Originally posted June 19, 2013. Nial Ferguson, author of “The Great Degeneration: How Institutions Decay and Economies Die”, writes in today’s Wall Street Journal how in 1883 Alexis de Tocqueville marveled at the power of the individual in America. And notes that if Tocqueville was still with us today he would think that France conquered […]
Here’s Why the Electoral College is Best for America
With President Trump’s victory in the Electoral College, despite losing the popular vote, his unhappy opponents were looking for any means by which to delegitimize his victory. Taking shots at the constitutionally created and time tested Electoral College became their go-to strategy. Without it, they maintain, the president would have had no chance. Despite the […]
Google Doesn’t Want You to See This Video
The video below, like 55 other videos by PragerU, has been restricted by Google’s YouTube. As Dennis Prager notes, the video below was censored “two weeks after a Senate hearing at which a Google representative swore under oath that the company doesn’t censor based on political views.” You may not agree with the contents of […]
America Has a Problem, and Calvin Coolidge Predicted it Back in 1925
Chris Edwards, a friend of mine from the Cato Institute, has written a condemnation of the “grants-in-aid” programs the federal government uses to impose its own regulations on the states. He notes that President Calvin Coolidge predicted that government would encroach on the states, and it has. The federal government has especially intruded into the […]
An American Civil War without Arms?
“The questions raised by the present state of our politics, which might fairly be described as an American civil war without arms, are these: How does a nation so divided stand united in the world?” asks Pat Buchanan in his most recent column, “A Nation at War with Itself.” The battle of 2020 is on, […]
Transcript of Articles of Confederation
Led by Sam Adams, John Hancock and John Dickinson, states rights founders signed the Articles of Confederation in 1778. The Articles defined sovereignty, freedom and independence for each of the 13 original states. Article I. The Stile of this confederacy shall be, “The United States of America.” Article II. Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom […]
1992 Presidential Election: Powerful Ross Perot Pulled but 19%
All the racket being made by clearly unqualified progressive candidates is but short term noise from non-students of history who, it would appear are unfamiliar with the wording in the Constitution. I carry a copy of the Cato Institute’s little Constitution with me everywhere I go, often accompanied by a compound interest table. In 1992 […]
Is America on the Brink of a Civil War?
Political pundits are making dire predictions about the state of America. A term that seems to keep coming up is “Civil War.” Last summer I read Killer Angels, a novel about America’s Civil War. I was hooked on the topic and read more about it, but no one should take up talk of another civil […]
Do You Know About America’s Constitutional Cold War?
In an adaptation of a lecture he delivered at Hillsdale College in September, Charles Kesler explains his theory on America’s two constitutions, and how today the country is fighting a “cold civil war.” He writes (abridged): America Torn Between Two Two Constitutions, Two Cultures, Two Ways of Life Six years ago I wrote a book […]
Focus on the Bigger Constitutional Issues
Certainly, many Americans must be thinking that there is something much more important at stake here than what did or did not happen at some house in a D.C. suburb in the summer of 1982. Any of us would be forgiven for thinking that, Francis Menton writes in the Manhattan Contrarian. The Answer: A Simple […]