by jpitney | Jan 4, 2020 | Bureaucracy, Congress, Oversight, Uncategorized
William Yeatman at Cato: Of course, Big Government today is largely coterminous with the administrative state. From 1995 to 2017, the executive branch issued over 92,000 rules, compared to 4,400 laws enacted by Congress. The regulatory agencies behind all this...
by jpitney | Jan 3, 2020 | Federalist, Virtue
James Madison, Federalist 55: As there is a degree of depravity in mankind which requires a certain degree of circumspection and distrust, so there are other qualities in human nature which justify a certain portion of esteem and confidence. Republican government...
by jpitney | Jan 2, 2020 | Civility, Uncategorized
Andy Smarick at The Bulwark: Put simply, our liberal democratic republic can’t be sustained if we all believe ourselves to be obviously on the side of the angels and always in an existential struggle against the forces of evil. In 2020, we should resolve to be less...
by jpitney | Jan 1, 2020 | Civic Education, Judiciary, Social Media, Uncategorized
Chief Justice John Roberts’s annual report: Hamilton, Madison, and Jay ultimately succeeded in convincing the public of the virtues of the principles embodied in the Constitution. Those principles leave no place for mob violence. But in the ensuing years, we...
