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Thursday, May 14, 2026

Opinion: Columns

Florida Alligator
Opinion

Do progressives really want a President Pence?

Do progressives really want a President Pence?  Their immediate answer may be: “yes, impeach President Donald Trump no matter what,” but if progressives considered what was best for their agenda, they would recognize how relatively great the Trump presidency has been thus far.  


Florida Alligator
Opinion

My musings on the hypocrisy of the history of abolitionism

This week, I’d like to talk about a few historical observations I’ve noticed in one of my classes this semester. Usually, I try not to have quasi-pointless and redundant sentences like the one preceding this, but it’s the only way I can think of to introduce such a notorious topic. What I’m going to be talking about will concern slavery in U.S.


Florida Alligator
Opinion

America needs limited government involvement

Health care and education are two of the most highly debated policy areas today. President Donald Trump has advocated to diminish the level of government involvement in both areas, which are currently at the highest they have ever been in U.S. history. Based on historical trends and empirical and theoretical evidence, increased government involvement in any area where it is not absolutely necessary has served only to decrease the value created by institutions. Arguments that favor greater government control and regulation run counter to objective facts.


Florida Alligator
Opinion

Appreciate what you have before you lose it

I write to you today, dear reader, with a message that is as everlasting as Twinkies and as cliche as a joke about the shelf life of Twinkies. My message to you is to be grateful for what you have. This may all be banal in nature, but the sagacity behind this idea should never be missed.


Florida Alligator
Opinion

Americans need anger for motivation

I write a column every week, and many of these weeks, I have a hard time picking a topic. Sometimes topics just come to me, but often, they don’t. To remedy this, sometimes I search Google for topics. Sometimes I take the advice of a fellow columnist and Google search, “What are Americans angry about today?” I did that this week, and I was greeted by a slew of articles about why Americans are so angry. There was nothing too specific that day, but essentially, a bunch of news outlets wrote pieces about why Americans are so angry about many different things.


Florida Alligator
Opinion

Issues with Russia should matter to ordinary citizens, not just politicians

Democrats have been criticized from within their own ranks for focusing on the issue of Russian interference in the 2016 election when an economic message could be more effective against Republicans, who are in the middle of pushing an extremely unpopular health care bill through Congress. In his testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee earlier last month, former FBI Director James Comey insisted that all Americans should be concerned about the prospect of a foreign power influencing the outcome of a Democratic election. He told the committee,  “It’s not about Republicans or Democrats. They’re coming after America, which I hope we all love equally. They want to undermine our credibility in the face of the world.”


Florida Alligator
Opinion

There’s nothing new under the sun

I recall a conversation I had with my dad in which he reflected on his experience in school as a child. He vividly remembers the school administration in the early 1960’s conducting drills in which he and his classmates would practice crouching down under their desks in the event of a nuclear blast.


Florida Alligator
Opinion

Ossoff lost Georgia, and I’m not surprised at all

Last Tuesday, Republican Karen Handel defeated Democrat Jon Ossoff in the most expensive congressional race in U.S. history. The special election filled the vacancy left by current Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price in Georgia’s 6th congressional district, located just outside of Atlanta. Newt Gingrich took the 6th district in 1979, and it has been held by Republicans comfortably since. However, since President Donald Trump won the district by a close margin of only two percentage points in 2016, Democrats saw an opportunity to try to flip it.  


Florida Alligator
Opinion

Servers deserve your tips: Please don’t cheat them

Recently, I started working as a server for a new company. I have never worked in the restaurant business before. That is to say, I have no prior experience serving, bussing, cooking or hosting. My only experience in the industry is the many times I’ve been a customer.



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