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Cal Thomas

Cal Thomas is one of the most widely syndicated political columnists in America. Based in Washington, he is a wide-ranging social commentator, not a "beltway insider," who supports traditional conservative values and the American "can-do spirit." He'll take on virtually any topic, from the decline of the family to growing terrorism worldwide.
A syndicated columnist since 1984, he is the author of “America’s Expiration Date: The Fall of Empires, Superpowers and the United States” (HarperCollins/Zondervan, January 2020). His latest book is “A Watchman in the Night: What I’ve Seen in 50 Years Reporting on America” (Humanix Books, May 2023). Readers may email Mr. Thomas at tcaeditors@tribune.com.

Columns by Cal Thomas

Wherefore art thou a debtor?

Why won't we listen to what used to be called sage advice before the Internet made too many of us think we are reinventing the world and nothing we think or try has ever been thought or tried before?

October 8, 2009

Creepy behaviors

In olden days, when "a glimpse of stocking was looked on as something shocking," a morals clause was written into an actor's film contract. The purpose was to restrain an actor from engaging in public behavior that might offend the audience and harm ticket sales.

October 6, 2009

The story behind a story

What we are led to believe by an often lazy and Obama-supporting big media, enabled by a deliberately ignorant public that lacks, rather than longs, for the truth, is not as it first seems. Take just one example.

October 1, 2009

A conflict of deception

If you were an enemy of America seeking its destruction, you would add to your pursuit of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons the undermining of this nation from within. You would do this largely through deception, putting on a peaceful face while subtly plotting ways to bring America down.

September 29, 2009

Glenn Beck explained

Radio and TV commentator Glenn Beck was mentioned three times in separate opinion columns on the same day and in an article the next day in the New York Times, possibly a record for someone who does not hold elective office.

September 24, 2009

Weakness as a shortcut to war

When I was a kid, there was a bully in our neighborhood. He never picked on kids his own size and certainly not on anyone larger. Rather, he punched, pushed and kicked kids smaller and weaker than himself, especially those who refused to respond to his threats. Stirred by his adversaries' impotent responses, the bully felt free to slug anyone he fancied.

September 22, 2009

Playing the racism card

When Barack Obama was elected president of the United States, some suggested that race played a factor in his success. People "wanted" to elect a black man president because of our history of slavery and the denial of civil rights for so many years to blacks. It is never "racism" to vote for someone because he is black. It is only racism to oppose the policies of a black Democrat.

September 17, 2009

Liar, Liar

Wouldn't it be nice, as the Beach Boys sang in another context, if there was such a thing as a liar meter? It would detect when a politician wasn't telling the truth and alert the public. In the absence of such an invention, we are left to challenge our political leadership based on an objective look at the facts.

September 16, 2009

The reason for our discontent

Who wrote the following: "We must learn to welcome and not to fear the voices of dissent. We must dare to think about 'unthinkable things' because when things become unthinkable, thinking stops and action becomes mindless."

September 10, 2009

No real quid pro quo

HBO showed the film "Schindler's List" last week. The 1993 Steven Spielberg movie never ceases to arouse my deepest emotions. The perennial question put forth in the film remains: How could people wantonly kill so many others as a matter of state policy?

September 9, 2009

Languishing in liberal land

Despite their control of all three branches of government, this has not been a good summer for liberal Democrats. Their health care "reform" bill, which has yet to be fully written, much less fully funded, has been exposed at town-hall meetings as a power grab over life and death with the strong possibility that "do no harm" will be replaced by a utilitarian approach to treatment.

September 3, 2009

Judgment vs. judgmentalism

Opinion columnists, like the rest of humanity, walk a fine line between judgment (holding people accountable to a standard we did not create) and judgmentalism (thinking ourselves morally superior because we haven't committed the acts of others).

September 1, 2009

Opposing suicide ‘justice’

After pledging during last year's presidential campaign, and as recently as the spring, not to revisit the past, the Obama administration, in the person of Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., has named a special prosecutor to go after CIA interrogators who pried information from terrorist suspects, preventing more deadly assaults on the country.

August 30, 2009

A surprising friendship

Most of my adult life has been intertwined with the Kennedy family. As a freshman at American University in 1960, I stayed up late watching the election returns, as John F. Kennedy barely eked out a victory over Richard Nixon.

August 27, 2009

National suicide by overspending

Remember when the deficit was so bad that Democrats said we (or, more accurately, the Republicans) were placing a terrible burden on our grandchildren?

August 25, 2009

Catch a falling star

Seven months after taking office amid a religious-like faith that he was the one (or even The One) we had been waiting for, President Obama is beginning to resemble a shooting star.

August 20, 2009

National Health vs. USA

For the past month, I have watched British media report and comment on the American health care uproar. American cable networks also are available here. The back-and-forth reporting and commentary resemble a replay of the War of 1812, this time with verbal salvos.

August 18, 2009

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