David Keene

Editor at Large — David Keene, a trusted adviser to presidents, a longtime champion of personal liberty and one of conservatism’s most respected voices, is the former opinion editor of The Washington Times. An author, columnist and fixture on national television, Mr. Keene has championed conservative causes for more than five decades while offering advice to Republican presidents and countless candidates. He additionally served as chairman of the American Conservative Union and president of the National Rifle Association. He can be reached at me@davidakeene.com.

Columns by David Keene

Phyllis Schlafly, the queen of conservatism

Phyllis Schlafly's death last weekend came not so much as a shock, but a surprise. Mrs. Schlafly was 92 years old and had stepped down as head of Eagle Forum, but many of those who knew her and worked with her find it difficult to imagine a world without the lady from Alton, Ill., who helped shape and lead the modern conservative movement. Published September 7, 2016

Blocking animal research is unethical

Some years ago, my West Virginia hunting and fishing buddy was invited to appear on a local television station high in the mountains with an animal rights activist, a young vegan mother who brought her one-year-old daughter with her. In the midst of the discussion after the young lady argued that we humans ought to stop treating animals as our inferiors, my friend turned to her and asked a simple question. Published September 6, 2016

A big slush fund for the Clinton Foundation

Hillary Clinton, after learning there is a chance that hackers could release potentially embarrassing Clinton Foundation emails before the November elections, has announced that if she is elected president the foundation will no longer accept the foreign and corporate donations that have convinced all but her most loyal sycophants that she may well have been peddling influence to the highest bidder as secretary of State Published August 22, 2016

Venezuela faces collapse because of socialist government, disarmed populace

Last week the socialist government of Venezuela began seizing and destroying handguns, rifles and shotguns -- continuing the late Hugo Chavez's effort to solve the nation's crime problem by disarming the nation. However, since Chavez imposed what he and his followers proudly called "21st- Century Socialism" on one of the wealthiest nations in South America, Venezuela has been in economic, political and social free fall. Published August 21, 2016

Of arms and the man named Jacob Zuma

I first met Jacob Zuma, South Africa's controversial president, in 2002 when he was serving as then-President Thabo Mbeki's vice president. I was in South Africa at the behest of a number of South African outfitters and professional hunters to urge the government to reject a British-inspired laundry list of firearms regulations that would have crippled big-game hunting in South Africa. Published August 11, 2016

Helen Bentley, Baltimore’s ‘unforgettable’ advocate

Anyone growing up in the '50s and '60s would be hard pressed to avoid the Reader's Digest, which was read by, well, just about everybody, including a lot of folks too pretentious to actually admit they read it. You could find it at the barbershop or the doctor's office if you didn't get it at home and every issue seemed to include something you would find interesting or informative or both. Published August 8, 2016

Hillary Clinton’s firearms falsehoods

Donald Trump keeps calling his Democratic opponent "Lyin' Hillary," and poll after poll shows that though most voters might shy away from Mr. Trump's blunt characterization of Hillary Clinton, they share his belief that the lady cannot really be trusted or believed. Published August 1, 2016

Ted Cruz’s risky strategy

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz went "all in" Wednesday as he addressed the Republican Convention delegates in Cleveland, laid out his vision and pointedly ignored the opportunity to endorse the candidacy of Donald Trump. It was a risky move and may not work out as well for the ambitious Texan as he hopes. Published July 21, 2016

Republicans hold their course

The political disaster that many predicted last week would begin here in Cleveland with a divisive rules fight, and put a fractured and dysfunctional Republican Party on display for all to see, hasn't happened. Published July 19, 2016

Bill Armstrong a model of strong values in Senate

When a congressman or senator leaves Washington as Bill Armstrong did in 1990, it doesn't take long for the political class to move on as if he or she never existed. Published July 11, 2016

Brexit vote will be boon to Britons

Much has been written since the British voted to leave the European Union in part because so many believed that nation's voters would do as their establishment "betters" advised them without realizing that they were in fact ready to revolt against just such advice from people who believe they know best how others should live their lives. Published June 30, 2016

Remembering Mohamed Abdelaziz

Mohamed Abdelaziz, President of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic passed away May 31. Published June 12, 2016

DAVID A. KEENE: Jeff Sessions’ Senate decorum

Alabama's Jeff Sessions is a senator from a different day. He's unfailingly polite, rarely has a bad thing to say even about those of his colleagues with whom he strongly disagrees, and truly seems to revere the institution of which he is a part. Published May 31, 2016

DAVID KEENE: Hillary Clinton’s false endorsement of gun rights

To suggest that President Obama and his managers downplayed the president's lifelong hostility to the private ownership of firearms during his 2012 re-election campaign is an understatement. Published May 25, 2016

DAVID KEENE: Republican also-rans who denounce Donald Trump are breaking their word

In 1996, 10 Republican presidential wannabes initially entered the race to battle for the nomination that ultimately went to Bob Dole. The initial list of candidates included a number of credible contenders and a few that never had a chance. Published May 16, 2016

DAVID KEENE: Donald Trump, Paul Ryan meeting necessary to defeat Hillary Clinton

The two Republican leaders meeting Thursday with Republican National Chairman Reince Priebus to see if they can bury their differences and march side by side into this fall's crucial campaign come together looking for very different things. Donald Trump is all about the transaction, the negotiation and, ultimately, the deal. Published May 11, 2016

DAVID KEENE: When conspiracy nuts do real damage

Back in "the day" as some are wont to describe the Sixties and Seventies, the AFL-CIO set up and funded an outfit called "Group Research" which even before Hillary Clinton arrived on the scene to blame all her troubles on a "Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy" purported to be able to demonstrate that just about every Republican was in some way connected to and perhaps controlled by the John Birch Society. Published April 17, 2016

DAVID KEENE: Angry voters believe political process rigged

Beltway pundits spend almost all their time warning that the Republican Party is about to implode as the fight for its presidential nomination exposes rifts within the party that they believe or in some cases, hope, will make it impossible for the eventual nominee to win in November. Published March 28, 2016

DAVID KEENE: Snatching Donald Trump’s nomination will intensify voter anger

Republican leaders who either don't like Donald Trump's views or rhetorical table manners are conspiring in public to take him down. They are convinced that if they can deny him the 1,237 votes he will need to secure the party's presidential nomination when he gets to Cleveland they can unhorse him and nominate someone more to their liking. Published March 21, 2016