Category: Politics & Government

Opinions on contemporary political happenings and the workings of civil government.

Watch the Back Door

  

Now that the House is Republican, probably no radical legislation is going to succeed. One thing to keep in mind, though, is that there are other ways an administration can try to achieve its agenda. We have to be alert to those possibilities: Last week, some alert observers noticed that the end-of-life provision [a.k.a., death panels] that had to be excised from Obamacare because of the uproar created over the government determining whether or not someone would be allowed to… Read more »

Return of the Constitution

  

I remember standing in the freezing rain outside the Capitol on inaugural day 2001, watching George W. Bush replace Bill Clinton as president. It’s hard to describe the relief that swept through the crowd once he took the oath of office. Eight years of one of the sleaziest episodes in American presidential history had mercifully come to an end. I wasn’t present on Wednesday when the Republicans once again took control of the House of Representatives, but something similar to… Read more »

Bush's Decisions

  

Over Christmas, I took the opportunity to read former President Bush’s new book Decision Points. I did so for two reasons: first, I really wanted to “hear” what he had to say; second, as an American historian, I need to be up to speed on how this former president defends his actions. Let me begin with what I consider to be its strengths. The first strength is Bush’s informal writing style. You get the impression this is exactly how he… Read more »

Starting a New Year with Ronald Reagan

  

On this first day of a new year, I’m not going to say too much. Instead, I’m just going to let Ronald Reagan encourage and challenge you. I believe standing up for America also means standing up for the God who has so blessed this land. We’ve strayed so far, it may be later than we think. There’s a hunger in our land to see traditional values reflected in public policy again. To those who cite the first amendment as… Read more »

Reagan: The Principled & the History Makers

  

As we close the book on 2010, and as we consider the challenges that loom, some select quotes from Ronald Reagan may help us focus on our responsibilities. There are some quotes from Reagan with which many people are familiar, but I’ve chosen to pull out some that are less well known, yet just as insightful. Just two months into his presidency, right before the assassination attempt, he spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference dinner: We’ve heard in our… Read more »

Chambers & Counterrevolution

  

More wisdom from Whittaker Chambers today. Reflecting on the sad state of society in 1925 with respect to its grasp of the dangers it was facing, he penned these poignant words: The dying world of 1925 was without faith, hope, character, understanding of its malady or will to overcome it. It was dying but it laughed. And this laughter was not the defiance of a vigor that refuses to know when it is whipped. It was the loss, by the… Read more »

A Tocqueville Prophecy

  

Yesterday, I drew from Alexis de Tocqueville’s classic Democracy in America to show the positive influence of Christianity on early American society. Today, I would like to once again draw from that well of wisdom to highlight what I would consider to be a prophecy of America’s future should it ever succumb to the lure of a large and intrusive federal government. I urge you to read what Tocqueville had to say about this and ask yourself: has this already… Read more »