After abolishing the filibuster, says Barack Obama, Democrats should ram through statehood for Puerto Rico and D.C., thereby expanding the Senate to 104 members, and adding four new Democratic senators. That new Senate, says Mr. Obama, should enact every law possible to enlarge and expand the electorate, including extending the ballot to ex-convicts. "When the [...]
A recent commentary suggests that American exceptionalism has been shattered by the COVID-19 crisis. If we are indeed left “shattered” and “battered” by a mere virus and our response to it, the rest of the world may one day wish that an exceptional America was still on hand to deal with forces seeking to do [...]
Just who and what is Barack Obama? If he “willed himself into being,” what did he will himself to be?… Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama by David Garrow (1472 pages, HarperCollins, 2017) Having read the entirety of this unnecessarily, even ridiculously, lengthy biography of Barack Obama, I trust that I am well-qualified to [...]
If a reform produces unintended consequences of a troubling sort, succeeding generations of reformers will make use of those consequences not to undo the original reform, but rather to call for new action that requires an ever-larger federal government… All reforms are notorious for their unintended consequences; liberal reforms are noteworthy for something that is [...]
In the wake of President Trump’s decision to rescind DACA, prominent voices have been raised in moral indignation, painting him as a villain. But is that characterization fair? Much of the Catholic world is in an uproar over President Trump’s decision to phase out the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) order enacted by former [...]
As major players on the global stage, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump could counterbalance the forces of globalism which seek to destroy all sovereign nations… Can we trust Russia? Should we trust Russia? Should we trust Trump on Russia? The buzz word of Barack Obama’s Presidential Election Campaign, oh so many eons ago, was “change.” [...]
President Trump and many “conservative” Members of Congress believe that it is the duty of the federal government to see to it that every American receives healthcare, regardless of cost. Anyone opposing the healthcare entitlement must be willing, or even happy, to see people die in the streets… There is much noise coming from Washington [...]
Our moral duty to protect innocent life is the bedrock of civilization and the founding principle of this Great American Experiment... The root of the despotism of this age is clearly the corruption and abuse of language. The mind-molders in the ivory towers falsely insist that language is man-made and so invented for personal and subjective use. [...]
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 [...]
No society can survive if its people cannot achieve general consensus on certain fundamental understandings regarding the nature of the person and of society itself… It may seem too much to say that our country has never been as divided as it is today. Anti-war protests, race riots, and especially a bloody Civil War would [...]
President Obama’s Muslim and community-organizing backgrounds were both traditions that had almost nothing to do with what we once understood to be Western civilization, with its unique American gloss… In the sweepstakes for which of our presidents was the worst, the usual candidates are James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, and Warren Harding. When William Jefferson Clinton [...]
Presidential farewells constitute a great American conversation among the nation’s chief executives and open our view onto a large and detailed panorama of the past. Farewell, Mr. President When on January 10, 2017, Barack Obama delivered his farewell address to the nation, the occasion was only the tenth time in U.S. history that a president [...]
As grand strategy evolves in America’s ongoing democratic political process, the essence of the Plato Doctrine will be preserved in any new formulation of a national security doctrine, because such is the nature of human political life… I have argued that there is no Platonic teaching of a “noble lie,” but rather of “some one [...]
In many countries, politicians have very good reason to hold onto power as if their lives depended on it. Sometimes, as with various brutal dictators, this is literally true; being deposed may well mean being decapitated. Other times, well, even elected leaders may have reasons to want to avoid an early return to civilian life. [...]