What Has Been Forgotten About our Common Sense Founding
To the extent that America may be said to have a central idea, common sense is the key to understanding it. America’s Founders used the […]
Declaration of Independence
Common Sense and the Common Good
The Founders’ gift does not demand much of us. As citizen-sovereigns, we need to exercise common sense and hold dear the common good. Little more […]
Corruption, Globalized
As long as there has been politics, there has been corruption. So the investigative hand-grenades which have been flying for the past year, first at […]
John Locke, Closet NeverTrumper?
The fissures that led to the crackup of modern conservatism run deep. The most visible sign of this reality was the election of Donald Trump, […]
We Need a Radio Free America on Campus
Deep within the United States Code a dynamite charge lies buried. Once ignited, it could blow the current landscape of higher education to smithereens, replacing […]
To Be Great the U.N. Must Defend Democratic Sovereignty
“I’ve listened to countless speeches in this hall, but I can say this: None were bolder, none more courageous and forthright than the one delivered […]
Obama’s America: That’s Who We Are
During his presidency, Barack Obama was fond of hectoring the American people with the condescending refrain “that’s not who we are.” He would trot it […]
‘Party of Lincoln’ No More
One of the most prominent clichés that passes for wisdom among the GOP Establishment and conservative intellectual elite is that the Republican Party is the party […]
Common Sense Trumps the Experts in War and Peace
What is common sense and why does it seem to be so uncommon today? Our country was founded on the basis of the self-evident truths […]
Some Things Trump Could Say About Monuments
President Trump has expressed regret about the removal of commemorative monuments whose honorees are tainted by participation in slavery. While I respect his sentiment I […]
Trump’s Coming Victory Over Identity Politics
Amid the turbulence of the past few weeks, it has been President Trump who has kept his head while others have lost theirs. Trump may […]
What Lincoln Might Say About Charlottesville
Something like hate stirs within me at the sight of the swastika unfurled on American soil: a powerful, visceral reaction against white supremacy as the […]
How Do We Rediscover Our American Heritage? Start With the Declaration
It’s sobering to consider the degree to which we have lost our knowledge of and connection to our American heritage. As a result, William B. […]
Jefferson’s Elements
When Euclid wrote Elements circa 300 B.C. he set down five axioms. A straight line can be made from any two points. A finite straight […]
Conservatism Must First Recover What It Seeks to Conserve
Since the election of Donald Trump as the nation’s 45th president, essays about conservatism—what it is, how it ought to relate to Trump—are all the […]
Coarse Correction: The Real Significance of the 2016 Election
About a year ago, the respected Harvard political theorist, Harvey C. Mansfield, Jr., wrote an op-ed about Donald Trump for the Wall Street Journal titled, […]
Progression—or Degeneracy? Part Three
Editor’s note: This is the third of a three-part series. Tocqueville’s The Old Regime and the Revolution echoes forward to our time by highlighting the […]
Progression—or Degeneracy? Part Two
Editor’s note: This is the second of a three-part series. If, as I have posited in the first of these essays, “whether the men of […]
Progression—or Degeneracy? Part One
Editor’s note: This is the first of a three-part series. The American regime that resulted from the American Revolution differs from today’s in size, scope, […]
For Memorial Day, Some Common Sense About Our Common Purpose
“Will our Republic survive?” It is a fitting question for Memorial Day. For, as Abraham Lincoln noted in his Gettysburg Address, “It is for us […]