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The Platform the Democrats Are Too Scared to Publish

In late August, one day after the Republican National Convention had officially begun, David Frum penned an essay in The Atlantic that purported to outline “[w]hat the Republican Party actually stands for, in 13 points.” Frum was responding to the GOP’s decision not to publish an official 2020 platform, which had “led some to conclude that … it stands for not

Let’s Stop Scaring People About Technological Change

If you’re an average working person, going about your life, trying to put the next meal on your table, and happen to listen to the media and pundits talk about technology, your natural response is probably to vote a straight Luddite ticket in the next election.

A Reformed Labor Movement Could Advance Conservative Values and Priorities

American Compass’s Oren Cass responds to Michael Watson’s rejection of collective bargaining, arguing that organized labor can advance conservative principles.

Escape from the Working Class

Discussions about policies to help the multiracial American working class majority as a whole typically take a detour into the completely unrelated subject of how to help individuals escape from the working class.

What To Do After Big Tech’s Pearl Harbor Attack on the New York Post

As of this writing, the New York Post, the nation’s fourth-largest newspaper, has been locked out of its own Twitter account for almost two weeks.

The Once and Future Republican Orthodoxy

The American Enterprise Institute has just released a new white paper that defends the CARES Act against arguments from the right. Contra deficit hawks and libertarians in Congress, Jay Cost argues that recent deficit-financed economic stimulus falls squarely within the “parameters of Republican orthodoxy on economic conservatism.”

Justice Department Sues Google (But have they focused on the right target?)

As widely expected, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and 11 states have filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google, accusing the company of using anticompetitive tactics to illegally monopolize the Read more…

tacoma bridge
Social Media Is an Engineering Disaster Waiting to Happen

Fake news pales in its power to real news presented with misleading frequency.

Can the Left Overcome Its Technopessimism?

In his excellent American Compass essay “The Five Deadly Sins of the Left”, Ruy Teixeira calls out the left for what he terms their “technopessimism”. He writes: “the Left has Read more…

The Flattering Alarmism of The Social Dilemma

The new and popular documentary, The Social Dilemma, probably could have been an article published in 2018. That’s not to dismiss what it has to say. Framed as the social media equivalent of Food Inc., the movie interviews academics and former tech company execs, all of whom make now-popular arguments about the hidden costs of social media.

Respect the People

Like every banker, I remember my first bail-out fondly. Mine was January 1995 and I was working for Salomon Brothers bond trading business, and we, like all of Wall Street, had gotten ourselves out over our skis.

Seven Deadly Political Sins

Self-examination is a useful exercise. I’m grateful to Henry Olsen, Micah Meadowcroft, Josh Hammer, and Michael Lind (in a cognate posting) for their reflection on the sins of the American right. I’d like to add my voice to this collective mea culpa. As a sometime theology professor, I’ll key my observations to the classical list of seven deadly sins.

Tales of Bureaucratic Incompetence and the Sins of the Left and Right

After working as a manager at Chick-Fil-A for four years, Elizabeth Nowowiejski, a married mother of two living in Toledo, began a new job as a patient coordinator at a Read more…

The Three Failed Utopias of the Establishment Right

In March 2016, as Donald Trump was headed toward securing the nomination of the Republican party for president at the Republican national convention in July, I published a piece in The National Interest about the collapse of the establishment Republican agenda.  Today, on the verge of the 2020 election, my essay is as relevant as ever:

Conservatism Must Be Chastened by Humility

If a realigned Republican Party is to emerge as a viable national political force, the ever-incisive Henry Olsen will be one of its leading architects. His American Compass essay, “The Three Deadly Sins of the Right,” once again shows us why. I would merely like to expand upon Olsen’s groundwork.

Elitism, Right and Wrong

I will happily agree that those are three of the sins of the American Right. But while Olsen ties snobbery and hubris primarily to Republican religiosity, separating them out from market fundamentalism, I consider the three of a piece with each other, and Olsen’s concern about GOP Christianity a bit of a red herring. 

US Presidential Candidates Are Ignoring Ordinary Voters’ Needs

American Compass’s Oren Cass describes the process by which leaders of both the Republican and Democratic Parties have become unmoored from the voters they aspire to represent.

New Deal Social Security
No, the New Deal Wasn’t Racist

Save for the Civil Rights Act, no single federal policy or program has done more to advance racial equity than Social Security.

How the Policy Consensus Changes in America

There are two theories of how major policy changes happen in the United States of America.  One theory is popular, widely believed and mistaken.  The other is correct.

When Market Economists Fail

American Compass’s Oren Cass critiques public choice theory as applied in defense of a libertarian agenda.

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