Politics & Power 484

Alexandria, VA September 11, 2001, we are frequently told, is the day that "changed everything." For the 3,000 people in New York City and Washington D.C. who were killed on…

Today we can easily forget how dark things looked in the 1970s and how much people feared that they might be living in the sunset years of our nation and…

What I’m not expecting to hear is anyone asking how it was that about 25,000 people in the towers aided each other in an orderly evacuation, without which the casualty…

Maybe you are the kind of donor who supports nonprofits in your community. Like many Americans, you give or tithe through your church or temple. You support local human-service organizations…

Red toryism claims to be re-defining the political landscape, moving beyond the old hegemonic debates as to whether the best kind of government is socialist and statist or liberal and…

The federal courts' extraordinarily broad interpretation of the Constitution's interstate commerce clause has long posed a problem for localists -- which is to say, for community self-governance. That has never…

Let’s call the whole world Christ’s. Ryan Lizza’s piece on Michele Bachmann prompted an avalanche of posts from bloggers and columnists who took issue with effort to link the Congresswoman…

Devon, PA. For months now, I have been sitting on an incomplete draft of a series of essays on "Localism and the Universal Church," wherein I seek to show that…

This is Part II of a III Part series on C.S. Lewis and Statism. The series originally appeared at theIndependent Institute. See Part I here and Part II here. Collectivism and…

This is Part II of a III Part series on C.S. Lewis and Statism. The series originally appeared at theIndependent Institute. See Part I here and Part III here. Moral…

This is Part I of a III Part series on C.S. Lewis and Statism. The series originally appeared at the Independent Institute. See part II here and part III here.…

One has a free choice of whether to take one's cocaine in crystal or powdered form. However, while this may be a free choice, it is never a choice of…

Freedom Requires Restraint

Devon, PA. R.R. Reno writes on the First Things website this morning, I’m no libertarian. St. Paul was clear that government is ordained by God, and St. Thomas helps us…

(What follows is the text of the remarks that I delivered at the recently concluded I.S.I. Honors Program. The conference was entitled "The Language of Liberty"). Fells Point, Baltimore.  A…

The speculative greed of the many—the suckers—is what enables the few to pull off their uncreative destruction. But not only the greedy get hurt when one of these bubbles bursts…

Like the football coach whose pep talks wear thin, a President who turns every cause into a holy one, every enemy into a Hitler, and every conflict into a genocide,…

In this hitherto unpublished 1995 lecture, Wilson Carey McWilliams sought to persuade a conservative audience (at the University of Dallas) for an arguably "conservative" case for government support of "decencies"…

What ironies of fate converged that morning, such that a mob was about to come out on a march against us?

The habit of questioning, of civil debate, of negotiating, and compromise are the habits necessary for a thriving democracy.

With three children raised and fledged, we managed to avoid their seductive pox and the kids are actually grateful for it. All three of them are engaged in creative professions.…

This lecture by Wilson Carey McWilliams was delivered at St. John's College in New Mexico on April 1, 1995. It is heretofore unpublished. While a number of its specific political…

Phoenix, AZ. In the days leading up to this year’s Major League Baseball All-Star Game, which will be held in Phoenix on July 12, there is sure to be a…

Devon, PA. As my latest pair of essays on FPR scrolled across the screen, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was keeping the family legacy alive of undermining the obligations of…