A basic grounding in events is vital if young people are to realise the power and privilege of the ballot box
I was heartened and terrified to read David Mitchell’s article (“Here’s a shock, gen Z: democracy isn’t perfect
”, New Review). What made his article resonate particularly was the sentence, “Did nobody tell them about Stalin?”
As a history A-level student, it serves as a reminder of one of the many reasons I chose to study it: having even a vague awareness of the past horrors of authoritarianism can help fight its present stirrings.
Dear Eric: I have known “Mary” for almost 10 years. We have a strictly business/professional relationship which requires us to meet several times a year.
Although we don’t socialize, we do joke around and have small talk about family, pets, travel, movies, etc., when we meet. We’ve always gotten along well.
I know that Mary is gay (she has told me this). Based on our conversations, Mary has identified as female, although her physical appearance and clothing do not pin her to a specific gender.
At some point during the two months that I didn’t see Mary, she grew a thick beard that completely covers her chin. When I saw the drastic and sudden (at least to me) change in her appearance, neither of us said anything about it. We just talked as if nothing had changed.
I believe that Mary has the right to present herself as she chooses, and I am not at all uncomfortable with her having a beard. But I feel awkward pretending it’s not there. My question is whether I should acknowledge the change in her appearance, and if so, what is the appropriate thing to say. I don’t want to offend her by saying or by not saying something. If you think I should just ignore it, then I’m sure I can get past the awkwardness.
– Beard Etiquette
Dear Etiquette: Because this is a strictly business relationship and because Mary hasn’t mentioned it, ignoring the beard as you would another colleague’s change in appearance is the best bet here.
As you note, there’s nothing wrong with the beard. There are times, in professional settings, when a compliment on it might work out. But, in general, at work it’s best for everyone to keep small talk out of the realm of physical appearance.
Dear Eric: My father and stepmother, who are in their mid 80s and in good health, live an hour away from us. My wife and I have had a good relationship with them for more than 40 years and we talk by phone at least once a week. We’ve always made it a point to include them in our family gatherings so that they could see their grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
I’m usually the one who initiates us getting together for lunch somewhere near them. My stepmother’s children live close by and stop by their house often. Recently, I invited them twice to come to our home when our kids and grandkids were here and both times they declined stating, “We have too much going on.”
If one of them has an appointment, then the day before and after is off limits for a visit. We missed getting together with them during the holidays because we were out of town. However, when we returned, I mentioned getting together three times and my dad responded that he didn’t know his schedule and would get back to me.
I’m really confused and hurt about what has happened. On the phone he’s very friendly and acts like nothing is wrong. My stepmother tells my wife that she loves her at the end of every call. We haven’t seen each other in six months. I’ve stopped asking him about getting together because it obviously isn’t important to him anymore.
– Confused Son
Dear Son: Your father and stepmother may have less capacity for making and following through on plans than they once did. Even though they’re in good health, the rhythms of their lives continue to change. Try to set aside your emotions by thinking of this as a logistical challenge, rather than an intentional slight.
They’ve communicated part of this by setting the boundary around appointment days, for instance. It may just take a lot out of them. So, it’s not a case of them choosing their appointments over you, but rather them negotiating the new realities of their lives.
Take the evidence of their love at face value.
You can make this easier on them and on yourselves by adjusting your expectations. Take the example of your stepmother’s children. Though it’s more convenient for them to stop by because they live closer, it’s also probably more helpful for your father and stepmother to have a more flexible visiting cadence that doesn’t require as much planning.
You may need to literally and figuratively start going the extra mile to make sure your father and stepmother are getting what they (and you) need. Test it out with a casual trip. “I’ll be in the area today in about a half an hour. Mind if I swing by?” But also listen to the response and be prepared to keep adjusting until it feels right all around. Maybe they need less notice, maybe more. Grant them some grace here and remember that the goal here is meeting the ones you love where they are.
(Send questions to R. Eric Thomas at eric@askingeric.com or P.O. Box 22474, Philadelphia, PA 19110. Follow him on Instagram and sign up for his weekly newsletter at rericthomas.com.)
SWANNANOA, NORTH CAROLINA—Four months after Hurricane Helene devastated western North Carolina, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem
says the federal government will continue to provide support but also needs to get “out of the way” of recovery efforts and cut much of the red tape involved in getting assistance.
“I think that the federal government would do a much better job, much like [President Donald Trump] does, if we got out of the way,” Noem said to Wanda Harvey and her mother as they spoke outside what used to be the Harvey’s home in Swannanoa, 10 miles east of Asheville, on Saturday.
Noem was in western North Carolina to see the progress of the recovery efforts and the damage that still remained from Helene.
Rev. Franklin Graham, president of the Christian humanitarian aid organization Samaritan’s Purse
stood beside the secretary as she spoke with Harvey. Samaritan’s Purse continues to provide help and assistance to hurricane victims in the region.
DHS Secretary Noem is in Asheville today meeting with hurricane Helene victims alongside Franklin Graham. pic.twitter.com/99r68Ni9Tw
Standing on the cement slab by the little single-story house that was flooded during the September hurricane
, Harvey told Noem that dealing with the paperwork after the hurricane was a “nightmare”— a common refrain that Noem told press she heard from multiple hurricane victims during her visit Saturday.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency “can often be slow and confusing and a lot of paperwork,” Noem said, pledging, “We’re going to fix that.”
The response structure to natural disasters includes state and federal resources, but begins with local officials, the secretary said. “They know their communities, they know the help that is necessary.”
Noem visited one such effort—The Blessing Project,
a small nonprofit that is providing food, clothing, furniture, and other necessities to hurricane victims in Buncombe County.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem tours The Blessing Barn, a resource center for hurricane victims in Swannanoa, North Carolina, on Feb. 8, 2025. (Virginia Allen/The Daily Signal)
The secretary spoke with a young family at The Blessing Barn, a resource center of The Blessing Project, who lost almost everything in the hurricane. Mere feet away, the Army Corps of Engineers worked heavy machinery to pull out debris that had been swept into the river during the hurricane
.
After one of the equipment operators pulled a load of logs, sticks, and other debris from the river, Noem donned a vest and hardhat and hopped into the machine with him as he explained how it worked. A former rancher, Noem appeared quite at ease in the large machine.
Cameron Hamilton, FEMA’s acting administrator, accompanied Noem on her visit to western North Carolina and told the media that FEMA is “dissecting every avenue to ensure that the response” to disasters is “faster [and] more efficient” than it has been.
Under the Trump administration, FEMA “is taking a new approach on ensuring that everything we do comes from the survivor perspective,” Hamilton said. “Everything and every effort that we engage in has to have that focus at the forefront.”
FEMA, an agency
within the Department of Homeland Security, received intense criticism for its response to Hurricane Helene, including for at least one report that FEMA workers were directed by a supervisor to avoid homes with political signs supporting Trump.
“I promise you one thing,” Noem said, “President Trump
has committed, and I’m committed with him, to bringing FEMA into the 21st century, to becoming a people’s agency.”
On Jan. 24, Trump signed an executive order establishing the Federal Emergency Management Agency Review Council to review FEMA’s effectiveness in responding to natural disasters and to recommend needed changes to the agency.
Trump wants to “streamline” the work of FEMA, Noem told the press. “He wants it to be much less bureaucratic,” adding that Trump has made comments that he might even discontinue the agency and instead have “a process where the federal government sends block grants, or sends the dollars, to the state or to the local communities, and they decide how it’s spent so that the federal government can get out of the way of picking and choosing winners and losers and how those processes go.”
“We’ve always found a lot of times government is not the best solution,” the secretary said, noting that victims of disasters like Hurricane Helene require help and “the federal government should help, but it shouldn’t get in the way and slow that help down.”
The future of FEMA may include “eliminating a lot of what FEMA is at the federal level and giving the authority, the dollars, and the money to the states so that they can deploy that,” the secretary said.
Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer, a Democrat, gave brief remarks to the media and thanked Noem and Hamilton for their visit.
“It means a lot to us that even as we see an administration change, we’ve already had a visit from our new president here,” Manheimer said, “and that we already have leadership on the ground to be able to see what we’re working with and how our community’s coming together.”
The Nation’s Report Card
recently went public. It’s the kind of thing that kids hide from their parents.
The National Assessment of Educational
Progress offers a grim view of America’s classrooms. Between 2022 and 2024, the share of fourth graders reading below basic level
grew from 37% to 40%; among eighth graders, from 30% to 33%. Fourth grade math improved slightly, from 25% to 24% (i.e., fewer students below basic). Alas, below-basic eighth grade math performance crept up from 38% of students to 39%.
These figures are all worse than before COVID-19
ruined everything.
“I don’t know how many different ways you can say these results are bad, but they’re bad,” University of Washington researcher Dan Goldhaber told The Washington Post. “I don’t think this is the canary in the coal mine. This is a flock of dead birds
in the coal mine.”
For a close look at this educational carnage, consider Baltimore and Chicago
, two cities where school dysfunction merits serious prison time for the adults who perpetrate institutional child abuse against their students.
As of September 2023, 13 of 32 Baltimore high schools had zero students who were proficient in math, according to Maryland’s
state exam.
To be clear: It’s not that less than 1% were proficient. Far worse: Not one individual student—not one teenage male, nor one teenage female—could compute at grade level in 13—or 40%—of Baltimore’s high schools. “The results are hard to believe,” wrote Chris Papst of WBFF-TV, Baltimore’s Fox affiliate.
“This is educational homicide
,” Jason Rodriguez, deputy director of People Empowered by the Struggle, told Papst. “We have a system that’s just running rogue, and it starts at the top.”
Since 2021, Rodriguez’s group has demanded the resignation of Baltimore City Public Schools CEO Sonja Santelises over pathetic test scores, dismal graduation rates, and limited transparency. Rather than quit, Santelises recently extended her contract through the end of the 2025-26 school year.
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
“We acknowledge that some of our high school students continue to experience challenges in math following the pandemic,” Baltimore City Public Schools said in a statement to WBFF. However, in 2017, Project Baltimore also found that 13 local high schools had zero math-proficient students. Many of the same campuses were in the 2017 and 2023 Halls of Shame. So, don’t blame COVID-19 for this catastrophe.
It’s not about money, either. “We’re getting plenty of funding,” said Rodriguez. In 2022, Baltimore’s schools scored a record $1.6 billion in taxpayer funds and $799 million in federal COVID-19 relief.
Meanwhile, money is the least of Chicago Public Schools’ worries.
As Wirepoints
, a local think tank, observed, per-student spending rose from $15,822 in 2017 to $29,169 in 2024—up 84.35%. Chicago’s parents are paying more. But remember: They are getting less.
Through those years, black students’ SAT reading proficiency slid from 18% to 12%—down 33.3%. For reading: 12% to 7%—down 41.7%.
When I discussed all of this last week before the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Law School’s Federalist Society, left-wing students pinned the tail on alleged right-wing white racists
.
Nice try!
Baltimore and Chicago have been run by Democrats for decades.
Thomas McKeldin, Baltimore’s last Republican mayor, was elected in 1963. He left office in 1967
—58 years ago. William H. Thompson was the last GOP mayor of Chicago. He arrived in 1927 and was gone in 1931
. Democrat mayors have ruled the Windy City for 94 years.
Democrats dominate school boards, and the teachers unions have maintained their kung fu grip on these and most cities, since at least the 1980s.
Blaming “whitey” won’t work, either. Since 2007, Baltimore’s last five chief executives
have been black. Chicago’s current mayor, Brandon Johnson
, is black. So was his predecessor, Lori Lightfoot.
The Left’s tired, typical excuses will not work.
These national outrages spring from left-wing, black Democrats’ disastrous policies. Black students suffer in Baltimore, Chicago, and other Democrat-run cities across America. Their minds are being crushed in schools whose administrators care less about them and more about themselves, their salaries, and their pensions.
Atop this stinking pile sit black liberal Democrats who betray their own people while pointing fingers everywhere, starting with the shopworn bogeyman of “white racists.”
But, ultimately, responsibility rests with voters who keep electing these destructive clowns.
“More and more money for increasingly bad results
,” Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner of Wirepoints lament
. “Our politicians get away with this because we let them.”
We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.
Survey Says is a weekly column rounding up three of the most important polling trends or data points you need to know about. You’ll also find data-based updates on past Daily Kos reporting, plus a vibe check on a trend that’s driving politics.
Trump’s unpopular plan for Gaza
President Donald Trump stunned the world on Tuesday when he proposed that the U.S. seize
the Gaza Strip and displace the 2 million Palestinians
living there. As always, it’s impossible to gauge how serious he is. On Wednesday, the White House press secretary ludicrously called the proposal an “out-of-the-box idea
” toward Trump’s goal of “lasting peace in the Middle East.”
Either way, Americans are skeptical, to say the least. The plurality of Americans (47%) oppose the U.S. “taking ownership” of the Gaza Strip, according to a new YouGov
survey. Just 22% back the idea.
While Republicans are more likely than Democrats to support the proposal, the idea still isn’t that popular with the GOP. Twenty-nine percent of Republicans and 57% of Democrats oppose the plan. Additionally, 49% of independents oppose it.
This lack of domestic approval for Trump’s idea tracks with its international condemnation. Even some GOP lawmakers
haven’t been defending it.
These dissenters haven’t phased Trump, though. On Thursday, he defended his proposal, saying
Gaza “would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting.”
Trump the president vs. Trump the man
Despite Trump’s cruel and idiotic Gaza plan, Americans are rosier about the job he’s doing as president than they are about him as a person.
As of Friday at 12 PM ET, 538’s polling averages have Trump’s net favorability
at -0.6 percentage points (46.9% favorable, 47.5% unfavorable) but his net job approval
at +5.6 points (49.2% approve, 44.7% disapprove). That said, this approval rating is historically bad
since presidents usually enjoy a “honeymoon” period shortly after inauguration.
What should we make of this?
Well, it could be that Americans like many of Trump’s policies more than him personally.
For instance, Americans are veering to the right
on certain immigration policies. In December, 53% of registered voters supported mass deportations, while 46% opposed the idea, according to Civiqs polling for Daily Kos.
Some of Trump’s other immigration policies are relatively popular too. The latest Civiqs poll for Daily Kos
finds that 53% of registered voters support U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducting raids in major cities. Forty-six percent oppose that idea.
A large majority of the public is also sympathetic to limiting gender-affirming care for minors. In a January survey from Ipsos for The New York Times
, 71% of Americans said no one under the age of 18 should have access to puberty-blocking drugs or hormone therapy. And a plurality (49%) agreed that “society has gone too far in accommodating transgender people”—a result that aligns with Trump’s proclamation
that there are only two biological sexes (though scientists largely disagree
).
Taken together, this data suggests the country is leaning to the right on some high-profile issues—at least for now.
But even for people who like his politics, there are many reasons to dislike Trump personally. For one, people think he uses social media too much. A YouGov
survey from late January found that a plurality of Americans (36%) think he posts to social media “too often,” while only 4% want him to do it more.
Trump and his allies have also toyed with
him running for a third term
, and generally speaking, Americans aren’t keen on him bending the rules for his benefit. For instance, he’s promised to seek vengeance
against those whom he thinks have wronged him, but the New York Times/Ipsos poll found that 73% of Americans oppose Trump using the government to investigate and prosecute his enemies.
Politics tend to make people feel exhausted
or hopeless
, so it’s no surprise that Americans have a less-than-cheery view of politicians.
A new Gallup
survey asked Americans’ opinions on 14 politicians or Trump-aligned figures, and half had net-negative favorability. That includes four prominent Democrats: Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, former Vice President Kamala Harris, and Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.
Only one Democrat—House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries—has a net-positive favorability, and even then, the plurality of Americans (37%) have no opinion on him.
Three Republicans or Trump administration figures were underwater too.
Several recent surveys
have shown that people don’t like billionaire Elon Musk
, who heads up the controversial Department of Government Efficiency (an advisory commission, not a real department). And Gallup has further confirmation of that: Just 43% of Americans have a positive view of him, while 47% do not.
Embattled Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth
wasn’t beloved, either. In fact, he has the highest net-unfavorable rating of any Trump-aligned figure Gallup asked about: 22% favorable, 29% unfavorable. That said, a near-majority of Americans (49%) has no opinion on him.
The third major Trump-world figure Americans aren’t fond of is … Trump himself. For now, his “honeymoon” period has been average at best
, and Gallup has him at 48% unfavorable and 50% unfavorable. Meanwhile, the latest Civiqs poll for Daily Kos
found that just 45% of registered voters approved of the job Trump is doing as president, while a majority (52%) did not.
Gallup conducted its poll shortly after Inauguration Day, so rosy-ish opinions of Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s pick to be director of national intelligence, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s nominee for health secretary, are likely to wane as the public gets to know them better. After all, not only are they deplorable figures, but also they each only narrowly earned the approval
of the Senate committees needed to push their nominations to the floor for a final vote. And getting them that far took a fair deal of outsize pressure (i.e., bullying
).
Any updates?
Daily Kos is all over Elon Musk as he tries to wreck the federal government
. And not only are people souring on Musk
, but new polling from YouGov
shows that 48% of Americans think he has too much influence in Trump’s administration, compared with 29% who think he has the right amount of influence and just 3% (!) who want him to have more.
Remember when conservatives defended Musk after he threw up two Nazi salutes
on Inauguration Day? The latest Civiqs poll for Daily Kos
finds that 86% of Democrats (correctly) consider it Nazi salute—but 87% of Republicans say it was not.
As we’ve noted, egg prices are skyrocketing
, and now even beloved chain Waffle House has announced it will add a surcharge
to eggs. Turns out, nearly equal shares of Republicans (77%) as Democrats (76%) are dissatisfied with the price of eggs, according to Civiqs
.
Vibe check
Voters feel a lot of ways about the direction of the nation. According to Civiqs
as of Friday, just 22% of registered voters are hopeful about the way things are going, while 17% are scared, 14% are depressed, and 15% are angry. Notably, there was an uptick in registered voters who are excited (13%) following November’s election, but that’s largely due to Republicans’ changing mood.
