Tag: democracy

Advice For Up-And-Comers

Claremont, CA. I spoke last week at the New Jersey Governor’s School for Public Issues, a (mostly) state-funded summer program for civic-minded students about...

The Gain is Gloss: Thanks to FPR and Its Readers

Devon, PA.  Much like Jeremy Beer, I have found that FPR has led me to look at 'Blogs almost for the first time in my...

Another Bad Idea In American Public Schooling

Claremont, CA. Outside of Los Angeles County, few people have heard about the latest dangerous idea in public education. Two local public school districts have...

The Emperor’s Old Clothes

I wonder whether anyone else finds it, if not quite ominous, at least suggestive, that the National Constitution Center is now hosting a traveling...

A Nation of Slaves?

Difficult economic times force people to confront the problem of economic security. In fact, it’s easy to imagine that, in an ideal world, economic...

The Decline of Middle America and the Problem of Meritocracy

  I delivered a version of the following text as a lecture at Augustana College last Tuesday, April 28 (all errors of fact and interpretation...

Nation at the Crossroads

RINGOES, NJ. The world is hunkered down. For some months now we have been holding our collective breath, waiting to see if the financial...

How To Tie a Tie

Claremont, CA - I don't know how to tie a tie. But now I know that I am not alone. Do this: On Google, type...

The Places of Teen Pop Culture

It's not only that the richest people are getting richer; it's the richest places, too. And even within regions -- southern California, say -- rich suburbs have become wealthier and other suburbs' fortunes have declined. "Just as the gap between rich and poor widened at the individual level," Dreier and company note, "it widened tremendously between suburban places." You can see this trend reflected, among other places, in that great bellwether of American life: teen cinema.

Tocqueville’s Diagnosis

RINGOES, NJ As brilliant minds, armed with apparently endless supplies of money, thrash about Washington desperately attempting to fix what they have broken, it...