How can we explain the surprising electoral success of Donald Trump, especially in light of his lack of political experience, limited knowledge of and specificity about policy issues, and crude and insulting rhetoric? Who supports him and why do they … Continue reading
Media & Culture
Can Trump Win a General Election?
This is not an argument for what should happen or what I’d like to happen in the November presidential election, but about what would likely happen in a Donald Trump versus Hillary Clinton race: Clinton would win, and probably by … Continue reading
Trump isn’t the Problem, He’s the Symptom
After the Michigan primary, there has been a predictable round of handwringing from the GOP about why Donald Trump keeps winning despite being neither a Republican nor a conservative. A lot of answers have been bandied about: there are too … Continue reading
AUDIO – V&V Executive Director on Bill Bennett’s “Morning in America”
To discuss the Republican presidential primary, the executive director of The Center for Vision & Values at Grove City College—Dr. Paul Kengor—joined bestselling author, commentator, talk show host, and President Ronald Reagan’s secretary of education—Dr. Bill Bennett—on his “Morning in … Continue reading
Is it Voter Fraud Season? Let’s Hope Not
In recent years there have been far too many cases in which elections in America have been rigged. As a result of court involvement, the guilty parties have in some cases spent time in prison, in some cases been released … Continue reading
Claiming the Republican Party: Bushism, Trumpism, or Conservatism
The 2016 Republican presidential nomination is a collision course of competing political and cultural views of America. The nomination is a ferocious war among different cultural, economic, and philosophical forces attempting to lay claim over the Republican Party, and South … 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
AUDIO – Dr. James Thrasher on WORD FM: The Job Search – It’s Not What You’ve Done, But Who You Are
On January 22, 2016, Dr. James Thrasher was a guest on “The Ride Home with John and Kathy” on Pittsburgh’s WORD FM 101.5. Thrasher discusses how the job market has dramatically changed over the past 20 years and how employers … Continue reading
The GOP and Donald Trump’s Perfect Storm
Donald Trump. Since 1988, conservatives sliced and diced their support among many conservative candidates. Whether it was Pat Robertson, Gary Bauer, Alan Keyes, Pat Buchanan, Ben Carson, Herman Cain, or Steve Forbes, they represented small pieces of the conservative movement … Continue reading Continue reading
Control What You Can Control and Enjoy the Benefits
I expect that I confuse a lot of people at the gym where I work out. I have been asked more than once why I breathe so hard. The short answer is that I do high-intensity interval workouts where I … Continue reading
Trump and Evangelicals: Strange Bedfellows
Donald Trump, who has been leading the national polls for the Republican nomination since this past summer, has strong support among evangelicals. Given Trump’s beliefs, lifestyle, crude language, and some of his positions on issues, this is baffling. As Jonathan … Continue reading
VIDEO – C-SPAN Book-TV – "Takedown"
On October 16, 2015, Dr. Paul Kengor, political science professor at Grove City College and executive director of The Center for Vision & Values, spoke at The Heritage Foundation. Kengor discussed his new book Takedown: From Communists to Progressives, How the … Continue reading
The Gift of Ignorance and Sophistry
Another “Holiday Season” is behind us. And every such season, the purge of religion in our public schools just gets worse. In fact, the season now serves to remind us of one thing for certain: the God-purgers are on an … Continue reading
The Top 10 of 2015 (Part Two)
2015 has been a banner year for The Center for Vision & Values at Grove City College. We celebrated an all-time high in website traffic, an exponential growth in social media (approaching 25,000 Facebook fans), and a record number of … Continue reading
The Top 10 of 2015 – Part One
2015 has been a banner year for The Center for Vision & Values at Grove City College. We celebrated an all-time high in website traffic, an exponential growth in social media (approaching 25,000 Facebook fans), and a record number of … Continue reading
Good Grief, Charlie Brown! Secular Fundamentalism Takes on Linus at Christmas
You may have heard about the Kentucky school district that ordered its administrators to scrub any religious references from its various Christmas productions. Most infamously, an elementary school in the Johnson County School District removed the lines from “A Charlie … Continue reading
When Hollywood Celebrated Christmas and Marriage
A few days before Christmas, I checked the schedule for Turner Classic Movies, one of the few TV channels I watch. I was looking for Christmas movies, maybe the 1938 Reginald Owen version of “A Christmas Carol” or something like … Continue reading
Question of Semantics: What Do “Radical Islam” and “Terrorism” Really Mean?
President Obama and his administration’s spokespersons continue to explain the eruption of bombings and mass shootings as “lone wolf attacks” or “work place violence.” The cause, they often say, is too many guns in society. Their response is a further … Continue reading
Trumpism and Elitism
In “The Myth of Sisyphus,” Albert Camus’s exploration of the role of suicide in the modern world, the philosopher of the Absurd states, “That universal reason, practical or ethical, that determinism, those categories that explain everything are enough to make … Continue reading
My Pervasive Egocentrism: I Am Possessed with Self
In “Pleading Guilty,” best-selling novelist Scott Turow wrote, “What kind of ethical social system takes as its fundamental precepts the words ‘I’ ‘me’ and ‘mine’? Our two-year-olds start like that and we spend the next twenty years trying to teach … Continue reading