An American Socrates, Dumbed Down
Ken Burns is America’s favorite documentary-maker, judging by his success over forty years now. If anyone speaks on the authority of popularity as a liberal historian of America, it’s him, and he has...
View ArticleDavid Hume at the Constitutional Convention
“I am an American in my Principles and wish we would let them alone to govern or misgovern themselves as they think proper.” With these politically incorrect words, written in a letter to Baron...
View ArticleThe Catholic Case for George Washington
Americans have long understood, if intuitively, that honoring the American Founding and celebrating George Washington are intrinsically linked. Should the day ever come when the events of the...
View ArticleWhy Liberalism and Constitutionalism Need Christianity
Liberalism and constitutionalism need Christianity. This is a provocative thesis, and one that challenges many current narratives. In what sense can this be true? There is no point in attempting here...
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Remembering Gordon Lloyd
Gordon Lloyd, retired professor in Pepperdine University’s School of Public Policy, passed away this week at the age of 81. I first met Gordon at a Liberty Fund conference on “Madison’s Notes of...
View ArticleThe Founders’ Vision for American Independence
This Independence Day, it is worth reflecting on what the Founding Fathers meant when they used the term “independence.” On one level, July 4th is about our national independence, securing for America...
View ArticleWrestling With the Founding in the Culture Wars
As America prepares to celebrate her 250th anniversary in less than three years, it is perhaps strange that the Founders are still alive in our national consciousness and indeed play an outsized role...
View ArticleReal Republics and Fake Democracies
In an essay recently published in The Free Press, the political commentator Martin Gurri made a nicely arch response to the fashionable hand-wringing about supposed threats to “our democracy.” I come...
View ArticleWas the Founding Generation “Churched”?
George Hawley is one of the best students of contemporary political conservativism and the Alt-Right. His recent Law & Liberty piece on American Christian nationalism does not disappoint. He and I...
View Article“People Don’t Talk That Way Anymore”
Patriotism is, sadly, out of fashion in elite circles. On the left, critics of America argue that the injustices and hypocrisies of the Founding invalidate the republic’s highest ideals. On the right,...
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