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June 01, 2017

6 Quotes: Peter Augustine Lawler on virtue

Peter Augustine Lawler died last week at the age of 65. Lawler, who referred to himself as a “postmodern conservative”, was a distinguished political philosopher and public intellectual who frequently wrote about the role of virtue in the modern (or postmodern) world. Continue Reading...
June 01, 2017

What caused the Great Depression?

Almost 90 years have passed since the beginning of the Great Depression and yet most of us are still unclear on what caused America’s greatest economic collapse. The causes and precursors are complex, of course, but there are a few factors that we should know about. Continue Reading...
May 31, 2017

The DeVos budget: Toward a new paradigm of public education

“If school choice effectively functions as a standing critique of public education as well as being a potential solution to problems evident in the current system,” asks Hunter Baker in this week’s Acton Commentary, “how can public school advocates ever approve of an appointee like Betsy DeVos?” Continue Reading...
May 31, 2017

The Importance of Incompetence

  Today at Public Discourse, I argue that in addition to idealism and self-interest, incompetence needs to be recognized as a more important factor in politics: [U]nless we add incompetence as a category of analysis, we will tend to view every victory for our own team as a triumph of justice or freedom or equality (idealism), and every failure the result of deep and convoluted corruption (self-interest). Continue Reading...