Politics & Power 484
Religious Liberty?
Alexandria, VA. Vast and even incalculable quantities of ink have already been spilled over the issue of the HHS mandate that religious organizations purchase contraception as part of their compliance…
What’s Wrong With Iowa? (A Transplanted Professor Knows)
If you think you may legitimately enjoy the physical benefits of a place while dwelling in the airy regions of judgment above it, you’d better think again.
Conservative in America
Kearneysville, WV. As this election cycle grinds on, and as Washington prepares for CPAC's 2012 event, each Republican candidate continues to claim that he best represents the conservative ideal. In…
The GOP in Limbo: How Low Can You Go?
Newt Gingrich is a master of righteous indignation although he’s far better at being indignant than being righteous. What's going on with conservative Christians?
The Closing of the Republican Mind (A Séance)
Lucky me, to be invited to try the beta version of Google’s newest and coolest app — Séance! After a quick download and install, I wasted no time in launching…
Globalize or Localize? Beyond the Post-American World
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,…
Agrarian Hypocrisy and the Evils of Distributism
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…
Post-Iowa Advice for the Paul Campaign
Ron Paul didn't win Iowa but he did well. What should he do now?
Gatewood Galbraith, Tertium Quid, RIP
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.
Gas Bag
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…
Iowa is for Peace-Lovers
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…
Electing Beaver: The Politics of Place in the Public Square
“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…
The Euro: Crisis and Opportunity
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…
Occupy Oligarchy!
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…
If Not Exceptional, How about Unusual
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…
Mafia Among the Mountain Folk, Part II
“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…
American Exceptionalism or a Modest Republic?
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…
Global Warming, Local Farming, and Naomi Klein: A Trip to the Land Institute
[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,…
My Congressionally-Mandated Constitution Day Lecture
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…
On Power
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…
When What We Say in Private Goes Public
All religious groups have their internecine squabbles and the places where such fights take place. They used to be confined to magazines and journals, and so only followed by the…
The Real Educational Issue: College Students and a Crisis in Citizenship
The fact that the people who will likely occupy the top of the socio-economic chain—and whose decisions will thus set the terms of most Americans’ existences—have little room for the…
Thoughts on the British Riots
They do not smash shop windows to get their hands on plasma televisions, because their parents' wealth makes such toys readily available to them, but they really have no greater…
On the Use of a Grim Joke and a National Elegy
Until then you’ll welcome into your homes the talking heads who, loving an abstraction, spread a pestilential hatred.