The Framers left us a Constitution that gives powers and authority both to the national government and to the states. But the Constitution does not systematically expound on the nature and extent of those powers, nor does it offer a clear-cut rationale for what the states are supposed to do beyond checking national power – a theoretical deficiency rooted in political reality.
Read MoreTag: Founding Fathers
Commentary: Civic Virtues as Moral Facts Trying to Recover the Other Half of Our Founding
Until a half century ago or so, there was a moral consensus, however fraying, that informed and shaped the exercise of freedom in the Western world. The self-determination of human beings, of citizens in self-governing political orders, presupposed a civilized inheritance that allowed free men and women to distinguish, without angst or arduous effort, between liberty and license, good and evil, honorable lives and dissolute and disgraceful ones. Few would have suggested that liberty and human dignity could long flourish without a sense of moral obligation and civic spirit on the part of proud, rights-bearing individuals.
Read MoreCommentary: The Federalist Papers and ‘The Violence of Faction’
It has been said that the oldest word in American politics is “new.” Even the United States Constitution, by far the oldest written constitution in the world, was once new, and had to be defended against charges that it was an unnecessary and unrepublican innovation. The Federalist was keenly aware of the novelty of the Constitution’s enterprise—the attempt to establish “good government from reflection and choice”—but boldly turned it to account.
Read MoreCommentary: Reason, Emergencies, and Self-Government
As panic over the COVID-19 virus has gripped the country, the alarm has made it possible for many government officials to advance agendas that portend permanent accretions of power to themselves and diminution of others’ freedoms.
Read MoreSeventeen Benjamin Franklin Quotes on Tyranny, Liberty, and Rights
Americans remember Benjamin Franklin as one of our founders. That is fitting because he was not just our most famous citizen at our country’s birth, but he was also so much a central part of that birth that he has been called “The First American.”
Read MoreCommentary: What the Founders Actually Thought About Slavery
One of the ironies of the current American “elite” is that, rather than actually being elite, they have the smug self-assurance of knowing much that isn’t so.
Read MoreCommentary: Americans Have Almost Entirely Forgotten Their History
In America, we celebrate democracy and are justifiably proud that this nation was founded on the idea that the people should rule.
Read MoreCommentary: What Our Founders Really Thought of Slavery—and Why The New York Times Is Wrong
For those who want to fundamentally transform our nation, the first order of business is to thoroughly discredit our past.
Read MoreAmerican Inventor Series: Benjamin Franklin, American Printer
Before anything else, Benjamin Franklin was a printer. It’s difficult to imagine now, but printing was a strenuous trade in Franklin’s time, requiring late hours, heavy lifting of various lead types, and long shifts operating the manual presses. Franklin, however, loved to read, which suited him well in his career as a printer.
Read MoreCommentary: Fight the Denigration of American History
by Michael Finch American history is everywhere under attack. The recent skirmishes started with the campaign to remove Confederate statues, but it surely won’t end there. As our betters in America’s universities want us to know, the whole of American history is suspect. In our media, in the popular…
Read MoreCan Political Freedom Exist Without Virtue? America’s Founders Didn’t Think So
by Becky Akers America’s Founding Fathers were a contentious lot, disagreeing about everything from the need for a Bill of Rights to the merits of skinny-dipping “near the Bridge … whilst …Ladies of the first fashion in the neighbourhood, are passing over it…” But they spoke unanimously on one…
Read MoreCommentary: The Turbulent True History of the ‘Good Ole Days’ of Politics
by Jeffery A. Rendall It’s only natural in times of political turmoil – like what we’re experiencing now and for as long as I can remember – that people harken back to yesteryear for a more tranquil period when everyone got along swimmingly and went out for drinks after…
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