Rewards of Political Independence

by | Oct 18, 2020 | civic virtue, Civility, Deliberation

David French on the unexpected rewards of being politically homeless: First, it liberates you from uncomfortable and destructive associations and arguments. While the Bible promises Christians that they’ll face challenges and sometimes-fierce opposition in their...

Common Ground in Public Opinion

by | Oct 5, 2020 | Civility, Deliberation, Public Opinion

Samuel Abrams at AEI: New data as part of the Survey Center on American Life, a project of AEI, reveals that our polarized discourse is impacting most Americans. Yet, the data also shows that most Americans are still open minded enough to find common ground with...

Madison on Civil Debate

by | Sep 27, 2020 | Civility, Deliberation, Uncategorized

Federalist 37: It is a misfortune, inseparable from human affairs, that public measures are rarely investigated with that spirit of moderation which is essential to a just estimate of their real tendency to advance or obstruct the public good; and that this spirit is...

Madisonian Reform of Congress

by | Sep 11, 2020 | Congress, Deliberation, Madison

Yuval Levin at National Review: Most often, proposals for reform are what we might call (following the political scientist Daniel Stid) Wilsonian rather than Madisonian: Implicitly following the advice of Woodrow Wilson, they aim to remake Congress along the model of...

The Case for the Filibuster

by | Aug 29, 2020 | Deliberation, Senate

James Wallner at LegBranch.org: Today’s opponents of the filibuster share a distorted view of the Senate. They see it as a factory whose purpose is to produce legislative widgets. Senators become, in their minds, craftsmen who apply technical knowledge to make those...