Politics & Power

The Fall of the Wall

In my misspent youth, I was a politician. And in my role as a politician, I did all the things that politicians do. Well,...

What’s Not the Matter With Kansas

Tonight I happened to attend a pair of extremely interesting, and strikingly juxtaposed, events. The first was a Bradley Lecture at AEI delivered...

False Economics and Malignant Growth

Patrick Deneen's excellent post this morning on populism, directly invoking Kansas, gives me the occassion to repost a short essay I wrote last year for my...

The Control of Nature

As reported in today's New York Times, New Orleans plaintiffs in a civil suit against the U.S. Government are elated at a ruling that...

Localist Principles, Populist Words (or, The Problem Defined)

I suppose Front Porch Republic is experiencing growing pains, because all the talk lately is about "what's next?"--what cause, what platform, what principles or...

Health Subsidiarity, or Solidarity, or Socialism (Take Your Pick)

Wichita, KS The debate over health care reform in the Senate has moved into overdrive, with one possible compromise following another in rapid succession. The...

What Colour Is the Village Green?

Often the politics of the local turns on the “who” as much as the “where.” Switzerland showed as much very recently.  The country enjoys some...

The Oklahoma Abortion Law and SUVs

If my friend Ike lived in Britain they’d call him a “one-off.”  An avowed anarchist who thinks that things started going downhill when humans...

The Lost Children

In 1973, the Supreme Court handed down the Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton abortion decisions. Together, they represented a serious defeat for the unalienable right to life, the constitutional system of federalism, and the principle of democracy.

Blood and Tobacco: Robert Penn Warren’s “Night Rider”

Men cut off from their origins and alienated from their selves become desperate, and desperate men do desperate deeds.