Commentary As George Washington’s first presidential administration, the first term of government under the United States Constitution, neared its end in 1793, the president found himself confronting a form of populism antithetical to stable politics in a republic. The situation emerged from the turbulent development of highly polarized partisan politics, along with efforts by France’s…
American Citizenship: Caught Between Creed and Clan
Commentary Our politics is currently overwhelmed with identity. Rights, votes, participation, all understanding of one’s place in the country is said to be based on one’s “identity.” The one identity that people shy away from is that of the American citizen. Who precisely is this person? The American Constitution speaks in the voice of “We…
Is Patriotism Worth Preserving?
Commentary Mention the term “patriot” or “patriotism” on a university campus or in educated circles and you are likely to hear Samuel Johnson’s barb that “patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.” Or maybe you will hear E.M. Forster’s comment that if he had to betray either his country or his friend, he hoped…
Equality in Servitude: From Citizen Competence to Therapeutic Despotism
January 11, 2022
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Commentary A dozen or so years ago, I took temporary leave from Georgetown University and moved to Iraq for two years to preside over The American University of Iraq-Sulaimani. Some of the young men and women enrolled in our fledgling university carried the double burden of having survived both the American invasion and the Kurdish…
Three Views of Nature
Commentary One of the cards that came this Christmas was different from any I had had in the past. It featured a painting, made by the sender, my sister, of a tree bent over in the wind with some leaves flying off and some still attached to the tree. It was titled, “Just let go.”…
Started in Slavery, Founded in Freedom: 1619 Versus 1776
Commentary Now that everyone with a computer and an opinion has had his or her say on the merits and shortcomings of the “1619 Project,” we are now in a position to step back and ask ourselves: What is really at stake here? The most controversial aspect of the project has not been its content—apart…
Howard Zinn’s Assault on Historians and American Principles
Commentary Recently, Michael Barone heralded a bipartisan refutation of the New York Times’s 1619 Project. As part of “an ongoing battle for control of the central narrative of American history,” Barone noted, the August 2019 Times magazine supplement had made the case for redefining the founding of the United States from 1776 to 1619, when,…
Self-Government, the American Way
January 3, 2022
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Commentary After winning the independence they had declared in 1776, Americans had to prove that they could sustain self-government in peace. They’d governed themselves already, as colonists, but now the British government no longer protected them from the other European powers, and indeed remained a potential enemy of the new country. It’s easy for us…
Civic and Moral Virtues, the American Way
January 1, 2022
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Commentary In declaring their independence from Great Britain, Americans famously asserted their unalienable rights. Much less conspicuously, but no less tellingly, they listed 10 moral responsibilities consonant with those rights. In announcing their political separation, they begin by acknowledging a duty to observe “a decent respect for the opinions of mankind” by stating the causes…
Lincoln, the American Founding, and the Moral Foundations of a Free Society
Commentary Abraham Lincoln believed that the success of American self-government required the right ideas and the right institutions. He thought that the right ideas were found in the Declaration of Independence—specifically, human equality, individual rights, government by consent of the governed, and the right of revolution. A corollary to these bedrock principles was “the right…
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