Founding Fathers

Class Warfare, An American Tradition

We are no more partisan today than we were at the nation’s founding. by Bruce S. Thornton // Defining Ideas  Are we more “polarized” and “partisan” than we were in the past? Political commentators think so. In a recentAtlantic profile, conservative pollster Frank Luntz attributed his cynicism about American politics to the unprecedented polarization of the American …

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The Inequality Smokescreen

by Bruce S. Thornton // FrontPage Magazine  Desperate for a diversion from the disasters of Obamacare, the president has conjured up the old leftist “income inequality” cliché. His court-pundits complain that “the richest nation on earth is starting to resemble a banana republic,” according toThe New Republic, while Berkeley Professor Robert Reich has thundered against “casino …

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The Political Debate We Need to Have

Today, we treat politics as a sport, but it’s really a conflict of ideologies between federalists and technocrats. by Bruce S. Thornton // Defining Ideas  The media and pundits treat politics like a sport. The significance of the recent agreement to postpone the debt crisis until January, for instance, is really about which party won and …

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What Would the Founders Think of Defunding Obamacare?

by Bruce S. Thornton // FrontPage Magazine  A few days ago CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin, speaking about the Republican House bill defunding Obamacare, commented, “Certainly not the way the Founding Fathers maybe drew this thing up.” It’s certainly a surprise to hear an anchor on CNN, an organization biased in favor of progressives, appealing to the …

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The Lost Meaning of Independence Day

by Bruce S. Thornton Front Page Magazine Independence Day is a time of backyard barbeques and fireworks, department-store sales and blockbuster movies, patriotic bunting and flying the flag––in short, a time of leisure and consumption, with a few obligatory nods to the momentous event that July 4 is supposed to celebrate. But as the years …

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A Brief History of Media Bias

Who said that newspapers are supposed to report the news in an objective and fact-based way? by Bruce S. Thornton Defining Ideas The revelation that the Department of Justice acquired and read the phone records of Associated Press editors and reporters does not change the obvious fact that the mainstream media have been reliable supporters …

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Big Government’s Abuses of Power

Monitoring AP but not detaining Tamerlan Tsarnaev–there is a common theme. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Government is now so huge, powerful, and callous that citizens risk becoming virtual serfs, lacking the freedoms guaranteed by the Founders. Share This

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The Tin-Drum Progressive Boomers

by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Like the hero of Gunter Grass’ novel The Tin Drum, America’s progressive Baby Boomers chose not to grow up. Why should they? Share This

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Democracy’s New Discontents

by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Once upon a time, loud dissent, filibustering in the Senate, and gridlock in the House were as democratic as apple pie. Share This

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