Citizen Leadership

Chapman Center for Citizen Leadership

The Evangelical Voter

A few weeks before last year’s presidential election, Mitt Romney held a high-profile meeting in North Carolina with the Reverend Billy Graham, patron saint of American Evangelicals. Graham declared, “I’ll do all I can to help you—and you can quote me on that.” Graham’s organization followed up by placing prominent ads in a number of newspapers around the country in Read More ›

There may be struggles the next four years, but the country will be all right

As America tumbles into the abyss of socialism, we try to look ahead to see what awaits us there. And we must face it — a majority of Americans have chosen to have a socialist form of government. Barack Obama made that clear both before and during the recent election campaign. When he said he intends to “transform America,” he Read More ›

FDR’s Failed Moral Leadership

A new book, Where They Stand, written by National Interest editor Robert W. Merry, shows that American historians consistently list Franklin Delano Roosevelt just behind Lincoln and Washington on their ratings of American presidents. A recent issue of Newsweek lists FDR as the top modern president. Years ago, the Schlesinger Presidential Poll even rated FDR first among all presidents. I Read More ›

Good Old Ike Days of 91% Top Tax Rate

Oh, the good old days of the Eisenhower Administration when the top income tax rate was 91%–now the source of sudden nostalgia by liberals like Paul Krugman. I was in college about the time in the early ’60’s when President Kennedy, a supposed liberal Democrat, cut that rate and ushered in a supply side economic boom that lasted at least Read More ›

Column: Fondly remembering Grandpa’s taxes

Americans have always reveled in nostalgia about the music, fashion or favorite foods of bygone eras, but a sudden yearning for the high tax rates of yesteryear seems new and strange. While some opinion leaders pine openly for the tax system that once claimed a big majority of income from top earners, their cozy, communitarian vision offers a deeply distorted Read More ›

How much of the world will Obama, Romney miss on foreign policy?

The Commission on Presidential Debates selected six subjects for the foreign policy debate: America’s role in the world; Afghanistan and Pakistan; Israel and Iran; Changing Middle East (two segments, “I and II”), and China.  These are topical, all right, but they do not begin to exhaust the vital issues that face the U.S. presidency. Instead, they remind us again how Read More ›

Find Out Just How Astute a Person You Are By Taking This Opinion Quiz

It has been some time since we have published an opinion quiz. These are very popular, but require a great deal of time and research. Nonetheless, there have been so many recent requests for one — in light, I think, of the coming election — that we are offering this one. As always, you may examine each of the following Read More ›

Should U.S. Back the Party of Lawyers?

The Democrats who gathered in Charlotte tried to cast themselves as the party of working people, or of struggling middle-class families, or of aggrieved and downtrodden Americans in every corner of the economy. In presidential politics, however, a more accurate designation would identify the Dems as the party of lawyers: with the re-nomination of Obama and Biden, all six available Read More ›

Two Good Men

This article, published by The Weekly Standard, discusses Discovery Institute Board Member Slade Gorton: Former senator Slade Gorton (R-Wash.) and Representative Frank Wolf (R-Va.) both have good hearts and the political skills needed to translate their noble intentions into concrete results. And while neither lawmaker is a household name, their political careers are worth knowing about. The rest of the Read More ›