Townhall Review | Conservative Commentary On Today's News

Those of us of a certain age will remember America’s 200th birthday well. It was a year-long celebration with pageantry and even commercials celebrating our patriotism everywhere.  Now, months away from the date of our 250th birthday, all seems rather quiet on the Western civilizational front.

Our Founders weren’t so sure we’d last anywhere near this long—and yet, here we are 250 years later.  What changed in the last 50 years?  The media and the academy, both of which have trained millions of pupils and teachers and citizens to view America as a down-market commodity.  History professors literally sneer at efforts to restore and remind about the very field they supposedly care about: teaching American history.  And a great socialist effort to undermine the exceptionalism of America, and pride in it, has taken over an entire political party.

The great Czech writer Milan Kundera, put it that “The first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory.”  And that’s been the progressive effort here.  We must know of it, we cannot let it prevail.

The United States has allies in this battle with Iran, though you’d be hard-pressed to prove it from coverage in mainstream media.

Israel has fought valiantly beside us, absorbing the blows that the enemy wishes it could rain down on our country. We in America ought to at least bring their stories forward.

Israel has been at war with Iran since its proxy Hamas launched the attack on October 7, 2023, and the massacre that followed.

Right now: The American and Israeli militaries are methodically smashing the military that the Iranian radical regime has built up over 47 years. If it was a boxing match, the referee would stop the fight. But it’s a war, and the target list is long and it’s not done.

This battle is the story of this decade, and its outcome one of those very few-and-far between hinge points of history that are obvious as they occur, such as the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Our legacy outlets ought to be telling the story. The whole story.

We learned in recent days that Leo Radvinsky, the owner of the vast website known as OnlyFans, had died at age 43 of cancer.

OnlyFans is one of the most significant purveyors of pornography in all of human history.

Through Radvinsky’s leadership, the site exploded to 377 million users, bringing in more than $7.2 billion in revenue in a single year.

It’s not really possible to comment on this adequately without reference to theological terms: What we see here is the power of sin, the power of human depravity matched with human ingenuity.

The OnlyFans platform was—and it is—a deeply diabolical plan and strategy. And—obviously—at least in financial terms, it works.

But we know: It doesn’t work.

It is sin and depravity and lust coupled with manipulation and oppression and enslavement.

This week’s headlines give us the opportunity to state the truth and to say that what I hope are clear and unequivocal terms.

Some four weeks into the war with Iran, a couple of things have become clear—and both worth highlighting.

First, in undertaking this mission, President Trump fully restored the American deterrent that was forfeited by President Biden’s collapse in Afghanistan. President Trump demonstrated again the remarkable power of the American military and solidified the most important relationship with America’s most important and powerful ally — Israel.

And second, with all that clarity comes one more impossible-to-deny truth: With America involved in a battle with a terrorist regime, Democrats have repeatedly chose in vote after vote to keep the Department of Homeland Security shuttered and unfunded. That is ridiculous and wildly irresponsible.

The spectacle of the Democrats risking America to make talking points for MS-NOW audience should leave an enduring impression: The Republicans are the party of security at home and abroad. Democrats couldn't care less.

The essence of parenthood is the right—indeed, the duty—to raise children according to one’s deepest values. That includes teaching them religion.

In Europe, that right is under attack. Since 2022, the Samson family has been fighting to regain custody of their daughters. The Swedish government took the girls, citing the family’s religious faith. 

The saga began when the oldest daughter, upset about being denied makeup and a smartphone, made a false abuse claim she quickly retracted. The police found no evidence of abuse. But the state took both girls, claiming “religious extremism” because the family attended church three times a week and raised their daughters in a strict religious home.

The girls want to go home but the government plans to put them up for adoption.

It’s a sobering reminder: religious liberty should never be taken for granted. 

.Portland, Oregon has just made itself ground zero for polyamory.

Polyamory is the word that Americans are going to have to recognize more frequently. It refers to different kinds of love, different kinds of relationships. It can refer to same sex or heterosexual relationships. It can be between three, four, five. Well, you count them people.

Portland has just decided to include legal protection for polyamorous relationships and what they call polyamorous families. How's that for an oxymoron? Now, I don’t think there's going to be a mad dash to polyamorous situations in most of the country. I think what you’re seeing here is the deliberate destabilization of marriage itself.

This is part of a bigger strategy of those on the left who want to subvert a biblical view of marriage as central to our own civilizational project. They want to destroy any commitment to marriage as the union of a man and a woman. They want to destabilize the family. They want to do all of this, period. What starts in Portland ... It doesn't stay in Portland.

Suspects charged an alleged ISIS inspired attack near New York City's Gracie Mansion. Deadly Old Dominion University shooting probed as an act of terrorism. Suspect in Michigan synagogue attack had lost family and Israeli strike on Lebanon.

These are just a few of the many headlines and recent stories that ought to have our attention.

A clash of worldviews sometimes comes down to something just this horrifying. The Islamist agenda is so transparent in these stories, we're talking about the now undeniable links to Islamic terrorist organizations clear in these attacks.

And if military intelligence is accurate, we can expect there may very well be more of these coming.

This is not Iran. This is not the Middle East. We're talking about New York City, Virginia, Michigan. You wonder if Americans are even paying any attention to what's going on in our own country.

Writing about our nation’s last greatest Republican president, Ronald Reagan, George Will wrote: “at a turbulent moment…Reagan became the great reassurer, the steadying captain of our clipper ship. He calmed the passengers, and the sea.”  At the rate things are going, President Trump may very well outdo Reagan.

Yes, Reagan ended the “long twilight struggle” against Soviet communism.  The war Iran has waged against us for 47 years has gone on longer than that long struggle. Donald Trump has decided to end that war—decisively.  He’s already taken out the communist dictator of Venezuela, and there is every reason to believe “Cuba Libre” will be more than a chant or a drink but a reality by the end of the year.

Killing off regnant communism in this hemisphere, and the head of the snake of Islamism the world-over, regardless of political considerations here at home, is the kind of thing we used to call heroic statesmanship.  These ambitions and accomplishments have no equal. Trump may well be ushering us to freedom’s finest hour.

In the past two weeks, four terrorist attacks have struck the United States — in Texas, Michigan, Virginia, and New York.  With the war in Iran, Americans have been warned to be vigilant.

So it’s astonishing that Democrats still refuse to fund the Department of Homeland Security. Without funding, airport security is strained, and resources for thousands of federal law enforcement officers, including the U.S. Coast Guard, are cut. This weakens both border and maritime security.

The shutdown is because Democrats want to block support for ICE. But refusing to fund Homeland Security sends a troubling message: that opposing immigration enforcement—and giving Trump a “loss”—matter more than protecting the American people.

Political fights are inevitable, but they shouldn’t come at the expense of Americans’ safety.

Our nation’s security demands seriousness, not partisan posturing.

The United States and Israel are winning this battle with the Islamic Republic of Iran — decisively. Our Gulf allies are standing strong. The cost has already been high. With at least U.S. and IDF forces paying the ultimate price.

But of course, some hard-left partisans hate the prospect of either President Donald Trump or the United States as a whole, winning an important, indeed crucial battle. 

The left in America refuses to come to grips with how evil the Iranian regime is and for how long it has been so. The collapse of moral clarity among American elites on the left is complete.

Democrats are defeated, appeasers, antisemitic in some cases or simply deranged by their hatred of President Trump: You keep speaking up too. We want to hear you say all these crazy things. History will record your positions.

The Republican Party should boldly proclaim that, even after 250 years, our country still knows what’s right from wrong and will defend the right.

Donald Trump has an opportunity to go for the jugular in his war with the Iranian terror regime—and the IRGC has provided a perfect pretext for it now.

During the first phase of the war, both sides kept the oil flowing through the Strait of Hormuz. As Iran’s other deterrents have failed, they have decided to attack shipping in the Persian Gulf to pressure Trump into retreat. A sharp rise in oil prices have panicked the media and some of our allies.

Trump has instead signaled that any further interference will result in either seizure or full-scale demolition of Kharg Island. Iran exports 96% of its oil through this facility, mainly to China and India. It is their only connection to hard currency, and it continues to operate.

Trump reportedly is considering an occupation of Kharg Island, now that the US has decimated its defenses. This would checkmate the regime while preserving the facilities for a successor government in Tehran.

It’s time to go for the jugular.

Americans recently learned that Rama Duwaji, the wife of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, “liked” some vile Instagram posts. Seventy of them. 

One described the New York Times’ reporting on the sexual violence during the October 7 attacks as a “mass rape” hoax the newspaper supposedly “fabricated.” Another accused Israel of a “vile land grab.” Yet another charged Israel with genocide. 

Rather than denying his wife liked the posts, the mayor simply claimed she is a “private person.”

But that’s not true. Rama Duwaji lives in Gracie Mansion at taxpayer expense and accompanies the mayor to ceremonial events. She recently sat for a cover story in “The Cut” – New York Magazine’s fashion and lifestyle site.

When someone in her position applauds the barbarism of October 7, she helps normalize Jew hatred in a way that should repel us all.

President Trump is realigning the global order—and the consequences are massive.

I’m referring most immediately, of course, to the ongoing military action in Iran.

The U.S. and Israel are involve. But the Gulf States are now involved as well—and their increasingly aligned directly with the United States.

Iran is an ally of both Russia and China—part of the BRICS Coalition, started out with Brazil, Russia, India, and China, now been expanded to 10 members. It’s basically an alternative to NATO.

The New York Times ran an article very revealing here’s the headline, “As Trump Out-Putins Putin, Russia’s Global Influence Erodes.”

In the words of the article “Mr. Putin is also grappling with the arrival of a new world of unbridled American power under President Trump, which is checking Russia’s global influence….”

Notice – China’s watching, too.

Trump is realigning the global order and It’s going to be very, very interesting.

School children used to be taught about the dangers of yellow journalism, a practice where the media would falsify stories to inspire support for war, as in “you furnish the pictures, I’ll furnish the war.” Today, the practice is back, stronger than ever—but now it’s on the side against us.

When Ayatollah Khamenei was confirmed dead, the New York Times labeled him “avuncular and magnanimous,” complemented with a story picturing mourning Iranians.  This would be news to the overwhelming majority of Iranians who celebrated the end of their tyrant’s life—a mass murderer of innocents across the globe. 

CNN aired a story on Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon, not once mentioning the precipitating cause: Hezbollah showering rockets into Israel.

Elite outlets also deliberately obfuscated just who threw IEDS into a crowd in New York City this weekend—making it look the real “bad guys” were anti-Islamist protestors when it was, in fact, American Islamists.

If you get your own news from mainstream media, the simple truth is this: you’ll be misinformed and uninformed.

As the world marked International Women’s Day, an international incident reminded us what real repression looks like — and how silent many so-called “feminists” have become.

As their bus left Australia for a flight back to Iran, members of Iran’s women’s soccer team flashed “SOS” hand signals pleading for help. Iranian state media had branded them traitors for refusing to sing the regime’s national anthem before a match.

It’s easy to see why they were afraid to go home. Under Iran’s Islamist theocracy, women possess few rights and defiance carries brutal consequences.

As the Australian government dithered, President Trump urged officials to act and offered asylum in America.

For years, American feminist groups have called the president sexist. Yet when real women risked everything for freedom, he moved quickly to protect them — while the so-called feminists did nothing.

This year marks 25 years since September 11, 2001.

Since then, America has grown older, and soberer.

We’ve learned the hard way that even the world’s greatest military cannot remake the Middle East. After Iraq and Afghanistan, few Americans want another long conflict in a distant land.

But let’s be clear: Iran isn’t some random target. For nearly fifty years, its regime has waged war against us — directly and through terrorist proxies —working constantly to destabilize the region and beyond.

It has taken Americans hostage, pursued nuclear weapons, funded terror groups, aided our enemies, and even plotted to assassinate our president. Reports indicate it was preparing attacks on U.S. interests in the Middle East.

Iran’s evil leaders abused America for decades with impunity. Good riddance.

It’s difficult to escape the conclusion that many Americans hate President Trump so much they’d rather see the butcher Khamenei alive, the Iranian people under his boot and mullahs with a nuclear weapon than see Trump triumph.

This level of “Trump Derangement Syndrome” well, it’s toxic.

Had Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio beaten Clinton and done these same things, Reagan and Bush-era politicos would have cheered. Today’s most adamant Trump haters would have been leading the ovation.

When Obama ordered the mission to kill bin Laden, I don’t recall his critics refusing to credit him. They loved America more than they disliked “44.”

And old guard Republicans who battled FDR throughout the ’30s quickly rallied to his side when Pearl Harbor happened. Country comes or should come before politics.

Perhaps someone will break free of the anti-Trump cult and show the way out.

We are waiting for that first turning from the “TDS” crowd. We may wait a long time.

As we watch the fall of Iran’s hardline Islamist regime, nothing has been more moving than the palpable, heartfelt joy of the country’s women.

They’re dancing in public. Singing. Throwing off the hijabs that have been forced on them for decades by a theocratic dictatorship.

America acted to protect our own citizens and interests. But it’s also glorious to witness the unfolding liberation of a people who’ve endured such systematic humiliation and repression.

Self-described American feminists should look deep into their own souls. For years, they’ve invoked “The Handmaids Tale.” Yet when confronted with real women living under genuine, brutal subjugation, they’re silent, or even—like Kamala Harris—opposed to the action that is freeing them. 

That’s not solidarity. It’s selective outrage. May the women of Iran women secure the freedom so long denied them.

The world order can be reshaped in just a matter of hours—or even just minutes.

Just as Iranians were starting their new work week on Saturday, leaders in Israel and the United States launched an attack. By the end of the day, the second supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei was dead.

For more than four decades Iran has been the main source of state-sponsored terror. It also sought to attain nuclear weapons.

President Trump ordered direct bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites just last year, but the regime resisted any agreement that would prevent the development of weapons grade materials. By Saturday the gig was up. Israel was not going to stand by as Iran gained nuclear capacity, and neither was the United States.

President Trump has called to the people of Iran to seize political control, but the future is by no means clear.

Pray that the right leadership emerges to point the Iranian people through the right door.

As President Trump said on Saturday to the Iranian people: “This is the moment for action. Do not let it pass.”

Senator Mark Kelly and five other Democratic lawmakers—all former military —recently released a video urging U.S. troops to disobey orders from their new commander-in-chief, President Trump, if those orders “appear unlawful.”

This amounted to a direct assault on the chain of command.

And then: Trump announced all executive actions, pardons, and orders signed by Joe Biden’s autopen were null and void. It lands like a counterpunch in the broader fight inside the government over who actually wields authority.

It’s not just coincidence.

The Seditious Six exposed the extent to which entrenched bureaucrats and their allies are willing to undermine a duly elected president. The autopen enabled unelected staffers to mimic Biden’s signature and push through actions without accountability.

By wiping that autopen slate clean, Trump is signaling that the shadow-government games are over.

If this strategy succeeds, it could restore the people's mandate.

President Trump and Pete Hegseth are ready for this fight.

Let’s hope Pam Bondi is, too.