American History

John Whitehead When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it. ― Frédéric Bastiat, French economist Pay no heed to the circus politics coming out of Washington, D.C. It’s just more of...

AP Images Kevin McCarthy In a drama-filled afternoon, friends and allies of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy pled and remonstrated, citing his kindness and leadership style. But in the end, the so-called GOP hardliners, led by Representative Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), and with the smirking support of the Democratic caucus, carried the day by a margin of 216 to 210. Kevin McCarthy...

Karl Schultz/flickr Jaiden Rodriguez, a seventh grader at Colorado Springs’ Vanguard School, made the headlines last month when the school punished him for wearing two patches on his backpack. One was the Gadsden flag, created during the Revolutionary War to warn the British Crown not to interfere in the affairs of the 13 Colonies. The other, from the Firearms Policy...

timnewman/iStock/Getty Images Plus The year was 1789, and the newly formed United States was embarking on an audacious experiment in self-governance. The ink was still drying on the U.S. Constitution, and the framers recognized the need to safeguard individual liberties. This recognition led to one of the most pivotal moments in American history — the sending of the Bill of...

To political science professor Elisa Chelle, who specializes in the United States, Joe Biden’s advanced age may not be a detriment to the Democratic Party in 2024, particularly because of Donald Trump’s legal woes. “I don’t know about you, but I’m going to go to bed.” With these words, President Joe Biden suddenly ended his press conference in Hanoi, Vietnam,...

SPO Presse und Kommunikation/flickr Power, in whatever hands, is rarely content with its present boundaries. — Sallust, The Jugurthine War Introduction The United States, often seen as a beacon of democracy and republicanism, draws its inspiration from a rich tapestry of historical influences. Among these influences, the writings of the Roman historian Sallust (Gaius Sallustius Crispus) have played a significant...

AP Images If you can’t debate them, demonize them. That’s the strategy the Biden team is implementing with increased force, as evidenced by a speech in Tempe, Arizona, Thursday, during which Joe Biden once more lashed out at the pro-Trump MAGA movement — deriding it as a threat to democracy. Speaking at the Tempe Center for the Arts in an...

The same conservatives who condemn Washington for unconstitutionally funding education beseech it to send billions to a country at war 5,000 miles away. Where in the Constitution does it sanction this? It seems fewer rank-and-file conservatives endorse the idea of the federal government funding other governments than did a decade ago. But on the stage last night, five Republicans endorsed...

simpson33/iStock/Getty Images Plus A U.S. district judge denied a request on Tuesday for a preliminary injunction sought by Edward Blum, a successful anti-affirmative action activist, to bar a venture capital fund from considering applications and awarding grants to businesses run by black women.   Blum’s American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER) filed a lawsuit in August challenging grant and fellowship programs offered...

grandriver/iStock/Getty Images Plus Today, the fourth Wednesday of September, millions of students around the country and the world will rally around the flagpoles at their schools before starting classes. This year’s theme is “wholehearted”, taken from the Scriptures in Jeremiah: “If you look for ME wholeheartedly, you will find ME.” (New Living Translation of Jeremiah 29:13) Students from every state...

Ron Paul Former President Donald Trump infuriated many anti-abortion voters last week when he refused to commit to national abortion restrictions and seemed to blame them for Republican losses in the 2022 mid-term elections. Trump even criticized the six-week abortion ban signed by Florida Governor (and fellow Republican candidate) Ron DeSantis. So, not only is Trump balking at national restrictions...

Twitter/X Hundreds of illegal immigrants wait under a bridge in Eagle Pass, Texas. When Texas Governor Greg Abbott learned that more than 4,000 illegals crossed the U.S. border at Eagle Pass, Texas (population 28,000), in just two days, he reiterated his claim that the crisis inundating the southern border is an “invasion.” On Thursday he posted on X: I officially...

In recent weeks, the health struggles of American political veterans have reignited discussion about the age of elected officials and their ability to serve. Voters are increasingly concerned about how old those who work at passing laws and imposing regulations on Americans are. Though there is no age limit for members of Congress, close to 20 representatives from both parties...

Watts/flickr “You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time,” goes a saying attributed to medieval English poet John Lydgate. If society minded this truth, perhaps the mistakes made by listening to fringe social-media mobs...

John Whitehead “There were relatively few secret police, and most were just processing the information coming in. I had found a shocking fact. It wasn’t the secret police who were doing this wide-scale surveillance and hiding on every street corner. It was the ordinary German people who were informing on their neighbors.”—Professor Robert Gellately, author of Backing Hitler Are you...

Politics A ‘Magic Bullet’ Loses Luster—Again One of America’s “smelly orthodoxies” just edged closer to history’s dustbin. Credit: rblfmr A surviving member of President John F. Kennedy’s Secret Service detail on November 22, 1963 has revealed something which, if true, discredits the official version of the assassination. Only 28 when he witnessed the brains of the 35th commander-in-chief blown out...

Donald Trump, who described himself as “very pro-choice” on Meet the Press in 1999, came almost full circle on the same program this weekend. He called Florida’s ban on abortions after six weeks “a terrible thing and a terrible mistake.” He talked of brokering a compromise between the pro-lifers and pro-choicers to craft a federal law leaving both sides pleased, a scenario as outlandish as...

Julie Caron/iStock/Getty Images Plus Dried coca leaves What are the implications for a country when its most lucrative business is one considered illicit throughout the world? According to a report from Bloomberg Economics, cocaine is poised to become Colombia’s top export, surpassing even oil. This comes amid the South American country’s efforts to legalize the cocaine trade. Whereas oil exports...

AP Images David Scanlan As a growing number of states look to keep former President Donald Trump out of the 2024 presidential election, New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan has announced that he doesn’t have the power to decide such a thing. Scanlan made the comments on Wednesday at a news conference in answer to a September 12 letter...

Jacob Sullum When New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued “a public health emergency order” that purportedly suspended the right to bear arms in Albuquerque and surrounding Bernalillo County last week, her justification was seemingly straightforward. “I have emergency powers,” she told The New York Times. “Gun violence is an epidemic. Therefore, it’s an emergency.” Grisham’s stunt was widely condemned...