A constitution has to have formal structures and requirements if it is to do its job of imposing the rule of law on people in positions of power. But for these formal structures to work, both the people and the governors they choose must recognize that they are important. I was at a conference recently [...]
Yuval Harari, in his latest book, "Nexus," believes that AI endangers the utopian dream of unbridled license that has long been the goal of countless revolutionaries on the left and libertarian anarchists on the right. Modernity is replete with philosophers who interpret reality through prisms. By simplifying their perceptions, such figures seek to change history. [...]
President Trump’s protection of 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 (First Inaugural Address) The world is full of ironies... and the world of politics especially. [...]
Tradition is the extension of democracy through time. It is the proxy of the dead and the enfranchisement of the unborn. “Tradition may be defined as the extension of the franchise,” wrote Chesterton. “Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead.” And he [...]
If suffering seems to mock at life, death’s mockery of life is more blatant still. It is very curious that any man constructing either a way of life for himself or a larger system of life for society should ignore death altogether. Death, after all, is a fact. It was not invented by the Catholic [...]
One looks forward to the completion of Pat Buchanan's memoirs, especially the insider tales of the Nixon and Reagan years. He has always been courageous and compelling in debate and unflappable in his commitment to conservative populist principles. He, perhaps more than any public figure, waged the culture wars with grit, determination, and eloquence. Patrick [...]
The truth of Pope Innocent III’s world is naturally dependent on a move out of nature and into faith. The political was a fundamental aspect of the pastoral. The movement of ascent to God passed always through the carnal, through the law, and on to liberty through grace. We are trapped within the historical, but [...]
For the conservative, the universal imperative that binds human beings does not announce its purpose in simple, declaratory statements. How, then, does one discern its demands? First of all, a conservative is acutely aware of the flawed nature of man. The capacity of human reason is limited. Our existence is ultimately a great mystery. Conservatives [...]
The resort to violence has become the characteristic American response to a world that seems to many to lie beyond their control. Almost from the beginning, violence wrote itself into the American story. Violence seems now to be inscribing itself onto the American soul. Although the story has disappeared from the news cycle, Luigi Mangione’s [...]
Traditional rankings of the American presidents ask whether our chief executives did what was necessary for the good of the country. But should we look to their fidelity to the Constitution as a better way to evaluate their behavior in office? 9 Presidents Who Screwed Up America: And Four Who Tried to Save Her, by [...]
“The book that explains Trump’s dominance may well have been published in 1962.” Or so contend the editors of the Atlantic Monthly. Amazon apparently agrees, since its blurb to promote current sales of Daniel Boorstin’s The Image borrows directly from the editors of the Atlantic and their leap into an increasingly distant past. But is [...]
Ronald Reagan did not read his way to conservatism, as some people do. He experienced his way. The concerns and travails of middle Americans taught him that unaccountable government could be a grave obstacle to the pursuit of happiness, and the experience of dealing with Communists and bureaucrats strengthened his lifelong distrust of overbearing elites. [...]
Roger Scruton argued that the bureaucratisation of politics is replacing deliberative debate with a rigid tick-boxing exercise, substituting social justice for natural justice, imposing laws and regulations without our consent, and developing a group of activist politicians who prioritise the short-term over the long. A key component of the late Sir Roger Scruton's political thinking [...]
If a single descriptor would define conservative activist and scholar, Lee Edwards, it would have to be Lee Edwards, anti-communist. And that would be anti-communism at home and abroad. Just Right: A Life in Pursuit of Liberty by Lee Edwards. (378 pages, Regnery, 2024) If the repeated call of the old Popular Front was “no [...]