By insisting that judges are responsible for fixing bad laws, rather than interpreting all laws with fairness and respect for standards of due process, progressives gather to themselves the power to impose their vision on the nation. I find this originalist judicial philosophy to be really troubling. In essence, it means the judges and courts [...]
The nation-state is a fact of life today. It is a necessary protection for people, in their communities, as they face dangers from foreign powers and state-less international elites. But we must remember that it is necessary to guard the guardian of our freedom, and to maintain our own virtue if we are to guard [...]
For the most part, the term “checklist conservative” is used to imply that the person criticizing a Trump Supporter is an Establishment Conservative. But is this new insult justified?… A new political insult has emerged in recent months: “checklist conservatism.” It is a charge leveled at all kinds of self-identified conservatives whenever they accuse members [...]
President Trump rarely uses the language of restraint, but his limited agenda makes clear the vast room available for a renewal of state and local politics as a necessary ground and embodiment of self-government… We continue to witness the left’s refusal to come to grips with their loss of electoral power in Washington, D.C. Childish and [...]
The myth of civil service neutrality, like the myth of an unbiased press, has fostered the growth of an arrogant, self-interested governing class and structure than can and will defend its own interests… In less than three weeks, the Trump administration has suffered a Niagara of leaks from the White House to the press. Backroom [...]
President Trump’s promise to protect the American economy through the implementation of protectionist principles with regard to trade is nothing less than an extension of his desire to protect America’s sovereignty… “Protection will lead to great prosperity and strength.” —Donald Trump (Inaugural Address) The world is full of ironies… and the world of politics especially. [...]
Textualism is a compromise, or rather a lowest common denominator, that can allow for a renewal of the rule of law. Still, it rests on a great loss—that of the common mind of our people… Neil Gorsuch, President Trump’s nominee to fill late Justice Antonin Scalia’s spot on the Supreme Court, might follow other recent [...]
So long as the government continues subsidizing radical groupthink through its tax, research, and other policies, we will continue to see our children indoctrinated into an ideology that denies reality, precludes self-awareness, and undermines ordered liberty… The Organization of American Historians (OAH) has responded to the Trump presidency in a manner showing all the seriousness [...]
As we dispense with religious institutions, beliefs, and practices—as we dispense with God Himself in the ridiculous belief that we are enough on our own—we leave ourselves open to barbarism within and a more overt barbarism from without… Anyone who knows anything about the Judeo-Christian tradition (an increasingly small group, I know), is aware that [...]
Until Members of Congress rediscover the most basic virtue necessary to fulfill their role in our constitutional government, no amount of tinkering can hope to restore our republic… As the late George Carey and I were writing our recently published Constitutional Morality and the Rise of Quasi-Law, we were convinced that we would be criticized [...]
California's coastal cities have not only grown, but they have attracted cultural leftists from the world over, and in vast numbers, who have made a point of disenfranchising the “deplorables” in their midst. In the middle of winter, as the ice grows thick in Ohio, I begin to miss my youth in California. Then again, [...]
Emerson, Lake & Palmer viewed their vocation as creating things of beauty. Such a motivation is a rare gift; to have it shared by three such brilliant musicians was a once in a generation gift for us all. The show has ended. In 2016 we lost two-thirds of the most important musical group of the [...]
If Roe v. Wade should fall, this will only be the beginning of a veritable war by the abortionists on the courts, legislatures, and public. A friend of mine, who enjoys irritating me, recently handed me a book review from the American Historical Review, written by Professor Simone M. Caron, of Johanna Schoen’s Abortion After [...]
Attacks on the Electoral College itself are not new. What is new is the demand being made by many progressives, including prominent constitutional scholars, that Electors themselves abandon their constitutional duties in the name of “fairness”… As most readers probably are aware, Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein launched a campaign to “recount” electoral results [...]