The School of Self-Rule
Public education must empower the common citizen.
Public education must empower the common citizen.
After decades of foreign policy debates centered on dealing with states and actors far weaker than ourselves, the United States has lost the “finger tip feel” and grammar for determining how to respond to a nation that is comparable to us in power.
Magical thinking is evident in Homo oeconomicus’s serial recital of the “benefits of trade”; his blithe attitude toward financialization and the rise of cheap digital consumer technology; his utter indifference to the economic pressures bearing down upon the working family…
Most so-called snowflakes accumulate not in society’s quiet valleys where we might expect to find gentler souls genuinely struggling to cope with conflict, but rather atop the peaks of elite institutions to which our most aggressive strivers have clawed their way.
The path to a more secure and generous American welfare state lies not in rejecting the work ethic and the distinction it makes between contributory social insurance and non-contributory social assistance, but rather in embracing it.
What we gave our children (and paid dearly for) was a mountain of debt and no job opportunities to be had. So much for the American Dream.
In order to fulfill your dreams, you must aspire to be what you desire. That is the American Dream, to me. And I think some people don’t understand what fulfilling that American Dream can take.
These essays captured the unfiltered thoughts of working-class Americans in all their complicated diversity.
The problem is not that government is doing too much or too little, but rather that it is utterly failing in those key tasks that must rightfully be its focus.
People want to be heard, especially people who are rarely heard. And most Americans are rarely heard.
Parents who live their lives according to religious principles should be able to find a school in which they are welcomed, not attacked or undermined.
If you talk to anyone in poverty, you’ll probably hear a story like mine. We aren’t afraid to work hard, we just want to know there’s a reward at the end of the journey.
I fear we live in a world where we assume people don’t want better for themselves or are simply taking advantage of resources due to lack of motivation. That couldn’t be further from the truth.
I love being a mother more than anything—I just wish there were better options to make it more achievable for working women who dream of having their own babies someday.
We need politicians to put families first and focus on taking care of us when hardship strikes, rather than taking care of those who are already doing just fine. Government should be about strengthening families to support each other.
Lots of people have been talking about “family policy.” Let’s not forget that family policy starts with mothers.
The time has come to take stock of the Information Era and to govern it.
6 a.m. is much too early for this tired mama. But nonetheless, I hear that little pitter-patter of onesie-covered feet coming down the hall into our room. With a soft “Mom, can I have a banana?” my day begins, whether I’m ready for it or not.
Without careful management, large-scale farming might ignore our responsibility to pass on this earth better than we found it.
Digital media’s critics echo the same arguments and attitudes of paternalists past.
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