Conservatives of every persuasion who are sincerely interested in the truth are in Forrest McDonald‘s debt. If we are to understand the Founders, we should follow McDonald’s example and strive to study our heritage as dispassionately and as reflectively as possible. Novus Ordo Seclorum: The Intellectual Origins of the Constitution, by Forrest McDonald (University Press [...]
The United States Civil Rights Commission has proclaimed that religion is an impediment to civil rights and has prepared a constitutional briefing designed to defeat religion’s “discriminatory” and “intolerant” status in society... In its recent report, deceptively entitled “Peaceful Coexistence: Reconciling Nondiscrimination Principles with Civil Liberties,” the United States Civil Rights Commission proposes that the [...]
To revive American constitutionalism would require not more people who talk about “justice,” “the common good,” and “the best regime,” but people who are able to shoulder concrete responsibilities, so that the reconstruction of society could begin where it matters most, in the personal lives of the citizens… Discriminating observers recognize that political practice in [...]
Brewing one's own beer helps the conservative settle back into a habitual patience and a dedication to process and institutions that are assurances of good government in any republic... For the Christmas of 2016, I recommend you get the conservative in your life a homebrewing kit, such as the starter kit available from Northern Brewer. Now, before [...]
That we remember the Articles of Confederation poorly has far more to do with the ultimate success of American nationalists than it does with actual failure or success of the Articles themselves. The Articles of Confederation have been denounced for so long that no one bothers to denounce them anymore. Almost every American and almost [...]
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 [...]
What would Edmund Burke do? What would he say should be done to save our Constitution and help us recover our republic? This past week I spent some time at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal. The incomparable Annette Kirk was hosting a group of students, scholars, and men and women of letters. We [...]
There is no section of the U.S. Constitution that would preclude states from putting referendums for secession on the ballot, and if duly approved, for such states then to depart legally from the Union. The U.S. Constitution is the world’s oldest existing governing body of laws. It was then that our founding fathers met in their [...]
Today’s offering in our Timeless Essay series affords readers the opportunity to join Mark C. Henrie, as he explores Russell Kirk’s understanding of the American Constitutional founding. —W. Winston Elliott III, Publisher In the very first Federalist paper, Alexander Hamilton claimed that at stake in the process of American constitution-making was a matter of world-historical importance. He [...]
It is possible that Hillary Clinton will be the next President of the United States. My intention in saying this is not to discourage supporters of and potential voters for Donald Trump. These people know from experience that it is best to dismiss or fight to prove wrong the self-interested doomsday predictions of the mainstream [...]
Even a Constitution that rational individuals can affirm as a firm protection of their liberty can’t endure without the added support of veneration. The instinctive conservative response is to reject the idea of the living constitution for various and conflicting reasons. One such reason is the conservative recognition that even a free country depends on [...]
The cry, “That violates the separation of church and state!” has been the centerpiece of the secularist drive to marginalize Christianity in the public sphere since the 1940s. The real—and often neglected—question is what precisely that separation means and how it should be interpreted and applied. […]
The Federal Government is the creature of the States. It is not a party to the Constitution, but the result of it—the creation of that agreement which was made by the States as parties. It is a mere agent, entrusted with limited powers for certain specific objects; which powers and objects are enumerated in the [...]
Our cultural unwritten constitution has been damaged by decades of conflict and abuse. It will not be restored through adoption of one or even several reforms. Nor will our operational constitution be “fixed” through even fundamental changes in formal law. Lacking an appropriate constitutional morality, those who govern will continue to do so through quasi-law, [...]