Some years ago I attended a conference that brought together political practitioners and academics to see what we could learn from one another’s work.

A recent essay over at Quillette observed that "The near assassination of Donald Trump was a brazen attack on democracy."

Our policy for this “forum” is to avoid culture war issues, partisanship, and ripped-from-the-headlines breathless reporting.

As we head deeper into this troublesome election season, we can’t help but notice the paradox that voters are discontented with the two candidates for president that they themselves have chosen.

“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” The substitution of “the pursuit of happiness” for “property” in this famous triumvirate may be simultaneously the most inspiring and most troubling rhetorical move in American history.

One of the more interesting developments of the last five years (or so) has been the creation of independent content delivery systems that allow authors to bypass corporate control of news and information.

Tomorrow, June 14th, is Flag Day. It commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States by the Second Continental Congress in 1777.

We’ve argued repeatedly in this space that part of Washington’s greatness as president was his willingness to walk away from power, even in circumstances where the opportunity to expand power was handed to him.

In my essay last week I talked about my ambivalent reaction to the movie Saving Private Ryan. Although visually powerful, I found the story full of holes and the overall moral framework poorly constructed.

On this Memorial Day we take some time to reflect on books and movies that can help us better understand the experiences of soldiers at war.

Being in the middle has a bad reputation. Middle children often seem willful and resentful.

My field of political philosophy contains an inherent contradiction since a philosophical disposition often eschews too close an engagement with the powers and principalities of this world.

From their early Puritan days Americans have painted their politics with Biblical imagery.

We think of economics as “the dismal science” in part because it tries to bracket the question of values, opting for mere description and impersonal laws.

Political life must operate at some intuitive level on a coherence between views of the self and modes of governance.

In last week’s essay, we looked at how ideas of “the sacred,” violence, and suffering congeal into our modern notions of victimhood, and our tendency to grant moral status to “victims.”

We have argued in this space that the state of democracy in America is both worse and better than people think.