Democracy

A Backwards Civilization: Unthinking Leaders, Frenzied Citizens

In America today, we are living in a toxic political climate that is the product of a very dangerous combination: Our rulers lack the learning necessary to ask the kinds of deep and fundamental questions that leaders and lawgivers ought to make a habit of pondering, while our people...

The Rise of Viktor Orbán, Right-Wing Populist

Viktor Orbán discovered his roots in a tradition devoted to family, country and Christian values. Though he submits to democratic elections and legal restraints on his power, in order for his right-wing populism to survive he must exercise greater authority than is his by law...

The Other Founders: The Legacy of Anti-Federalism

To a very great extent, it was the Anti-Federalists, through their rhetoric and writings, who kept alive the spirit of localism and salvaged the great ideal of limited government inherited from the Revolution... The Other Founders: Anti-Federalism and the Dissenting Tradition in America,...

The American Descent Into Uncivil War

When we say Americans are divided and polarized, it can conjure up the image of cloth stretched to the point of ripping. However, this image does not represent everything we are experiencing as a society. Indeed, the...

Truth as a Democratic Project

To save democracy from subjectivism, truth must become a democratic project. The greatest of crimes can be enacted in the name of sincerity, authenticity, and “being at peace with oneself.” Each of these criteria looks to one’s own estimate of oneself...

Is America Devolving into Soft Totalitarianism?

Soft totalitarianism aims to destroy communities and undermine the character of the people. The next stage in human degradation is mere savagery... Today’s offering in our Timeless Essay series affords our readers the opportunity to join Bruce Frohnen as he explores whether or not present-day America...

The Tragedy of Democracy Without Authority: Maritain & Thucydides

Democracies were acutely problematic when they did not collectively comprehend the necessity of legitimate authority permeating the polis. Lacking this understanding, power was elevated in authority's absence... Today’s offering in our Timeless Essay series affords our readers the opportunity to join José Maria J. Yulo as...

Democracy, Aristocracy, and the Fate of America

Only where Democracy and Aristocracy are harmonized and unified culturally can a nation really be healthy and advanced; its history becomes the awe of the world... “Be it known to you that a son is born to me; but I thank the gods not much that...

What U.S. Foreign Service Officers Should Know

The Foreign Service Officer should be ever aware that the identity of the persons to whom he is representing America depends on their culture, and on the features of that culture to which the regime that reigns over these persons gives priority...

Is the United States a Banana Republic?

In the modern world of American politics, special-interest money is displacing voters. Wealth is highly concentrated in a few hands, with corporations wielding enormous power. More and more families patch together two or more paychecks to meet the widening income, healthcare, and pension gaps that are threatening...

Not One of Us: Immigration, Equality, & the Common Good

God unequally bestows gifts to us that are to be used for the common good. The wise can guide others; the well-organized can administer businesses that provide employment; the strong can protect the weak. With such an understanding, equality and a hierarchical social structure are not incompatible,...

President Trump vs. the Globalist Crusaders

If freedom of speech and the press here have produced a popular culture that is an open sewer and a politics of vilification and venom, why would we seek to impose this upon other peoples?... If a U.S. president...

Democracy and Liberal Learning

We are the heirs to Great Ideas, Great Books, and a Great Conversation committed to understanding the story of humanity. The challenge for those living in the largely democratic West is to maintain the idea that a society committed to freedom is a society committed to the value of...

Ideas and American Politics

The fear and suspicion of ideas and intellect rest on historical foundations buried deep in the American consciousness. Many Americans, in fact, have long disparaged the life of the mind, and populist democracy has increasingly required an appeal to vulgarity and ignorance...