Defending the Founders
June 14, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has long been a supporter of the First Amendment rights of citizens in the face of what goes under the name of campaign finance reform. He knows what he is talking about and he has been a stalwart on the subject. Tomorrow he will be giving a major address at the American Enterprise Institute on “Growing Threats to the First Amendment” at 11:15 a.m. (Eastern).
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June 5, 2012 — Steven Hayward
Well, since we cover the fairer sex here (by the way, John, where is your review of the recently concluded Miss USA pageant?), equity demands that we cover the beefcake beat, too. And appearing right now on Bloomberg/Business Week is an article making the case that Alexander Hamilton was more than just a canny banker and political thinker. He was a chick magnet, too. There’s even a FaceBook group called
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May 22, 2012 — Scott Johnson
It must be Spring, because the Spring issue of the Claremont Review of Books (subscribe here for the absurdly low price of $19.95) has just been published and is available online to subscribers. It is an incredibly rich issue. The CRB is the flagship publication of our friends at the Claremont Institute. The mission of the institute — “to restore the principles of the American Founding to their rightful, preeminent
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May 7, 2012 — Steven Hayward
One of my most contentious contentions is that if you want to learn about the Constitution, taking constitutional law at a law school is the last place you should do it. But undergraduate political science and history curricula are hardly better. Among other things, as Peter Berkowitz observes today in the Wall Street Journal, American higher education neglects what I call the “Owners Manual” of the Constitution—the Federalist Papers: Most
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April 26, 2012 — Steven Hayward
While we wait to see whether and how far the Supreme Court might move toward restoring a more principled constitutionalism with its decision in the Obamacare case, there is good news for readers looking to step up their game on constitutional literacy: The Heritage Foundation has posted its fabulous Heritage Guide to the Constitution online. The Heritage Guide is a clause-by-clause commentary on our great charter, and it is extremely
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April 7, 2012 — Steven Hayward
Not that many people–me included–spend much time reading one of Tocqueville’s other books, The Old Regime and the Revolution, in which he offers this sage observation that is quite apropos the Age of Obama: “A man’s admiration of absolute government is proportionate to the contempt he feels for those around him.” (Hat tip: Scott Walter, Philanthropy Daily.)
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March 7, 2012 — Steven Hayward
Naturally I’ve been doing a lot of talk radio interviews for my Politically Incorrect Guide to the Presidents, but a lot of them are local programs—much of the time I’m not even sure where—so I haven’t been flagging them here. But I ran into Bill Kristol the other day in the building, and he said, “Gee, I don’t think you’re promoting your book enough on Power Line!” Problem solved! Podcasts!
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March 6, 2012 — Steven Hayward
A few days back I dilated the point of my PIG book on modern presidents with a meditation on how deficient most presidential candidates, and the campaigns themselves, are on the Constitution, including even Ron Paul, who at least brings up the subject. My critique of Paul is that his constitutionalism is especially narrow and too literally text-based, i.e., if he doesn’t find something in the clearly enumerated powers of
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February 27, 2012 — Steven Hayward
So we’ve finished the 20th, and one hopes the last, of the GOP candidates’ debates. With only a few intermittent and wholly inadequate flashes, there has been little substantive reference to or discussion of the Constitution. I don’t think even once did one of the media morons ask the candidates for their opinion of whether Obamacare’s individual mandate violates the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. Yes, Ron Paul tries to
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February 22, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Today is the anniversary of the birth of George Washington. Of all the great men of the revolutionary era to whom we owe our freedom, Washington’s greatness was the rarest and the most needed. At this remove in time, it is also the hardest to comprehend. Take, for example, Washington’s contribution to the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Washington’s mere presence lent the undertaking and its handiwork the legitimacy that resulted
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February 20, 2012 — Steven Hayward
Since it’s still Presidents Days for a few more hours, it’s worth taking up a challenge from one of our good-natured liberal commenters, an old pal from high school (are you paying attention, Eric?), who posted a comment on an earlier PIG book post of mine raising the question of the constitutional issues raised in the Iran-Contra scandal. Glad you asked. In fact, the Politically Incorrect Guide to the Presidents
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February 18, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Bradley Smith is the Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault Designated Professor of Law at Capital University Law School in Columbus and one of the country’s foremost experts on the evils of campaign finance laws. He is the author of Unfree Speech: The Folly of Campaign Finance Reform. It was his distinguished opposition to campaign finance laws that got him appointed to a six-year term on the Federal Election Commission
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February 15, 2012 — Steven Hayward
People interested in a thoughtful observance of George Washington’s birthday Presidents Day next Monday might want to drop in (or tune in to the live webcast) AEI’s panel this Friday from noon to 1:30 (eastern) on the subject of “First Among Equals: George Washington and the American Presidency,” which will feature a reading of Washington’s Farewell Address from Leon Kass, and commentary from Richard Brookhiser, Diana Schaub, Harvey Mansfield, and
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February 13, 2012 — Steven Hayward
By sheer coincidence, today is the official publication date for my Politically Incorrect Guide to the Presidents, From Wilson to Obama, and Larry P. Arnn’s The Founders’ Key: The Divine and Natural Connection Between the Declaration and the Constitution and What We Risk by Losing It, which fits since we were in graduate school together and tormented each other at the Claremont Institute back in the 1980s. The two books
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February 10, 2012 — Steven Hayward
My PIG book isn’t officially out until Monday, but the Washington Times put out a favorable notice this week: Though the title might suggest a volume laden with slapdash doses of angry, ill-considered snark, Mr. Hayward has produced a lucid book that is scholarly but not pedantic; acerbic in its criticisms, but never coarse. Meanwhile, my peeps here at AEI have done this short (49-second) video promo for the book: Now off
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February 7, 2012 — Steven Hayward
Liberals typically erupt in outrage if you suggest they don’t respect or understand the Constitution, let alone defend it. But then they let slip that in fact they really don’t respect or understand the Constitution, and would replace it in a heartbeat if they thought they could get away with it. Think of Ezra Klein remarking a couple years back on how the Constitution is too hard to understand because,
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February 6, 2012 — Steven Hayward
Okay, so as we saw with Romney’s off-the-cuff disaster about not being concerned about poor people last week, he’s not exactly another Great Communicator. But if he wins, maybe he could do America and the presidency a service by shutting up. From The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Presidents: There are two main reasons for the development of the presidency as we know it today. The first is that the
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