Most of the ideas that shaped 20th century America boiled up during the 19th century in the aftermath of the Civil War. Some arrived from the Old World before and during the war, things like nationalism and socialism, but most were homegrown ideas that arose out of American Protestantism…
Napoleonic Wars, Crimean, Franco-Prussian, World War I, World War II. Has it been too long? Do the Europeans now long for the cathartic release of mass killing? The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer once remarked that “mankind is doomed to vacillate eternally between boredom and distress.” Have Europe’s leaders grown…
Over the weekend, President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency head Elon Musk made quite a stir with just two words posted on his social media platform, X. Responding to a post that, “It’s time to leave NATO and the UN,” Musk replied, “I agree.” The comment immediately made the…
I have criticized Donald Trump countless times for his pattern of promising, bloviating, then backing off. Or more often flip flopping. I coined the term the Trumpenstein Project to explain his befuddling behavior. He talked the talk, but never walked the walk. All toupee and no cattle. Well, now…
Elon Musk, the head of the Trump Administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has publicly called for the United States to officially withdraw from both the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the United Nations (UN). As reported by the Washington Examiner, Musk made the statement on his social…
Despite the stubborn optimism and indeed naïveté of mainstream conservatives and their dogged fetishism for the Constitution not merely as a governing legal document but as a moral and normative authority, our system of government and indeed the Constitution itself are irredeemable. Such utter lack of fitness of purpose…
Everyone has a favorite adventure novel or movie in which a daring thief swaps something of immense value with something terribly fake. A forged painting hangs in lieu of the original on a museum wall. A bag of sand takes the place of a bag of jewels inside a pressure-sensitive safe. Lead bars…
A digital storm has erupted over a deceptively simple question: what does it mean to be English? On one side stands Fraser Nelson, formerly of this parish, insisting that being born in England automatically grants one the title of “English”. On the other, Konstantin Kisin, the podcaster, arguing that…
Ronald Reagan was famous for saying that “the closest thing to immortality is a government program.” He was not the first person to say it. There are examples of American politicians saying a version of this going back to the 1930’s. There are probably versions of this concept going…
Tucker Carlson has issued a withering response to the disastrous Oval Office meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday. The conservative commentator, who is known for his skepticism towards America’s support for Ukraine in their war in Russia, pointed to the fact that the notorious war hawk Lindsey Graham…
