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David Keene

David Keene

keene123@washingtontimes.com

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.
To read his obituary, please CLICK HERE

Columns by David Keene

Illustration on Venezuela's descent in to chaos under socialism by Alexander Hunter/The Washington Times

Venezuela faces collapse because of socialist government, disarmed populace

Last week the socialist government of Venezuela began seizing and destroying handguns, rifles and shotguns -- continuing the late Hugo Chavez's effort to solve the nation's crime problem by disarming the nation. However, since Chavez imposed what he and his followers proudly called "21st- Century Socialism" on one of the wealthiest nations in South America, Venezuela has been in economic, political and social free fall.

August 21, 2016
Jacob Zuma Illustration by Greg Groesch/The Washington Times

Of arms and the man named Jacob Zuma

I first met Jacob Zuma, South Africa's controversial president, in 2002 when he was serving as then-President Thabo Mbeki's vice president. I was in South Africa at the behest of a number of South African outfitters and professional hunters to urge the government to reject a British-inspired laundry list of firearms regulations that would have crippled big-game hunting in South Africa.

August 11, 2016
Helen Delich Bentley. (The Washington Times)

Helen Bentley, Baltimore’s ‘unforgettable’ advocate

Anyone growing up in the '50s and '60s would be hard pressed to avoid the Reader's Digest, which was read by, well, just about everybody, including a lot of folks too pretentious to actually admit they read it. You could find it at the barbershop or the doctor's office if you didn't get it at home and every issue seemed to include something you would find interesting or informative or both.

August 8, 2016
Illustration on a potential Clinton administration's threat to Second Amendment rights by Linas Garsys/The Washington Times

Hillary Clinton’s firearms falsehoods

Donald Trump keeps calling his Democratic opponent "Lyin' Hillary," and poll after poll shows that though most voters might shy away from Mr. Trump's blunt characterization of Hillary Clinton, they share his belief that the lady cannot really be trusted or believed.

August 1, 2016
Illustration on Ted Cruz' ploy to be "Reaganesque" by Linas Garsys/The Washington Times

Ted Cruz’s risky strategy

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz went "all in" Wednesday as he addressed the Republican Convention delegates in Cleveland, laid out his vision and pointedly ignored the opportunity to endorse the candidacy of Donald Trump. It was a risky move and may not work out as well for the ambitious Texan as he hopes.

July 21, 2016
Illustration on Republican support of Trump at the GOP convention by Linas Garsys/The Washington Times

Republicans hold their course

The political disaster that many predicted last week would begin here in Cleveland with a divisive rules fight, and put a fractured and dysfunctional Republican Party on display for all to see, hasn't happened.

July 19, 2016
Britain Rejects the Mandates of Brussels Illustration by Linas Garsys/The Washington Times

Brexit vote will be boon to Britons

Much has been written since the British voted to leave the European Union in part because so many believed that nation's voters would do as their establishment "betters" advised them without realizing that they were in fact ready to revolt against just such advice from people who believe they know best how others should live their lives.

June 30, 2016
Sen. Jeff Sessions appears at the podium onstage with Donald Trump at a Trump campaign rally in Alabama. (Associated Press)

DAVID A. KEENE: Jeff Sessions’ Senate decorum

Alabama's Jeff Sessions is a senator from a different day. He's unfailingly polite, rarely has a bad thing to say even about those of his colleagues with whom he strongly disagrees, and truly seems to revere the institution of which he is a part.

May 31, 2016
Illustration on GOP unity by Linas Garsys/The Washington Times

DAVID KEENE: Donald Trump, Paul Ryan meeting necessary to defeat Hillary Clinton

The two Republican leaders meeting Thursday with Republican National Chairman Reince Priebus to see if they can bury their differences and march side by side into this fall's crucial campaign come together looking for very different things. Donald Trump is all about the transaction, the negotiation and, ultimately, the deal.

May 11, 2016
Illustration:Frank Gaffney connects the dots by Alexander Hunter/The Washington Times

DAVID KEENE: When conspiracy nuts do real damage

Back in "the day" as some are wont to describe the Sixties and Seventies, the AFL-CIO set up and funded an outfit called "Group Research" which even before Hillary Clinton arrived on the scene to blame all her troubles on a "Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy" purported to be able to demonstrate that just about every Republican was in some way connected to and perhaps controlled by the John Birch Society.

April 17, 2016
Emotional Decision Illustration by Linas Garsys/The Washington Times

DAVID KEENE: Angry voters believe political process rigged

Beltway pundits spend almost all their time warning that the Republican Party is about to implode as the fight for its presidential nomination exposes rifts within the party that they believe or in some cases, hope, will make it impossible for the eventual nominee to win in November.

March 28, 2016

DAVID KEENE: Snatching Donald Trump’s nomination will intensify voter anger

Republican leaders who either don't like Donald Trump's views or rhetorical table manners are conspiring in public to take him down. They are convinced that if they can deny him the 1,237 votes he will need to secure the party's presidential nomination when he gets to Cleveland they can unhorse him and nominate someone more to their liking.

March 21, 2016

Focus on real, not imaginary, problems

Congressional committee chairmen are a pretty turf-conscious bunch and don't like it when their work meets resistance from outside their own committee.

February 23, 2016
Illustration on Ted Cruz in Iowa by Linas Garsys/The Washington Times

DAVID KEENE: Predicting Iowa

The snowstorm that hit the Washington area last week gave the State Department yet another reason to delay releasing a tranche of embarrassing Hillary Clinton emails, ensnared President Obama's motorcade in the rush-hour disaster that turned half-hour commutes into three-hour nightmares, and revealed how unprepared area governments were to deal with weather they knew full well was on its way.

January 27, 2016
Illustration of Forrest McDonald by Linas Garsys/The Washington Times

DAVID KEENE: Remembering Forrest McDonald

Forrest McDonald, perhaps the greatest student of the American founding, passed away late last week at the age of 89. His scholarship and work have had more impact on the understanding of the intellectual and historical context that produced the Constitution and the creation of the United States than most people appreciate.

January 24, 2016