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CATEGORY: CULTURE (28 MIN)
The recent movement which led to the election of President Donald Trump spawned intense inquiry from those who saw it as a dangerous and frankly strange development in American history. Pundits blamed nearly anything for Trump’s ascendance, but they mostly focused on the moral flaws of his supporters. Something must have been wrong with “those people” to get here.
Victor Davis Hanson, writing in The New Criterion, deals with one of these critiques in a book review. Hanson, the 2022 winner of ISI’s Conservative Book of the Year Award, analyzes the 2024 work White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy by Tom Schaller and Paul Waldman. Schaller and Waldman, according to Hanson, openly show their leftist bias and failure to understand rural America.
Hanson blasts Schaller and Waldman for their unsupported platitudes and generally arrogant tone. He says the authors treat Trump supporters as “naïve and ignorant” while they ignore any legitimate issues they might have had with American policy. And Hanson argues Schaller and Waldman blind themselves to the impacts of progressive policy on rural America—impacts which brought about the political sea change of the past decade.
Read Hanson’s full review here.
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Weekly Poll
Would you describe where you live as_____.
[A] Urban
[B] Suburban
[C] Exurban
[D] Rural
RESULTS: 5/23/24
Do you support homeschooling?
[A] Yes - 92.5%
[B] No - 4.7%
[C] Unsure - 2.8%
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CATEGORY: INTERNATIONAL (5 MIN)
Many notable countries around the world require their young people to serve a mandatory stint in the armed forces. Two of these nations, Israel and South Korea, have long faced the prospect of imminent war, so a well-trained populace makes sense. But now a European nation, one which has not faced a nearby threat in many decades, has proposed a military service requirement.
For The American Conservative, Sumantra Maitra discusses this plan from the United Kingdom. The Conservative Party recently proposed a year of service for all 18-year-olds, hoping to spark patriotism and increase the size of the armed forces. Maitra lays out both negative and positive impacts of such a decision.
On the one hand, Maitra sees benefits from the proposal, like solidarity among increasingly divided people, potential economic stimulation, and the obvious: better military strength. But on the other hand, Maitra wonders—what’s the purpose of a stronger army?
Maitra also suggests another strategy for combatting military weakness. He notes that foreign fighting forces have a strong tradition in history dating back to the Roman Empire. He points to the long-standing model of the French Foreign Legion, which eventually gives a path to citizenship to non-citizens. Germany has indicated that it may follow this route as well.
Read Maitra’s article right here to learn more.
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CATEGORY: VIDEO
You won’t want to miss this debate between Michael Anton and Noah Rothman as we chart the best path forward for America.
What are America’s national interests today, and how does our foreign policy serve best serve those goals? The end of the Cold War ushered in a “unipolar moment” of American geopolitical dominance, in which we enforced a “rules-based liberal international order” of freedom and increasing economic prosperity across the world.
The last 30 years have almost unquestionably been the highpoint of American exceptionalism. But the rise of great power competitors in Russia and China and American military foibles in Iraq and Afghanistan have triggered a reconsideration of the “unipolar moment.” The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, has thrown the future of the liberal international order in flux, as well as divded Americans over how to respond. What does the war in Ukraine mean for the future of American foreign policy, and for the future of the liberal international order? What should America’s role be in defending that order?
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ISI's Annual
Homecoming Weekend
Join ISI on September 20-21, 2024, for a garden party that’ll welcome students, professors, alumni, and friends of ISI from across the country.
Every year, we host ISI’s annual Homecoming festivities right on our 20-acre campus tucked away into a bucolic pocket of Wilmington, DE. Our Homecoming sets the tone for the new school year and is an opportunity to celebrate and network with our impressive community of students, teachers, alumni, and professionals from a variety of backgrounds.
Reserve your ticket>>>
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Because our student editors and writers are bravely bringing conservative ideas to their campuses, we’re highlighting their efforts here.
University of Minnesota-Published Academic Journal Asserts BDS Guidelines to Reject Israeli Scholar’s Work via The Minnesota Republic
““Your submission was not considered solely on the basis of your current work at and affiliation with Israeli academic institutions… we noticed that you listed Tel Aviv University and Belazel Academy of Arts and Design on your Academia.edu page.” This is an excerpt from a May 26, 2024, email that an Israeli scholar received from assistant editors of the academic journal Cultural Critique, Alya Ansari and Devon Moore, rejecting a manuscript that he submitted for consideration for publication in the journal. The University of Minnesota Press publishes the journal, and Ansari and Moore list 235 Nicholson Hall and 612-626-8940 as the contact information for the journal..”
Harvard’s 373rd Commencement via The Harvard Salient
“Yesterday morning, graduates and their families packed into Tercentenary Theater to celebrate the Class of 2024. Harvard’s 373rd commencement, threatened until recently by the pro-Palestinian occupation of Harvard Yard, unsurprisingly went off-script. Interim President Garber began the commencement ceremony by announcing, with appreciable understatement, that “some. . . may choose to take the liberty of expressing themselves to draw attention to events unfolding in the wider world.” Garber suggested that they do so “with their community and this occasion in mind.” Audience members were then asked to observe a moment of silence, its purpose deliberately kept vague.“ |
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CATEGORY: ECONOMICS (10 MIN)
When someone says he is a “liberal” in America today, it carries to the average person a clear association with progressives and the Democratic Party. But to those in philosophy and political thought, it carries a host of other meanings; meanings that have become the heart of fierce debates in the conservative world.
These debates are not new. For this week’s article from the Modern Age website, an old essay from German philosopher Wilhelm Röpke discussed Röpke’s understanding of liberalism and its relationship with Christianity. Röpke recounted a conference that he and several other notable thinkers attended to address the problem of socialism and the importance of free markets.
During that conference, the scholars began to associate liberalism with Christianity, drawing on the values of “freedom and human dignity” that would oppose totalitarianism. Röpke dove into that relationship in this article. He noted two popular definitions of liberalism: one which is more general and has a deep tradition in Western civilization, and one which recently developed in the 1800s.
The first definition, Röpke argued, matches well with Christian values. In this “decisive phase” of the battle of man’s future, Röpke said we should recognize that “the patrimony of Christian social philosophy . . . merges with all that is essential and enduring in liberalism.”
Read Röpke’s essay on the Modern Age website here.
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Thought of the Day:
“Modern society, based as it is on the division of labor, can be preserved only under conditions of lasting peace."
- Ludwig von Mises
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Join ISI’s new Alumni Giving Club
It’s never been easier for you to support our mission—and stay part of our community—with ISI’s new Alumni Giving Club!
For just $19.53 a month, you can join the fight and “pay it forward” by educating the next generation for ordered liberty.
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