Politics & Power

globalize

In the January 9, 2012 issue of Time magazine, Fareed Zakaria comments on what he calls “A Post-American World in Progress.”  Zakaria observes that none of the world’s rising powers, including the rapidly growing BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India, and…

hoboken-voting-booth

There is no one worth spending a vote on.

New_American_Gothic

One thing that has amused me in these first three years of FPR’s existence is the tendency of some readers to single out one or two articles and lament that FPR was once a promising venture but has now taken…

paul

Ron Paul didn’t win Iowa but he did well. What should he do now?

Gatewood Galbraith

You who think that all of the principle and most of the color have gone out of politics never had the opportunity to vote for Gatewood Galbraith.

natural_gas_flame_money_

George Will has penned an end-of-year pick-me-up for conservatives, counseling them that the likely prospect of Republican Presidential electoral defeat in November (given their sad slate of potential nominees) ought not to get conservatives down in the mouth. Rather, things…

music man

BURNED-OVER DISTRICT, NY—Our daughter will be spending the snowy months rehearsing her role as Marian the Librarian in her high school’s production of Meredith Willson’s “The Music Man,” that tuneful Iowa-placed warhorse—no, parade horse—of community theater. (The flaw in community…

Beaver

“The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something, and tell what he saw in a plain way …”
John Ruskin…
I do not know William “Beaver” Watkins, supervisor of a bucolic township where

euro

The Euro is in trouble, and the news just keeps getting worse. There is now open talk of a post-Euro Europe, and such a turn would be a serious strike against any robust European Union. After an all-night session last…

oligarchy1

The “Occupy Wall Street” movement has proved to be significant in its appeal – a majority of Americans support the movement, even though it has been less than articulate in delineating its positions.   Why is that?  I suspect it’s because…

Statue of Liberty

I am loathe to dissent from Mark Mitchell’s thoughtful piece on American exceptionalism, true FroPo that I am. And I could simply add a comment to the post along with the rest of FPR’s readers. But my dissent may call…

peru

“I don’t care if you bring the president of Peru and a thousand police—we’ll be carried out dead before you dig here!”  Thus was the position of the twenty or so irate villagers gathered around us.  The intense Andean sun…

flagcross

If you are planning to run for president, here’s a word of advice: you must assert regularly and with great conviction your belief in American Exceptionalism. This seems especially true if you are vying for the Republican nomination. The particular…

klein

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res]
Wichita, KS…
A couple of weeks ago some fine intellectuals, political figures, journalists, and activists associated with this blog gathered together to talk about localism, and specifically how one might discover in our local communities

Stock Photo of the Consitution of the United States and Feather Quill

Wherein I respond to the federal mandate to “celebrate” Constitution Day. The text is taken from a lecture I gave at Northwood University, co-sponsored by ISI and the Jack Miller Center.
The question before us, “Whose Constitution Is It?” presumes…

power to the people

Every fall I teach a course called “Democracy.” One of the books we invariably read is On Power: The Natural History of its Growth by the French philosopher Bertrand de Jouvenel. Jouvenel wrote the book as WWII was raging, and…