Less Productivity

People Getting Money

Giving Americans $1,000 per month in taxpayer-funded guaranteed income makes them worse off, says a new three-year, 3000-participant study. The National Bureau of Economic Research’s massive study found recipients and their partners work and earn less, with the negative effect on wages and earnings getting worse over time.

While proponents of universal basic income theorized such programs would improve non-economic metrics for recipients, the study surprisingly showed leisure time only increased as recipients spent less time on sleeping, child care, community engagement, caring for others, and self improvement. Transfers also reduced recipients’ non-transfer incomes significantly, with the study finding “for every one dollar received, total household income excluding the transfers fell by at least 21 cents, and total individual income fell by at least 12 cents.”

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