This semester, I am teaching a course on totalitarianism in which we are reading the novels of George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, and Arthur Koestler. Totalitarianism is the new name for an old and wicked thing: tyranny. It differs from tyranny in being “ideological” and “scientific.” Ideology, which Winston Churchill referred to only as an “ugly…
All morality is aggression. That sentence is shocking to our modern sensitivities. But it is a truth as immutable as claiming the sky is blue. It is often said and widely believed that radicals in the 1960s simply tried to do away with morality. That they simply tried to usher in “moral relativity,” a world…
In today’s vernacular, the Founding Fathers were mean. They rejected the Marxist mantra that “diversity is our strength.” They believed that discrimination was necessary to strengthen and preserve their civilization and happiness. To quote John Jay from Federalist 2, With equal pleasure I have as often taken notice that Providence has been pleased to give…
On October 11, 1798, John Adams wrote to the Massachusetts Militia that Because We have no Government armed with Power capable of contending with human Passions unbridled by morality and Religion. Avarice, Ambition, Revenge or Gallantry, would break the strongest Cords of our Constitution as a Whale goes through a Net. Our Constitution was made…
A recent post on “American Foreign Policy” explained how we acquired colonial possessions for the first time following the Spanish-American War. This acquisition required a complete rejection of the foreign policy principles of the Founders. That rejection was due, in no small part, to foreign influence on the minds of younger generations of Americans. In…
On February 15th, 1898, the USS Maine exploded and sank in Havana Harbor under mysterious circumstances. The incident, along with the sensationalistic reporting of Spain’s ongoing counteroffensive against revolutionaries in Cuba, ignited Congress and the American people into a war frenzy. Despite President McKinley’s attempts to resolve the conflict peacefully, he yielded to political pressure…
The term “isolationist” first appeared in the American political lexicon at the close of the nineteenth century when the United States began to flirt with the idea of acquiring colonies overseas. The pejorative was invented by American imperialists to insult people who opposed expansionist policies. Anyone who advocated a more restrained foreign policy—i.e., the Founders’…
In “Public Policy from a Constitutional Viewpoint,” Professor John Grant argues that the best way to protect the environment is through a limited government with the primary objective of protecting the rights of its citizens. We have created a false dichotomy in America that pits environmental policies against limited government. And that has led…
The modern U.S. foreign policy establishment is animated by the view that America has a responsibility to protect innocent people around the world from oppressive rulers. In his Second Inaugural Address, for example, George W. Bush captured this sentiment when he declared that America has a duty to promote “the growth of democratic movements and…
In Federalist 51, James Madison writes, “If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls of government would be necessary.” As Madison implies, the Founders built external and internal controls on government into the Constitution—popular elections, separation of powers, checks and balances—because men, unlike angels, cannot be trusted with unchecked power. The Progressives…