William Wordsworth enthralled me when I was a scrawny, brooding boy. Later, during college, on a study abroad program, I visited the Lake District as well as Welsh locales associated with Wordsworth, pausing a few miles above Tintern Abbey—where I imagined the poet himself had composed his moving lines about that sylvan spot—to scribble a note on the inside cover…
The religious right that arose in the United States since the 1970s did so in almost studied neglect of the religiously based governing parties in Europe, the Christian Democrats. Part of this neglect reflects the mixed legacy of Christian Democracy by the 1970s and after; part reflects the nature of Evangelicalism in the United States. In the current issue of…
If there is any moment which marks modern conservatism’s beginning, it is the publication of Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790). Central to Burke’s critique of the events occurring across the Channel was his insistence that France’s revolutionaries were seeking to construct a new world based on abstractions deeply at variance with the hard-won wisdom of…
The Liberty Fund Board of Directors announced today that it has selected Sean Shelby as the next President & CEO of Liberty Fund. Shelby will assume his new role on August 31, 2020 and will succeed Emilio Pacheco who led Liberty Fund since 2016. For more information, please read the full press release.
Many of us now feel old, detached even, before our time. The beliefs, attitudes, mores that our parents, clergy, coaches, teachers, and other authority figures, almost unconsciously imparted to us, seem increasingly like museum pieces. Should we consign individualism, competitive striving, personal accountability, to say nothing of a belief that we live and act under God and the moral law,…
There are no gulags in America. But that doesn’t mean there is no tyranny. Gulags are so sloppy and inefficient, anyway. America’s coming tyranny presents a different menace. This tyranny, long ago glimpsed by Alexis de Tocqueville, ignores the body and goes right for the soul. Its victims will not be deprived of their goods or lives for contradicting our…
In May this year, Sir Keir Starmer, Labour’s newly elected leader, rejected the possibility of an extension to the Brexit transition period. It is fair to say this surprised many people, including me. Starmer was Remain’s standard-bearer during the December General Election—far more so than Jeremy Corbyn. The architect of his party’s plan to hold a second referendum, Starmer’s…
For many decades, the Supreme Court has assumed that the Constitution must change with the times. In the words of Justice William Brennan, “current Justices read the Constitution in the only way [they] can: as twentieth [now twenty-first] century Americans.” This notion of “living constitutionalism”—the idea that we aren’t strictly bound by the meaning a constitutional provision might have had…
You might look around sometimes and think to yourself, a new America has dawned, godless, without the old restraints. Yellowstone, the Kevin Costner Western on the Paramount Channel is the best example I can summon to mind just now, and its third season has just started. It’s a 21st-century story of cowboys and Indians—with characters seeking freedom from law.
Progress is the watchword of our times. Whether technological, political, or even human, we have faith that progress improves. Progress, moreover, moves hand-in-hand with efficiency. Efficiency gives us more good things faster: who could argue with that? Twined together, progress and efficiency form an unbeatable pair, like shade and a cool drink. Rarely do we hear of any negative sides…