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On Thursday morning, Paul Ryan was elected Speaker of the House. In his 13-minute acceptance speech, Ryan acknowledged that the House of Representatives is broken – “We are not solving problems. We are adding to them.” – and offered up some procedural changes, including having committees retake the lead in drafting all major legislation, opening
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The Miller Center, a nonpartisan affiliate of the University of Virginia that specializes in presidential scholarship, public policy, and political history, has launched a new project called “First Year 2017.” Every two months, the Miller Center will publish a set of short memos offering historical perspective and assessing some of the biggest contemporary challenges the
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If you are looking for evidence of the deep antipathy that exists in the Republican Party toward politicians, consider that the three candidates leading the race for the Republican presidential nomination — Donald Trump, Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina — have zero years of governing experience among them. In fact, for many Republican voters, governing
Read MoreThe election this past weekend of Jeremy Corbyn to lead the British Labour Party is a huge political development in the United Kingdom. Mr. Corbyn is not just liberal; he’s hard left, having expressed his support for (among other things) unilateral nuclear disarmament, the nationalization of some of Britain’s biggest industries, and talks with Hamas
Read MoreRight now it looks very much as if the two major political parties in America are in a race to see which one can destroy itself first. On the Republican side, Donald J. Trump not only leads but dominates the presidential race. Crude, erratic, unprincipled and unelectable, Mr. Trump, if he were to win the
Read MoreThat may seem like a wildly premature question in the summer of the year before the presidential election. To which I would respond: It’s too early to know the answer to the question, but it’s not too early to ask it. I say that because of the extraordinary developments surrounding Mrs. Clinton’s private email server,
Read MoreI recently returned from seven days at one of the most beautiful spots on earth – the Princess Louisa Inlet located in the western part of Canada. My wife, daughter, and youngest son were there as part of a Young Life retreat, at the property known as the Malibu Club. It was my first encounter with Young Life, a
Read MoreCraig Shirley, a public affairs consultant and author of a fine book on Ronald Reagan, has written an article titled, “In Defense of Incivility.” Capturing a certain temperament one finds on the right these days, Shirley insists that civility is not only overrated; more civility is an outright threat to American democracy, “the last thing we
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A Clarifying Moment for Conservatism
In a compelling column, George Will – who knows a thing or two about conservatism – makes the conservative case against Donald Trump. Mr. Will refers to Trump as an “unprecedentedly and incorrigibly vulgar presidential candidate” who is coarsening our civic life. He labels Trump “a counterfeit Republican and no conservative.” And he argues that Trump is
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