10 Dec The American Torture Problem
This essay offers a brief account and (partial) critique of the Central Intelligence Agency's enhanced interrogation program which was utilized during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan....
Compass
08 Nov The Proof is in the Pudding: The Myth of Equality
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Equality is treated as a universal and invariable concept, yet in practice authors manipulate it constantly to articulate their own interpretations, inadvertently transforming it into a political conception. ...
18 Oct Restoring Civic Virtue: The Buckley Model
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The political life of William F. Buckley Jr. stands as a model for reinvigorating the civic virtue that the American founders recognized as necessary....
26 Sep Originalism: Reclaiming the American Promise
Posted at 15:15h
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Originalism best reflects the Founding Fathers’ faith in self-government and also best preserves the legitimacy of the U.S. Supreme Court. ...
06 Sep Omelas and Bensalem: Liberty and Utopias
Posted at 17:43h
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Is it possible for a society to be good without liberty? Bacon's The New Atlantis and Le Guin's The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas both aid in exploring this important question....
16 Aug Moving Beyond American Conditional Aid to Haiti
Posted at 07:36h
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A root cause of Haiti's poverty is the IMF's structural adjustment plan. A solution based on Chinese aid, unlike neo-liberal policies, allows Haiti to protect its rice and other industries. ...
19 Jul Constitutional Individualism: The Ninth Amendment and the “Natural Rights of Man”
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The Ninth Amendment is not a one-off historical anachronism aimed at protecting nonexistent rights. Instead, it should be construed by the courts as a bulwark against undue governmental interference in people’s private lives....
21 Jun Tocqueville and the Earthbound American Spirit
Posted at 10:14h
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This article assesses the gulf between Tocqueville’s claim that human beings have naturally transcendent souls and his observations of the democratic souls of Americans. ...
17 May Symposium on Alexander Hamilton’s Legacy
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Hamilton is often sidelined in favor of other founders such as Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. The Tocqueville Forum students featured here reconsider Hamilton’s legacy, aided by careful reading of Hamilton’s own writings....
10 May A Practical Solution to the Death of the American Dream
Posted at 09:52h
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Has slowing class mobility caused the shift in American culture away from the traditional "American Dream"? Or has this shift in American culture caused slowing class mobility?...