It’s been a wild year for us all, and some of that wildness translated into a great year of expanding readership at The Federalist. Here are the top 20 most-read articles on our site for 2016.
20. “The Obama Administration Is Now Apologizing For America Winning World War II”
After all, Kerry could have said that Hiroshima was “a reminder of the depth of the obligation every one of us in public life carries to stop extremist regimes like Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.” Or he might have said Hiroshima was “a reminder of the depth of the obligation every one of us in public life carries to ensure that we are well prepared for the next force that threatens peace.”
Instead our motto the past eight years has been, “Strength Through Moral Equivalence.”
19. “Former Navy SEAL: The AR-15 Is A Citizen’s Best Defense Against Terrorism”
In a new video, former Navy SEAL Dom Raso explains why the AR-15, the most popular rifle in the country, gives Americans the best chance of surviving in an age of terror.
“The only way for us to stay free was by having whatever guns the bad guys have,” he said. “This firearm gives average people the advantage they so desperately need and deserve to protect their life, liberty, and happiness.”
18. “I Identify As Married To A Man Who Won’t Have Me, And It’s So Unfair”
I did not even realize how hard I had been working to hide my true self until I met Mr. X, but suddenly it was as though all those awkward moments of my past came into focus and I could see the meaning of my whole life. I am—I always have been—the wife of Mr. X.
Coming out was one of the hardest decisions of my life, and at times the hatred and heartache I’ve faced have been worse than I could have imagined. Hardest of all is the rejection from Mr. X himself, who has declared publicly he has no interest in me whatsoever. But I know that no matter what anyone says, I have to be true to myself. And I know without a shadow of a doubt that my true identity is wife of Mr. X.
17. “Donald Trump Just Got Hillary Clinton To Admit Her E-mails Are A ‘National Security Issue’”
On Wednesday morning, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump asked Russia to turn over the tens of thousands of e-mails deleted by Hillary Clinton. The scandal-plagued former Secretary of State maintained for months that the e-mails were personal, not work-related, and that they were in no way classified.
But in a press release issued on Wednesday, Clinton’s top campaign spokesman suddenly declared those e-mails to be a “national security issue”…
16. “Voter Fraud Is Real. Here’s Proof”
These are just some instances of voter fraud we know about. It would be silly to assume cases that have been discovered are the only cases of fraud. Indeed according to a Pew Charitable Trust report from February 2012, one in eight voter registrations are “significantly inaccurate or no longer valid.” Since there are 146 million Americans registered to vote, this translates to a stunning 18 million invalid voter registrations on the books. Further, “More than 1.8 million deceased individuals are listed as voters, and approximately 2.75 million people have registrations in more than one state.” Numbers of this scale obviously provide ripe opportunity for fraud
15. “Katie Couric’s Anti-Gun Producers Repeatedly Violated Federal Gun Laws”
Katie, get your gun lawyer.
By now you’ve probably heard about Katie Couric’s new anti-gun documentary “Under The Gun,” and how her producer doctored video of interviews with gun owners in order to make them look stupid and heartless. Couric’s producer and director, Stephanie Soechtig, admitted to doctoring the video, and Couric herself kinda sorta apologized for it.
But that’s not the worst thing that happened with the making of this documentary. It turns out that Couric’s production team deliberately conspired to violate federal gun laws. According to video obtained by Ammoland, a shooting sports news website, one of Couric’s producers deliberately committed at least four separate felonies by purchasing four separate firearms across state lines without a background check.
14. “Colin Kaepernick Just Went Beastmode On Hillary Clinton”
San Francisco 49er quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who recently refused to stand during the national anthem at a preseason game, just unloaded on Hillary Clinton.
“We have a presidential candidate who has deleted emails and done things illegally and is a presidential candidate,” he said, referring to the 15,000 emails Clinton “wiped” from her private, unsecured server she used during her tenure as secretary of State. “That doesn’t make sense to me.”
13. “5 Reasons Every American Should Oppose Donald Trump”
The case against Trump does not rest, ultimately, on his family life, his divorces, his casinos, strip clubs, bankruptcies, and lawsuits. It doesn’t rest on his personality: his generally mean-spirited demeanor, his lack of polish, his erratic temperament, weird hair, or vulgarity. Nor does it even rest on policy differences—his past support for Democrats, gun control, abortion, Planned Parenthood, or his generally awful foreign policy.
All these things are true, and some are good reasons for conservatives not to vote for him. A vote for Trump is a vote against the principles that Republicanism and conservatism are built on.
But I believe the case against Trump should go even further. I believe no American, conservative or liberal, should support Trump. He doesn’t simply violate conservative principles. He violates American principles. Donald Trump is a danger to self-government, civil liberties, the culture of democracy, and the ideals of a free and open society.
12. “Refusing To Serve Customers You Don’t Agree With Is Suddenly Cool Again”
To the many things the Trump administration in waiting has made cool again, add private businesses refusing service to customers based on moral objections.
Friday, fashion designer Sophie Theallet, who has dressed the current first lady Michelle Obama, offered a preemptive refusal to hypothetically dress the next first lady, Melania Trump, should she ask for some of her clothes— presumably not the ones available at The Gap. In her unsolicited letter, Theallet informed the world that a person who did not ask for any of her clothes would not be getting them.
11. “Hillary Pops Off To Skeptical Black Voter: ‘Why Don’t You Go Run For Something Then’”
During a campaign stop at a coffee shop in Minnesota on Tuesday, Hillary Clinton told a young black woman to “go run for something” if she wouldn’t support the former secretary of State’s bid for the White House.
According to The Hill, the woman was confronting Clinton about the remarks she has made in the past, including comments she made about “super-predators” in 1996. Some people have taken those comments as digs at black men.
Clinton made reference to meeting a Somali-American city council member, presumably Abdi Warsame of the Minneapolis City Council, yet the woman persisted in arguing with Clinton.
10. “Watch Hillary Clinton Fall Apart When Asked About Taking Wall Street Money”
Throughout the campaign, her opponent Bernie Sanders has criticized Clinton’s ability to deliver on her promises to crack down on Wall Street after taking more than $600,000 in speaking fees from Goldman Sachs in a year.
“Was that a mistake? Was that a bad error in judgment?” Anderson Cooper asked.
“Well, I dunno,” Clinton said. “That’s what they offered. Every secretary of State that I know has done that.”
9. “Watch The Daily Show’s Trevor Noah Accidentally Destroy The Case For Gun Control”
Noah probably doesn’t know it, but he just accidentally made an airtight case against gun-free zones in particular and gun control in general. He is 100 percent correct: people hell-bent on murdering as many people as possible don’t really care about silly signs or laws that tell them not to murder people. A sign that says “No Guns” will no more keep a violent jihadi from gunning down a bunch of innocent people than will a sign that says “Muslims Get Out.” And how do we know that gun-free zones, nearly always marked with signs designating them as such, don’t deter murderous psychopaths? Because mass shootings, rather than happening at gun ranges or in gun stores, keep happening in gun-free zones.
8. “I’m A Sexual Assault Victim Who Still Supports Trump”
Why am I telling you this? I’m sure you can guess. There’s a lot of talk about sexism and sexual assault recently because of tapes released about Donald Trump and several women who have never spoken before—some in more than 30 years—telling their stories of how he sexually assaulted them.
I don’t know whether their stories are true. If he’s guilty and found to be so in a court of law, then I hope he’s punished. I do wonder, however, why his accusers never mentioned these things when NBC hired Trump to be on national television. I wonder why they never mentioned it when he stepped into politics years ago. I wonder why they never mentioned it during the primaries. I wonder why they never mentioned it until October, just before the election.
7. “Watch A Mob Of Yale Students Bully A Professor They Say Hurt Their Feelings”
By now you’ve probably seen this video from last fall in which a Yale student screams at a professor, insisting that a college campus ought not be an intellectual space, but a space to make students feel safe and at home. Now, newly resurfaced videos show what happened just before the aforementioned altercation took place.
“You should not sleep at night!” a female student shrieks at Yale sociology professor Nicholas Christakis in that video which has since gone viral. “You’re disgusting!”
6. “A Stupid-Simple Way Out Of Trump Vs. Hillary 2016”
If you reside in Utah, vote Evan McMullin (he is currently polling near dead even).
If you reside in New Mexico, vote for Gary Johnson.
If you are in the following swing states, vote for the highest-polling third-party candidate the week of the election: Iowa, Arizona, Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, and Maine.
5. “Making A Murderer’ Subject Steven Avery Is Guilty As Hell”
I was convinced of many things watching the 10-part series: I was convinced the criminal justice system and Manitowoc County were likely corrupt, and that many people in that office wanted to see Avery end up back in jail. I was convinced that I was being manipulated by directors Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos (more on this later). I was definitely convinced that Avery was guilty of the murder. And, believe it or not, a viewer could believe all those things simultaneously.
4. “The Electoral College Still Makes Sense Because We’re Not A Democracy“
The sad lot of the Electoral College is that what you see isn’t what you get. Like the counter-intuitive fact that a tire blowout on the right requires a steering wheel correction to the left, the EC works backwards. What appears to deprive the populace of its power to decide a president is the very mechanism that preserves its power. It works that way because this isn’t a democracy; not a pure one.
“Pure democracy” is just another phrase for “mob rule.” Dictatorship of the majority means 51 percent of the citizenry rule the other 49 percent. That minority has no rights except those the condescending majority grants. It works well for those in the 51 percent, not so much for those in the 49. Plato knew it, and James Madison, who knew his Plato, did too. Plato and Madison both recognized that justice and liberty for the minority is possible only when power is shared between groups in society.
3. “Concealed Carrier Prevents Mass Shooting At SC Nightclub”
A man with a concealed carry license stopped a shooter after the latter opened fire on a crowd of people at a nightclub in South Carolina early Sunday morning, according to WISTV.com.
After getting into a fight with another person, the 32-year-old suspect pulled out a gun and began to fire at a crowd of people gathered outside of the club, hitting and injuring four, WISTV reports. One of the victims, who holds a concealed-carry permit, shot back in self-defense, hitting the suspect in the leg.
2. “This Man Saved A Girl From Being Stabbed To Death, And Now Target Is Suing Him For It”
In 2013, Michael Turner saved the life of a 16-year-old girl who had been viciously attacked and stabbed in a Target store in Pennsylvania. And instead of thanking him for protecting its customers and preventing them from being murdered, Target is now suing him for his heroism and alleging he acted irresponsibly.
The attacker, Leon Walls, was convicted of attempted homicide for stabbing then-16-year-old Allison Meadows in 2013.
Security footage from the store shows Walls grabbing Meadows and stabbing her before Turner tackles the knife-wielding perp and chases him out of the store with a baseball bat.
1. “A Rape Survivor Speaks Out About Transgender Bathrooms”
The invitation to engage as a child had revealed my whole dilemma: I didn’t hate the little girl in the photo. I hated her need. I hated her anonymity. I hated the visible proof that she loved her abuser. I hated that she didn’t know any better, that it took her another ten years to figure out why she still slept with the light on and showered in her underwear and vigilantly lined the crack under the bathroom door with a beach towel and destroyed her teeth with gum she relentlessly chewed as a means of escaping the recollection of his breath on her face. I hated that he fooled her. He fooled everybody. He was really good.
“Wake up!” I wanted to scream at her. “Can’t you see what’s going on? Do something about it!”
It’s the same desperate inclination I’m fighting today. Everywhere I read in the news, there’s talk of another school or gym or business that is boldly adopting “progressive” new locker room policies designed to create equal rights for people who identify as transgender. These policies allow transgender individuals to use the locker room consistent with the sex they identify as their own, regardless of anatomy.
