A recent exchange in local Knox County political circles turned on a simple phrase: “endorsements make for a lazy voter.” […]
Knox County: Endorsements, Associations, and the Architecture of a Republic Read More »
American democracy contains a few rituals so strange that they almost feel like political theater. One of them unfolds every
The Vice President Who Announces His Own Defeat Read More »
First Blood The opening scene of First Blood does not begin with a war. The opening scene begins with restraint.
The Rambo Doctrine: From Hollywood Myth to Presidential Statecraft Read More »
Three traditions, one problem: how societies cope with imperfect human beings Modern political arguments often collapse into a single moral
Three Answers to Altruism: Madison, Rand, and Jesus Read More »
How Primary Reform Changed the Meaning of Losing Two of the closest presidential elections in American history ended very differently.
Why Nixon Waited and Gore Went to Court Read More »
Americans did not set out to weaken political parties. The opposite impulse drove reform. In the late 1960s and early
How Primaries Unmade the Parties—and Why Demagoguery Filled the Gap Read More »
Rebuilding a Strong Knox County GOP Through Structure, Not Personalities Knox County Republicans often argue about candidates, messaging, or ideology.
Three Republican Actors and One Broken Contract Read More »
Thomas Paine and James Madison stood on the same revolutionary ground. Only one built something that lasted. The American Revolution
Closed Primaries Make Thomas Paines, Not James Madisons Read More »
Experience, sequencing, and the road not taken after the Cold War Counterfactuals can mislead. They tempt writers to turn history
Putin or Bust? Could Bush’s Team Have Read Russia More Clearly Than Clinton Read More »
James Madison’s remedy for faction was not merely more map; it was more mixture. In James Madison’s famous argument in
Raising the Waterline: A Madisonian Case for Open Primaries Read More »
