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David Keene

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

Virginia is for Gun Lovers Illustration by Greg Groesch/The Washington Times

Virginia’s ‘Second Amendment Sanctuaries’

Elections have consequences. Virginia, which for decades had been considered reliably conservative, is now firmly in "progressive" hands and quickly morphing into one of the most liberal states in the East. Published January 7, 2020

Additional Antiquities Wind farms Illustration by Greg Groesch/The Washington Times

The trouble with wind farms

Wind farm operators have routinely overestimated the salvage value of their windmills and underestimated the costs involved in removing them to get permitted jurisdictions to lower how much they are required to put aside. Published January 1, 2020

China minorities illustration by Linas Garsys

China attacks minorities within its borders

China is actively persecuting and imprisoning and terrorizing millions of Muslim Uyghurs in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of northwest China. Published December 4, 2019

Student Debt Illustration by Greg Groesch/The Washington Times

Elizabeth Warren’s ridiculous plan for student debt

Elizabeth Warren's multi-billion-dollar plan to cancel some $640 billion of student debt is a case in point, amounting to little more than a thinly disguised attempt to buy the votes of younger, higher earning, college-educated voters. Published November 29, 2019

Kamala Sticker Illustration by Greg Groesch/The Washington Times

Kamala Harris’ nosedive

California Sen. Kamala Harris' seems willing to do anything she thinks might help claw her way back into the top tier of Democratic presidential wannabes. This was on full display recently in South Carolina. Published November 4, 2019

In this April 23, 2019, photo, Hillary Clinton speaks during the TIME 100 Summit, in New York. Mrs. Clinton is popping up in presidential politics again, and some Democrats are wary even as they praise her role as a senior party leader. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

Hillary Clinton’s conspiracy theories

In the 1950s, Wisconsin Sen. Joe McCarthy believed there was a Soviet agent lurking under every bed and began naming some without much proof. Critics were correct to lambast him, but today's Democrats would embarrass even McCarthy. Published October 28, 2019

Demonstrators link hands as they gather along an elevated walkway in Hong Kong, Friday, Aug. 23, 2019. Supporters of Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement created human chains on both sides of the city's harbor Friday, inspired by a historic protest 30 years ago in the Baltic states against Soviet control. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

What the Hong Kong protesters know

Few Americans today remember what is known as "Black Ribbon Day," when more than 2 million people in Communist Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania joined hands in an unbroken human chain that stretched some 420 miles to protest the Soviet occupation. Published September 5, 2019

Mandatory Confiscation Illustration by Greg Groesch/The Washington Times

Beto O’Rourke and Kirsten Gillibrand’s ‘progressive’ fantasies about guns

The idea that Americans have a constitutional right to own and possess firearms appalls today's progressives. They believe that if they could just rid the nation of guns, then armed robberies, gang violence, mass shootings, rape, violent crime and maybe even suicide would vanish and we could all live peacefully ever after. Published August 20, 2019

** FILE ** Covers from past issues of Reader's Digest

Remembering Bill Schulz, the iconic Reader’s Digest editor

Soon after Bill Schulz, the longtime Washington editor of Reader's Digest, retired in 2003, I joined him for lunch at his favorite table at Washington's Palm restaurant. As we were seated, I told Tommy Jacomo, the restaurant's iconic maitre d', "This one's on me." He looked at me and at Bill and replied, "About time, don't you think?" Published July 25, 2019

Apprenticeships Growing Jobs Illustration by Greg Groesch/The Washington Times

Why the administration’s workforce development program matters

President Trump owes his 2016 electoral victory to support from millions of frustrated and even angry middle class voters living in what coastal elitists like to refer to as "flyover country" who were tired of being ignored. Published July 24, 2019

Illustration on Trump and The New York Times by Greg Groesch/The Washington Times

The New York Times morphs into a fierce partisan warrior

New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger took to the pages of The Wall Street Journal last week to lambast President Donald J. Trump as an out-of-control enemy of a free press whose over the top rhetoric should be seen as a harbinger of worse to come. Published June 25, 2019

Political Weapon Illustration by Greg Groesch/The Washington Times

Democrats seem to think that a weaponized criminal justice system will work to their advantage

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told her fellow Democrats last week that she doesn't want President Trump "impeached," she wants him "in prison." She hopes to beat the president of the United States in his bid for re-election, have a new Democratic president indict and convict him for real or imagined crimes, and celebrate as he's hauled off to a federal correctional institution. Published June 11, 2019