The Federal Bureaucracy in Check
Congress, despite many chances, has not been willing to take responsibility for checking “the administrative state,” as the aggrandizing bureaucratic power of federal agencies has come to be known. Arrival of a Democratic House makes it still less likely that Capitol Hill will resist the continued expansion of federal rules and regulations. As executive, President Trump has tried to slow Read More ›
Is Democracy in the United States Salvageable?
Book Review: “Politicians” By Bruce Chapman
There may be one or two Americans left in the country who don’t know that we are currently living in an anti-Establishment, anti-professional, anti-politician era. Nationally we have voted someone into the Presidency whose primary claim to high office is that he has never held office. (In my own state, we have had a smaller version of the exact same phenomenon.) In virtually every Congressional and state-level campaign beyond the Presidential elections, we have candidates (including incumbents) engaged in an ever-escalating rhetorical battle to claim the low ground of experience. In Politicians: The Worst Kind of People to Run the Government, Except for all the Others, Bruce K. Chapman argues that this disdain for long-serving public servants has to stop. Keep reading.
Politicians
About the Book
Americans love to trash their politicians as corrupt and self-interested, but they don’t agree on a solution. How can America attract good leaders to the thousands of elective offices in the land? In Polticians: The worst Kind of People to Run the Government, Except for All the Others, Bruce Chapman lays out a bold plan for the changes we need to make in our public life if we are serious about enable worthy leaders to emerge to and to succeed. Drawing on history as well as his own extensive experience in politics and public policy, Chapman challenges the conventional wisdom about politicians, arguing that their chief rivals — the media, bureaucrats, college professors, and even political “reform” groups — are often sources of further political demoralization rather than renewal. Republicans and Democrats alike, conservatives and liberals, have a stake in responding to the stirring and provocative challenge raised by this book.
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On Election Day, Discovery Institute President Steven J. Buri Says “Thank You” to Politicians
The Quiet Revolution: How the New Left Took Over the Democratic Party
Frustration with division and gridlock in Washington leads many Americans to impugn both political parties for the current broken and ineffective state of government. There is plenty of blame to go around, but below the surface there has been a quiet revolution going on in only one of the two parties–the Democratic Party. At The American Thinker, Senior Fellow Scott Powell examines the rise of the New Left in American politics and culture, tracing the history of thought from Leftist philosophers such as Marx, Lenin, and Alinsky to our Democratic leaders of today. Read Powell’s article at The American Thinker.
Canada’s election: moving right and moving left
Monday's election was a political transformation that saw the sudden collapse of the Liberals and the Bloc Quebecois, and the surprising rise of the NDP. The real winner, Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, has turned squareness into charisma.
Read More ›What Should Replace The Alaskan Way Viaduct?
Guests included Bruce Agnew, Director of Cascadia Center. Here is the link to the KUOW web page for this episode, with audio links and guest list.
Sarah and Todd Palin and the Quiet Success of the Pro-Life Movement
This article, published by National Post, mentions Discovery Institute Senior Fellow Wesley Smith: Pro-lifers have discovered shared values with critics of biotechnological research and commercial reproductive technology, such as the former Ralph Nader lawyer, Wesley Smith.