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Opinion Pieces

To Rejoice in Your Labor

As the nation pauses this weekend to celebrate Labor Day, along with the return of school schedules and cooler weather, I’ve been reflecting on the value of work — what it means to each of us individually and what it means to our country. Having a job is about so much more than a paycheck. Work can...

Picnic Food and Better News

This piece originally appeared in the Highland County Press. In late June, President Trump canceled a picnic and reporters in Washington were captivated by the fate of the picnic foods. Who would eat the already-cooked steaks? Had the potato salad gone missing? What was the status of the coleslaw? T...

Opportunity is the enemy of poverty

Back in 1931, historian James Truslow Adams endowed us with our first definition of what we call "the American dream." He wrote: “The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievemen...

My Top 8 Tips for Students and Recent Grads

You walked across the stage. You have years of hard work behind you, a diploma in hand, and a great big question mark ahead. Whether it is graduation from high school or college, a vocational school or four-year degree, once the celebrations die down, many students are left feeling a bit overwhelmed...

The Gift of Liberty

We were standing in a room near the U.S. Capitol, after votes one night last week, listening to a U.S. servicemember speak. Standing next to him was the Afghan interpreter who had saved his life. As I listened to him share his story, I couldn’t help but think of the two Iraqi citizens who I served a...

The Taste of Freedom

“Freedom has a taste to those who fight and nearly die for it, that the protected will never know.” Those words, etched into an American POW cell in Vietnam, ring true for anyone who has faced death wearing the uniform of this country. Once you have served, you can’t put your hand over your heart an...

A return to statesmanship

Note: This article originally appeared in The Washington Times on May 25, 2018. America is in crisis: We hear about it daily on the news. We can see it play out in the lives of our friends, neighbors, family and colleagues. An opioid crisis. A health care crisis. An immigration crisis. These are ver...

A Return To Transparency

Note: This originally appeared in the Daily Caller on April 26. 2018. The year was 1789. George Washington had been reluctantly elected as the First President of the United States of America. The entire federal government consisted of three departments: The Department of State, the Department of War...

A Return to Trust

Note: This originally appeared in the Washington Examiner on March 5, 2018. Do you trust our federal government? Most Americans don’t, at least according to the Pew Research Center, which reports that public trust in the government remains near the historic lows of 2007. This hasn’t always been true...

Rep. Brad Wenstrup: A return to truth, justice, and the American way

Note: This originally appeared in the Washington Examiner on January 19, 2018. “It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Superman!" The narrator’s voice comes in deep and dramatic, “Yes, it’s Superman!” The audio sounds scratchy today, and the black and white film is grainy on the screen. As a boy, I remembe...