John Mearsheimer has unquestionably earned our attention on contemporary international relations and on the Ukrainian crisis. Mearsheimer is an academic who specializes in theories of international relations (IR). If you were an IR graduate student in the 1980s or 1990s … Continue reading
R.B.A. Di Muccio
When Ideology Collides with Good School Governance
Should schools be focused on providing children with a good education in a safe environment or should they be laboratories of partisan political agitation? The answer, of course, should be obvious. The National School Boards Association states that “education is not a … Continue reading
The Incredible Hopelessness of America’s Gun “Conversation”
For millennia, the ability to interpret hieroglyphics had been lost to the ages. So when Jean-Francois Champollion decoded the Rosetta Stone it was a monumental breakthrough. Since then, a “Rosetta Stone” has come to refer to anything that offers a … Continue reading
Donald Trump, National Review, and the Battle for the Conservative Mind
The editors and writers of National Review recently did something extraordinary. They came out en masse against a Republican candidate during the primary. Their “Against Trump” symposium and accompanying “Editors introduction” offer up a barrage of attacks on Donald Trump’s surprising presidential candidacy. For the symposium, National … Continue reading
“The Righteous Mind” – Understanding Conservatives and Liberals
Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt has cracked the code on why it’s so hard for liberals and conservatives to find common ground. That’s a big deal. But an even more important benefit of his book, “The Righteous Mind: Why Good People … Continue reading
Commencements, Causes and Campus Free Speech: The Surprising Case of Dickinson College
When my daughter told me that Mark Ruffalo—an actor and leftist activist—would be receiving a prestigious prize at her 2015 commencement at Dickinson College, I was dismayed but not surprised. Dickinson, an elite liberal arts college in central Pennsylvania, is … Continue reading
Wake Up, Conservatives! Examining Conservative “Support” for Common Core
Most conservatives instinctively and correctly oppose Common Core. The issue becomes muddy when a few high-profile conservatives appear to be in favor of it. Such support provides a bottomless font of schadenfreude for Common Core’s mostly liberal supporters and gives them an effective … Continue reading
Eliminating the Deficit, Progressive Style
Editor’s note: A longer version of this article first appeared at American Thinker. A wise man once told me that when any tax-levying entity operates at a deficit, the possible causes number precisely two. Either it is taxing too little … Continue reading
Where Have All the Cold Warriors Gone?
It was 24 years ago, in June 1987, that Ronald Reagan gave his famous speech calling on Mikhail Gorbachev to “Tear down this wall.” In 1990, a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall, when the foundations that had … Continue reading
How Jimmy Carter and I Were Wrong on North Korea—And How Carter is Still Wrong
Guest Commentary It is not often that I am struck speechless by any individual act of political commentary. Yet, former President Jimmy Carter accomplished just that through a recent editorial in the Washington Post. To put it bluntly, the article … Continue reading
Will the Real Realists Please Stand Up?
Guest Commentary Barack Obama’s supporters have been trying to create a narrative around his foreign-policy doctrine for several years now, even before he was president. The goal has been simple: to preempt efforts to portray Obama as a naïve idealist … Continue reading
Hope vs. Appeasement
In his inaugural address, President Barack Obama reached out to the world’s rogue leaders, telling them, “We will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.” No doubt, this sentiment and the worldview that underlies it have … Continue reading