Author: Larry Elder

The media enthusiastically remind us that it’s the first anniversary of the death of Ferguson’s Michael Brown, a death that spawned the so-called Black Lives Matter movement. In a September speech at the United Nations, President Barack Obama said, “The world also took notice of the small American city of Ferguson, Missouri — where a […]

Socialism, according to Dictionary.com, is defined as: “A theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole.” Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, recently appeared on MSNBC’s “Hardball […]

Donald Trump’s ex-wife, Ivana, recently denied a 30-year-old allegation that Donald Trump raped her. The allegation, according to the New York Daily News, stems from the book “The Last Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump” by Harry Hurt III. The News wrote: “Hurt’s 1993 book … cited a divorce deposition, in which Ivana […]

Ninety-five percent of black voters in 2008 voted for then-Sen. Barack Obama. Surely a “progressive” black president would care about, empathize with and understand black America in a way no other president ever has or could, right? Exit polls from Pew Research show that 63 percent of all voters — and 65 percent of Obama […]

The Los Angeles Times headline was cheerful: “It’s Official: Latinos Now Outnumber Whites in California.” The Times said, “As of July 1, 2014, about 14.99 million Latinos live in California, edging out the 14.92 million whites in the state.” Is this good news or bad news? The L.A. Times seems to think the former. The […]

For the second time, Chief Justice John Roberts breathed life into Obamacare and rescued it from the Constitution. In the first big Obamacare ruling, Roberts called Obamacare a “tax,” and therefore lawfully enacted as consistent with the powers of Congress — and not a violation of the Commerce Clause. Never mind the Obama administration sold […]

Almost immediately after a white killer gunned down nine black worshippers at a historic church in Charleston, South Carolina, out came the politics. On the Capitol grounds in Columbia flies the battlefield flag of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, often erroneously called the “Confederate flag.” Right after the shooting, calls came for […]

I wrote my latest book, “Dear Father, Dear Son: Two Lives, Eight Hours,” to personalize the biggest issue facing the country — the growing number of fatherless homes, particularly in the black community, where over 70 percent of children are born to unwed mothers. Being raised without a father is hard. One is more likely […]

Barack Obama, for his own education, never set foot in a public school. When he was 10 years of age, his mother shipped him back from Indonesia to his grandparents in Hawaii so that young Barack could get a first-class American education. He entered Punahou, the expensive and most prestigious prep school in the islands. […]

Fourteen to one, in favor. That was the Los Angeles City Council vote to raise, over the next five years, the city’s minimum wage from $9 an hour to $15. Of course, as Investor’s Business Daily tells us, the $15 per hour really is closer to $20. How does it get to $20? Investor’s Business […]

On November 11, 2011, Congress voted to award a Congressional Gold Medal for the 20,000 black Marines of Montford Point, the first blacks to serve as Marines. I write about Staff Sgt. Elder — and my struggle to understand him — in my latest book, “Dear Father, Dear Son.” On August 13, 2013, Col. Jason […]

What took so long? The question isn’t whether George Stephanopoulos compromised his credentials as a “journalist” by failing to reveal his donations to the Clinton Foundation. The question is why, immediately after Stephanopoulos left the Clinton administration, ABC hired this partisan in the first place. In 1996, when ABC hired him, the initial press release […]

After the recent Baltimore riots, left-wing critics accused President Barack Obama of lacking an “urban agenda.” Critics like PBS’s hard lefty Tavis Smiley said: “What do we see in Baltimore and Ferguson and beyond? Racism, poverty and militarism. And so poverty is clearly connected to this. My sense is that this is going to become […]

After the mysterious death of suspect Freddie Gray, the Maryland state’s attorney for Baltimore charged all six Baltimore police officers involved with his arrest and transport. The crimes ranging from “second-degree depraved-heart murder” to involuntary manslaughter, assault, misconduct in office and false imprisonment. Locals cheered her decision to charge all six. The charges followed three […]

Welcome to Hollywood, where dreams become real — and where logic, reason and economics 101 become dreams. Take the current battle over the minimum wage. In Los Angeles County, the minimum wage is $9 per hour. Theater actors, however, can be paid as little as $7 a performance, and an actor can even work long […]

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, after winning reelection, pronounced Chicago “the greatest city in America.” Run by Democrats for more than eight decades, Chicago should serve as a showplace that reflects the wonderful world of “progressive policies.” Public schools are a mess, and the city’s finances place their bonds at near junk level. In 2013, the […]

Barack Obama is a young man. By the time he leaves office, he will be in his mid-50s. Based on life expectancy, he could live for another 40 years or so. So he will be around to see the full consequences of his disastrous Iran nuclear “framework.” The deal is done. No matter what Republicans […]

The Republican Party, says former Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell, suffers from a “dark vein of intolerance.” We salute Powell’s service. He is a heavily decorated vet who served two tours of duty in Vietnam when things were hot and heavy over there. But General, care to name names? Who are these “intolerant” Republicans? […]

When actress Patricia Arquette won an Oscar, she pled for “wage equality” for women: “To every woman who gave birth to every taxpayer and citizen in this nation: We have fought for everybody else’s equal rights. It’s our time to have wage equality once and for all and equal rights for women in the United […]

A shocking new poll shows Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., ahead of Hillary Clinton in Iowa, the first caucus state, and in New Hampshire, the first primary state. The YouGov poll, paid for by Moveon.org, found Warren ahead of Clinton in Iowa, 31 percent to 24 percent, among likely Democratic primary and caucus voters. In New […]

If Brian Williams, the anchor and face of NBC News, goes, others should march right out the door behind him. Williams, in 2003, filed a report about his experiences in Iraq. He accurately reported that a helicopter an hour in front of his took fire from an RPG. But over the years the story morphed […]

President Barack Obama, in his State of the Union speech, called for a minimum-wage hike and for government-mandated paid family and medical leave. “We are the only advanced country on Earth,” said the President, “that doesn’t guarantee paid sick leave or paid maternity leave to our workers.” On the minimum wage, Obama issued this challenge: […]

“What do you think you missed not having a dad around?” Marshawn Lynch, the grumpy, often-fined National Football League star for the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks, was asked that question. Lynch, raised on the mean streets of Oakland, California, by a single mother, said: “Nothing. My mama played both parts.” When asked, however, […]

Where’s the Clint Eastwood Million Cowboy March on Hollywood? The case for bias against Eastwood is far stronger than that of the alleged “snub” of the movie “Selma.” “American Sniper,” a new film directed by Clint Eastwood, set box-office records for a film opening in January. Yet he was “shut out” of the director category. […]

Islamic terrorists slaughtered 17 innocents in Paris in an attack described as “France’s 9/11.” The two terrorist suspects at the satirical newspaper massacre are brothers, born and raised in France, children of parents who emigrated from Algeria. Some blame France’s failure to “assimilate” Muslim youth on their attraction to violent jihad. While almost 25 percent […]

Move over, radical Islam. Step aside, poverty and political oppression. Pope Francis is expected to soon issue a rare papal encyclical, an official statement about what the pontiff believes is the world’s most pressing issue — “climate change.” A month ago, during the U.N. climate change conference in Lima, Peru, the Pope warned of the […]

What to say about “activists” pushing the “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” “movement,” even as police shootings of blacks are actually down 75 percent over the last 45 years? Some protestors, many old enough to know better, say ridiculous things about race relations, like “things have gone backward.” Time for perspective. Booker T. Washington was born […]