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Hosts Daniel Wiser, Jr., and Howe Whitman sit down with the authors of National Affairs essays to discuss pivotal issues — from domestic-policy debates to enduring dilemmas of society and culture — that are often overlooked by American media. Each episode promises a fresh view on contemporary and permanent questions across a wide range of topics, all with one central theme: to help you think a little more clearly.
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Democracy is a central feature of Democrats’ 2024 electoral campaign. The party has worked to present its proposals on that front as designed to reject Donald Trump’s authoritarian narcissism and make government more responsive and accountable. But what the Democrats have in mind when they refer to “democracy” is a lengthy manifesto designed to tra…
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In a disturbing development, assisted suicide and euthanasia have become more prevalent across the West in recent decades. Government and health authorities are encouraging voluntary death, even for patients who do not suffer from a terminal illness but are afflicted by disabilities, poverty, or loneliness. Guest Aaron Rothstein joins us to discuss…
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The chaos at the border in recent years has cast into stark relief one of the central issues surrounding illegal immigration: its fiscal costs. Unfortunately, most discussions on the subject tend to be filled with misconceptions, half-truths, and even outright falsehoods. The evidence indicates that illegal immigrants are almost certainly a net dra…
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Politics requires building coalitions in order to win elections. For those on the right, this means there is no alternative but to pursue some kind of fusionism among its competing elements. A revitalized fusionism would not look quite like the right’s prior successful coalitions, however: It would need to account for 21st-century realities, which …
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The emergence of generative artificial intelligence in the last few years has drawn a growing chorus of advocates offering proposals for how to regulate this new technology. Many of them want to treat AI as an entirely new kind of challenge that calls for entirely new regulatory tools. But starting from scratch is unlikely to lead us to effective r…
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The textbooks most commonly used in high-school history classes are badly deficient. These books, which shape the rising generation’s perception of the country they are inheriting, often leave out the core ideas that defined the American founding and the nation’s ideals. To recover America’s sense of itself, it’s crucial to teach high-school studen…
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Voting should be straightforward: Figure out which candidate or party best fits one’s political views or interests, and vote accordingly. But the last few elections have shown many Americans that it’s not nearly that simple. We could benefit from a new framework for thinking about voting, and not just for elections in which we find ourselves especi…
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Classical schools are distinctly American. Just as our country was founded both as a modern engineering project and as a recollection of ancient political philosophy and the traditional rights of Englishmen, the contemporary classical-education movement is an act of construction — one might say an invented tradition — seeking to revivify and partic…
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What type of party system best suits the American regime? What can we do to cultivate such a party system? Amid the current tumult and polarization of our politics, much of it the result of the degradation of our parties, it behooves us to seek answers to these questions, and to learn from past efforts to give shape to the American party system. Gu…
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Almost nobody is taking America's drug crisis seriously. We talk about it plenty, but that talk rarely acknowledges what distinguishes today's drug epidemic from past ones: Those earlier crises inflicted many more or less equally weighty harms — to users' health, to families, to communities. In this crisis, one problem dwarfs all others: death. Dru…
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As his term has progressed, President Joe Biden has acted more aggressively on student-loan forgiveness than anyone might have expected. And even now, the scope of what he proposes is not obvious to many. Little-noticed changes to income-driven repayment rules could dwarf the more familiar loan-forgiveness agenda, transforming the federal student-l…
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Slavery’s relation to the American Constitution has always been a point of great contention. The debate has never been resolved because the reality is complex: The Constitution did lend legal support to the practice of slavery, but it did not lend the institution legitimacy. The difference has a lot to tell us about the American political tradition…
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If the Supreme Court curtails racial preferences in college admissions, Americans should celebrate the triumph of the truth that people should be treated as individuals rather than as members of racial groups. But we should also recognize that good-faith efforts to uplift economically disadvantaged students of all races help fulfill another cherish…
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The Federalist was written more than two centuries ago with a particular purpose: persuading Americans to back the Constitution. Yet far from being a period piece, it initiated nothing less than a revolution in political thought — one that fundamentally redefined how we understand popular government. Grasping this point could help today’s Americans…
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This spring, in the case of Moore v. Harper, the Supreme Court will decide whether and when state judges can step in to draw congressional district maps. The case takes up the so-called “independent state legislature” theory. At issue is nothing less than the traditional model of American redistricting, in which the people’s representatives, not pa…
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Neither free-speech absolutism nor censorship will solve the problems that surround political speech today. Instead, we need a renewed commitment to the citizen’s task of finding common ground, even and especially between factions that seem irreconcilable. We need to relearn how to rule and be ruled in turn. Guests Jenna and Ben Storey join us to d…
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Pressuring families to keep both parents in the workforce while their children are young may be beneficial for GDP, but it often harms families. Both policymakers and employers should recognize that many families want one parent to stay home with the kids in their early years, and should find ways to make that possible. Guest Ivana Greco joins us t…
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The question of the proper role of government once unified the right, but now it divides it. Some conservatives are increasingly open to an assertive role for the state, particularly in supporting family formation. But what rules and standards should define that role? The principle of subsidiarity can be of enormous help in tackling this question a…
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What does it mean to be a conservative in a time of profound upheaval, when it is no longer clear what can or even should be conserved? Few Americans have more to teach us on that front than John Jay — a man who modeled throughout his remarkable life and work the vocation of a conservative in a time of disruption. Guest Brad Littlejohn joins us to …
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The information revolution has produced the most dramatic economic and social transformations since industrialization. Like that preceding revolution, it has yielded some great benefits but has also generated some unanticipated and unacceptable harms that are particularly acute among one of our nation’s most vulnerable populations: our children. To…
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Constitutionalist court watchers, judges, and scholars are now engaged in an intense debate over how to apply originalism and textualism in practice. The work of late legal scholar Alexander Bickel points toward a tradition-based originalism that could offer a path through that debate. His approach calls on our shared national memory to help us ach…
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The populist turn of the American right has created a policy affinity between nationalist conservatives and mainstream progressives. Both seem to agree that an emphasis on dynamism has undermined our economy’s ability to prioritize workers, families, and communities. But in fact, the trouble facing America’s heartland is more likely the result of a…
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How to balance state and national power was perhaps the single most important and challenging question confronting the early republic. The way the framers took up that question, and the approach they landed on for addressing it, can help us appreciate just how unlikely the emergence of the United States as we now know it really was. Guest Allen Gue…
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Conservatives have been on the sidelines of climate-policy debates for several decades now. In recent years, however, a new force has appeared in climate politics: the Eco-right. Guests Alex Bozmoski and Nate Hochman join us to discuss the different factions within this movement of scrappy, conservative-leaning non-profits and think tanks, and expl…
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Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin have few fans in Washington, but thanks to increasing worries over the long-term stability of the dollar, they have piqued the interest of some major investors. In an era of rapid growth in deficits and debt and rising inflation, cryptocurrencies may be pointing us toward a new monetary order. Guest Avik Roy joins us t…
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The case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization — which the Supreme Court will hear this term — offers the cleanest opportunity since 1973 for the Court to revisit its abortion jurisprudence. A review of that jurisprudence shows that, regardless of anyone’s views of abortion itself, basic fidelity to the Constitution and the rule of law de…
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Few would dispute the observation that Congress is now dysfunctional. But why has that happened? Considering the House of Representatives in particular suggests three ways in which Congress has gone off track: substantive, procedural, and structural. Each in turn points to a set of reforms that might help the House recover its central place in our …
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The idea that immigration is the solution to the aging of American society has become an article of faith among those arguing for ever-higher levels of new arrivals. It’s not a crazy argument; it just happens to be incorrect. In reality, the impact immigrants can have on population aging is small. Immigration certainly makes our population larger, …
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In recent years, some on the right have argued that the national interest requires policymakers to coordinate key sectors of the economy, and that this would mark a return to a proud American tradition. But the history of American economic policy provides as much a warning as a guide for these would-be planners, and should leave them wary of attemp…
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Benjamin Franklin presents us with layers of confounding mystery. And that’s how he wanted it. From his earliest creation — a set of letters to the editor of the New-England Courant written under the pseudonym Silence Dogood — he hid himself behind masks that let him speak frankly yet always ambiguously. Both what he said and how are keys to his en…
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When we discuss education in America, we almost invariably refer to schools. But Americans have always been ambivalent about whether parents or a formal teaching establishment should ultimately be responsible for the education of the rising generation. That ambivalence itself offers a key to understanding America’s endless education debates. Guest …
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The crisis in which our country found itself following the 2020 election was in many respects unprecedented. Yet it also built on a years-long pattern by which losing politicians have sown mistrust in our elections. We must now wonder if every candidate who loses a major election will refuse to concede and instead set out to raise money and build s…
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The 2019-2020 school year will be remembered as the year we all became home schoolers. But well before the pandemic, the popularity of home schooling exceeded its actual prevalence, as fiscal and logistical challenges often posed insurmountable obstacles for potential home-school families. Guest Michael McShane joins us to discuss the hybrid home-s…
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“Cultural humility” has recently joined diversity, inclusion, equity, and intersectionality in the social-justice lexicon. An entire social movement is hidden in those two words — one that is far from innocuous. To prevent the concept from undermining our educational institutions, we need to see cultural humility for what it really is and understan…
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What will be Donald Trump’s lasting effects on American politics? Three conventional wisdoms have arisen in response to that question. In one view, Trump was an aberration, and his imprint will fade as President Biden reverses his executive actions and his sad attempts to remain relevant in retirement prove futile. A second view sees Trump as trans…
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The gains from trade and technological advance in recent decades have been enormous. But the transformation has had some downsides, too. These drawbacks have transformed our politics in recent decades, and the economic disaster accompanying the coronavirus pandemic has only magnified them. Defenders of markets have too often sought to dismiss the d…
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As America’s political parties have been increasingly captured by their ideological extremes in recent decades, the space for cross-party coalition building has shrunk. Some reformers argue that only third parties can help, but this solution has never been realistic in our system. A more practical way forward would require would-be coalition builde…
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Elections in America and around the world in recent years have raised concerns about the reliability of opinion polling. But the challenges facing the industry go beyond simple reliability and predictive power, revealing a chasm between pollsters and the public they observe that poses a threat to the credibility and usefulness of opinion surveys in…
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This year's public-health crisis has ravaged state budgets across the country, as revenues plummet while spending explodes. For some states, this has dramatically worsened pre-existing fiscal problems caused by decades of mismanagement of pension obligations. Guest David Skeel argues that in order to help those states in particular, Congress should…
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When we step back and consider America's 21st-century politics, our responses to crises — in 2001, 2008-09, and this year — vastly exceed "normal" times in terms of importance. This change of perspective should compel us to reject the idea that polarization is the defining feature of our era, and to reassess our understanding of the American politi…
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Legal and cultural debates involving religious liberty are converging toward a single question: is free religious exercise an element of the common good, that contributes to society’s overall well-being? In the landmark 1990 case of Employment Division v. Smith, the answer was no. But the Supreme Court issued several decisions favorable to religiou…
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Just a few years ago, e-cigarettes were lauded as a public-health miracle that could wean addicts off of far more harmful smoking habits. Today, the same e-cigarettes are denounced as a public-health nightmare, and their sale is increasingly restricted. How did this happen? And which view is more right? Guest Sally Satel joins us to […] The post Va…
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Ryan Anderson shares his views that recent battles over religious liberty don't actually have anything to deal with religion, but deeper moral debates The post Religious liberty is not enough (with Ryan Anderson) appeared first on American Enterprise Institute - AEI.De către American Enterprise Institute
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When it comes to education, conservatives have been far better at explaining what they are against than what they are for — at least beyond school choice in K-12 and freedom of speech on campus. But guest Rick Hess argues that conservatives are actually well positioned to lead much more effectively on education, because the […] The post A new educa…
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Cultural renewal is a generational project, and therefore an educational project. Guest Ian Lindquist suggests that Americans looking for signs of hope that such a project remains achievable should look to a growing network of primary and secondary schools preparing young Americans for life in a free society. These schools compose what is now calle…
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Don Schneider joins and shares his views of how shifts in the US economy have contributed to labor inequality and responses to counteract these disparities The post The limits of economic populism with Donald Schneider appeared first on American Enterprise Institute - AEI.De către American Enterprise Institute
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Unemployment rates are down... why are so many men still without work? Guest Nicholas Eberstadt argues that the issue is more complex than most experts say The post The crisis of men without work with Nicholas Eberstadt appeared first on American Enterprise Institute - AEI.De către American Enterprise Institute
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Is open trade as simple as it seems? Current trade tensions with China indicate otherwise. Samuel Hammond joins the show to discuss it's hidden complexities and what they could say about the future of America's labor market The post The China trade shock with Samuel Hammond appeared first on American Enterprise Institute - AEI.…
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