Hi everyone.
Welcome to this week’s Daly Weekly, where I answer whatever questions you throw my way.
Before we get started this week, I’d like to invite you all to Reagan Caucus Action’s new Substack. I co-host their weekly podcast, on which we feature a different guest every week to discuss numerous issues from a Reaganite perspective.
It’s totally free, and you can sign up here (I hope you do):
Now, let’s get to your questions…
What do you think of the horrifyingly botched attempted execution of Christa Pike? Many death penalty opponents have used the incident as yet another reason to abolish capital punishment altogether. Personally, I think the DP can be justified in the abstract for the most horrendous crimes. I shed no tears for, say, Ted Bundy, or Timothy McVeigh. Yet, I have seen too many discrepancies in its application over the years, to think it’s being used justly in practice.
But I also get really annoyed, to say the least, when anti- DP activists go out of their way to minimize the crimes of people on death row. Pike defenders have focused on how she was only 18 when she murdered Colleen Slemmer in 1995, and how she’s “not the same person now”. Yet, they usually omit that she was actually convicted of attempted murder of another inmate in 2001, and attempted to escape in 2012.
I am personally able to say, I oppose the death penalty as it is currently being practiced, without seeing death row inmates as merely helpless victims of the state. But too many people fall into the trap of woobifying the condemned, who are mostly terrible people. And I really hate how the actual victims, of the criminals, so often get forgotten in these debates. — Aylene W.
Hi Aylene. I’m pretty much where you are on this issue. I oppose the death penalty, but I respect the position of those who disagree. What I don’t respect is the portrayal of those on death row as victims rather than as convicts who committed a terrible crime that victimized others.
For the states that still practice the death penalty (which is their right), there should be no margin of error when it comes to executions. Executions need to be as swift and painless as possible, and of course 100% effective. As many have pointed out, we know, as a people, how to do this. Regardless of how one feels about Canada’s practice of medical euthanasia, they euthanize thousands of citizens every year (at those citizens’ request) without the kind of complications we’ve occasionally seen with prisoner executions in the United States. I’ve also seen the argument that we shouldn’t medicalize the process at all, and go back to firing squads (which Pike had actually requested but was denied, I think by law). That too would be better alternative.
The Republicans have been campaigning very hard against “socialism” for a while now, and yet, when VP Vance was asked this week what socialism actually is, he didn’t know the answer. He finally settled on something about replacing American workers with foreign workers, and boys playing in girls sports. Considering how many socialist policies the Trump administration has been pushing, while they point left and yell “socialism!” has the term become meaningless? — Alex D.
In the realm of American politics, Alex, it has indeed become meaningless.
National Review’s Phillip Klein said it well: “Vance has to redefine socialism as ‘things I oppose’ because if he defined it in terms of its actual economic philosophy, he'd agree with much of it.”
The same is true of Trump, others in the administration, and a good number of Republicans who support them.
Sir John — Ben Shapiro recently posted a video of Tucker Carlson stating basically that Germany should have won WWII and that the Allies should have surrendered. WTAF!? OK yes I knew Tucker Carlson had a few screws loose for a while, but this is utterly mind-boggling! How and what caused him to become so F—-ING WiCkED & STUPID!? Did that demonic attack that he allegedly suffered from awhile back bring on some type of demonic possession!? Seriously! How the HELL is he coming up with this excrement!? —“SUCKER CARLSON!” Regards from The Emperor
There’s been lots of speculation over what’s been behind Tucker Carlson’s descent into darkness, Emperor. Some think he’s being paid by foreign entities to spread such nonsense (of which there’s actually some evidence). Some think it’s purely for attention/engagement. Some think it comes from genuine bigotry that’s been emboldened by the excesses of this political era. I think all (or even a combination of the three) are entirely possible.
I also think it’s important to note that while Tucker has gotten worse over time, he’s been deranged like this for the better part of a decade, including when he was still at Fox News (where he pushed all kinds of insane conspiracy theories, lied routinely, and ran cover for America’s enemies including Vladimir Putin). And yet, many on the political right revered him, deferred to him on serious issues, and let him shape perverse narratives that would become their conventional wisdom. This went on until President Trump publicly dressed him down in the summer of 2025 over Carlson’s criticism of the Trump administration helping Israel against Iran. At which point, many on the right, including Senator Ted Cruz (who was previously scared of getting on Carlson’s bad side), decided it was finally okay to start criticizing him, while pretending Carlson had suddenly changed into a different person (which he hadn’t).
I’m glad that more people, including Ben Shapiro (who’s been great on this), are very comfortable doing it now. But it sure would have been better if they had done it much earlier, and not vilified people (like Jonah Goldberg and Steve Hayes) who did stand up to Carlson. Because again, Carlson shaped a lot of warped and ugly sentiment on the right (that still exists today).
I’ve been cracking up at your “24” posts. I’d forgotten so much about those early episodes. Who’s your favorite character? — Ben G.
Lol. For those reading this, Ben’s referring to my X posts. I’ve been rewatching the great show, 24 (after my wife goes to bed), and reliving some memorable moments with my social-media peeps.
I know this is the conventional pick, but my favorite character really is Jack Bauer. I’ve been a fan of Kiefer Sutherland since I was a kid, and he was perfect on the show. Chloe’s great too, of course. But I’d forgotten, until I rewatched season 4, how entertaining Richard Heller, the defense secretary’s son, was.
Logan Marshall-Green’s portrayal of him was so over the top, but not in a bad or unconvincing way. It was an early role for Marshall-Green, who went on to become a brilliant (and highly underrated) actor.
For those who’ve never seen The Invitation, I’d high recommend it. He’s very good in Devil too.
John: I know like me you are a fiscal conservative, so this question is probably right in your wheelhouse. The situation in France seems like a harbinger of things to come in the United States. Decades of deficit spending have finally caught up to them (they last had a budget surplus in 1974), and France is having to cut basic services in education. This has led to violent protests, encouraged by French leftist politicians. The same ingredients seem to exist over on this side of the pond: Low social trust, low trust in the government, yet high expectations for cradle-to-grave government services. When the math ain’t mathin’ anymore, you get rioting in the streets. Is this about to happen in the U.S? — Steve R.
It reminds me a lot of the Greek debt crisis, that came to a head in 2009-2010, and continued on for almost a decade (with years of EU bailouts).
And yes, the United States is headed toward a catastrophic debt crisis of its own (we’re really already in it), which will be extremely ugly and extremely painful for millions of Americans when it comes to a head. And when that happens, we’ll have only ourselves to blame, because the crisis has been predicted, and supported by the math, for many years. And we’ve chosen to do nothing to avoid or even soften it. In fact, we’ve carelessly accelerated and deepened it.
By “we,” I’m talking about American voters and both major political parties. The numbers have been on display, for all to see, for a long time. The major drivers of our national debt, by far, are our major entitlement programs. They’re broken because they were made for a different era. They’re in desperate need of reform, and have been for many years. The Democratic Party has long denied this, and has demagogued every Republican effort to deal with the situation. Republicans abandoned the efforts themselves at the behest of Donald Trump, once he became the party’s leader and our president a decade ago. Trump promised to veto any major-entitlement reform legislation, and punish any Republican(s) who tried to pass any such bill. The Republican members of congress who actually took this issue seriously (like Paul Ryan) have been chased out of politics for being insufficiently servile to Trump.
And so now, here we are — racing off the edge of a fiscal cliff, while we focus almost all of our political energy on culture-war battles, and dealing with the excesses of Donald Trump and the woke mob. Congratulations, everyone.
Thanks everyone! You can send me questions for next week by leaving a comment in the comment section.