Modern conservatives look to a variety of historical figures for guidance as they confront progressive liberalism. Some are from the 1700’s and 1800’s, including Edmund Burke, the Founders, and Abraham Lincoln. Others, like Russell Kirk, F.A. Hayek, Milton Friedman, and Ronald Reagan, are from the postwar era. Strangely enough, conservatives rarely turn to the original opponents of progressivism, even though that would seem like the first place to look. And as historian Jonathan O’Neill writes in a new paper, American conservatism was hardly on hiatus during the progressive ascendancy. Opponents …
Winter has turned to spring and spring has turned to summer, but Congress and the White House are still debating how to handle the limit on our national debt. In the 1830’s, however, President Andrew Jackson set about an even more daunting task: paying the debt off entirely. America accomplished that feat in 1835, and to this day it is the only time we have done so. According to the US government, outstanding public debt totaled approximately $80 million (or $1.8 billion in 2010 dollars) by the start of President …
Even 100 years after his birth, the world continues to remember President Ronald Reagan. In one week alone, he was honored with a mass led by the archbishop of Krakow, a special session of the Hungarian parliament, a street named after him in Prague, and statues in Budapest and London. In the former captive nations of Europe, Reagan’s bold stand for liberty and against communism is recognized and appreciated. Two of Reagan’s advisers recently sat down to discuss his legacy of freedom for Americans and Europeans alike. Watch the conversation between Attorney General Ed …
On Sunday, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) had a stark message for the GOP candidates on ABC’s This Week: “We cannot move into [becoming] an isolationist party. We cannot repeat the lessons of the 1930s when the United States of America stood by while bad things happened in the world.” Senator McCain is correct that Americans should not withdraw from the world in response to the active internationalism of recent years.
