The second act has barely begun.
Glenn Ellmers – A decade of the Trump phenomenon is a noteworthy milestone, worthy of commemoration and reflection. Yet in terms of this unusual bifurcated presidency, the high political drama has only just resumed after a four-year intermission. At Independence Day, Trump won’t even be six months into his four-year term. The real work is only beginning.
Not every citizen is bound to help the president succeed, but all must at least give him a chance to do so. Even those who don’t support Trump should recall Leo Strauss’s sound advice to expect less from politics and more from ourselves. Trump is trying to save republican self-government. Yet, since Americans fundamentally disagree on what a free society means, that depends just as much on us as it does on him—which is part of the challenge. Continue reading
Noah Stanton – The federal government’s credit card habit has long been Washington’s equivalent of a shopaholic with no spending limit and no one checking the statements. For decades, taxpayers have watched their hard-earned dollars disappear into a bureaucratic abyss while politicians made empty promises about fiscal responsibility and eliminating waste. The familiar pattern: grand declarations followed by business as usual, with government spending ballooning year after year.
Victor Davis Hanson – Two strange phenomena now characterize the political landscape.