Constitutional Interpretation as a Defense Against Tyranny
In their debates and considerations regarding the formation of an official constitution, the Framers of the United States Constitution were searching for ways to maintain a strong…
James Madison to Donald Trump: “You’re Fired!”
The Tragic Flaw of the Rule of Law[1] The events of January 6, 2021, on Capitol Hill evoke Hegel’s famous phrase that the Owl of Minerva flies…
Rioters Storming the United States Capitol: A Wodehousian Putsch Against the Madisonian Constitution
Please see John von Heyking's interview about rioters storming the U.S. Capitol. It is available here.
God Against the Revolution: The Loyalist Clergy’s Case Against the American Revolution
God Against the Revolution: The Loyalist Clergy's Case Against the American Revolution. Gregg L. Frazer. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2018. Twitter, one hardly needs…
Preface to an Augustinian History of the United States (Introduced by a Reading of Dante)
In the first Canto of his Inferno, having projected himself into a dream of his own making, Dante is confronted with a she-wolf (lupa), ultimate incarnation of…
The Dangers of Egalitarianism in a Democracy
Most Americans take for granted that democracy is an absolute good. If it can be said of an idea or a program that it promotes equality, Americans,…
Plato on the Fall of Ancient and Modern Greece
Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, warned us that there is nothing new under the sun. At least in terms of the current crisis in Greece,…
An Analysis Program on the U.S. Election
An analysis program on the U.S. elections on Scheizer Radio und Fernsehen with Claudia Bruhwiler and Martin Dahinden is available here.
American Foreign Policy and the Failure of Reason
Writing recently in Spectator USA, the estimable Dan McCarthy pointed out that the recent failures of American foreign policy are not simply errors in prudential judgment.[*] There…
Communitarianism and the Federal Idea
The communitarian movement has arisen as an effort to address the evident and growing deficiencies of modern liberalism, which seems unable to think beyond the sovereign autonomy…
The Federal Idea
In this glowing encomium is also buried a sober warning. Such a complex government would, Tocqueville observed, “be ill adapted to a people which has not been…
In Search of the American Myth
American history needs to be seen in the context of a larger drama. But there is sharp disagreement over the way we choose to represent that relationship.…
Recovering Our Legacy: The Many Uses of the American Past
We Americans need to know our history. And we need to know it far better than we have in the past. We are not a people bound…
Public Debate: Is Trumpism Good or Bad for America?
New York Times best-selling author, AEI scholar, and editor-in-chief of The Dispatch, Jonah Goldberg was at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to talk about tribalism and how it…
Progressive History and the American Founders
Progressivism: The Strange History of a Radical Idea. Bradley C. S. Watson. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2020. Bradley Watson, professor of political…
