The best of intellectual conservative thought.
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CATEGORY: POLITICS (6 MIN)
Still standing
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The nation teetered on the edge of the unknown last weekend when a would-be assassin nearly took the life of former President Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania. The gunman tragically killed at least one innocent attendee, but, by inches, his shots grazed Trump’s ear instead of delivering a fatal blow. Tackled by Secret Service members, Trump then stood and raised his fist—a photographer capturing the moment for the history books.
In The American Conservative, Daniel McCarthy, ISI’s Vice President for the Collegiate Network and editor of Modern Age, delivers his thoughts on the shooting and Trump’s response. McCarthy sees innate leadership in the former president’s reaction to being hit. Instead of letting himself be carried off to safety, Trump emerged to show his courage and defiance to the crowd, McCarthy writes.
In contrast, McCarthy says, President Joe Biden did not give any statement for nearly an hour and a half after the shooting. And after his prepared words, McCarthy notes that Biden refused to call the incident an assassination attempt. As McCarthy puts it, “The president was not in command of the situation.”
But McCarthy urges conservatives not to copy liberals’ argument that inflammatory rhetoric somehow caused or served as the primary motivation for the shooter’s actions. Rather, he argues conservatives should focus on the failures to cover leftist extremism and to adequately protect Trump.
Read his entire article here.
Read Now
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Weekly Poll
Do you support the selection of JD Vance as Trump’s VP nominee?
[A] Yes
[B] No
[C] Not sure
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RESULTS: 7/11/24
Which problem do you think has had the worst effect on America?
[A] Rise of housing prices - 2.7%
[B] Loss of the family unit - 50.7%
[C] Growth of addiction - 1.4%
[D] Fall in civic literacy - 11%
[E] Decline in religious affiliation - 34.2%
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CATEGORY: POLITICS (6 MIN)
Branch v. branch
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The results of the presidential election will affect a great deal in the nation, but one of the most important issues in the balance is the composition of the Supreme Court. President Trump appointed three Justices to the Court, and President Biden appointed one Justice of his own. Each year, major decisions by these men and women on abortion, administrative agencies, and religious liberty have set the course of American law.
Some in the legislative branch, though, are seeking to change things on the Court themselves. The National Review editors discuss the efforts of Democratic legislators to remove conservative Justices from the highest court in the land. Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Ron Wyden sent a letter to the Attorney General asking for a potential criminal investigation into Justice Clarence Thomas. And Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced articles of impeachment against Justices Thomas and Samuel Alito.
The NR editors call these efforts a “menace” and a “farce,” respectively. They dive into the details of the senators’ claims against Justice Thomas to explain why the accusations would likely come to naught. They also point out the hypocrisy of ignoring other Justices’ potential infractions at the same time. And the editors blast Ocasio-Cortez’s impeachment resolutions, noting their false statements and incoherent analysis.
Read more of the editors’ analysis right here.
Read Now
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CATEGORY: VIDEO
Reclaiming Common Sense | Phillip Howard
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Join us for an enlightening episode of ISI's Conservative Conversations with Phillip K. Howard, a leading voice in government and legal reform, as he delves into the core ideas of his influential works. In this engaging conversation, Howard revisits his groundbreaking book The Death of Common Sense, which critiqued the bureaucratic inefficiencies strangling American governance. He then transitions to discuss his latest work, Everyday Freedom, which offers a bold vision for re-empowering individuals and restoring common sense in our institutions.
Listeners will gain insights into Howard's advocacy for simpler, more effective governmental frameworks and his belief in the power of individual responsibility. Whether you're a student of public policy, a legal professional, or simply someone interested in the health of American democracy, this podcast provides thought-provoking perspectives on how we can overcome the paralysis of over-regulation and reclaim a sense of agency in our daily lives.
Tune in to explore how Phillip K. Howard’s ideas can inspire practical changes and reinvigorate the American spirit of freedom and responsibility.
Watch Now
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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.
Official Homecoming Schedule:
Friday, September 20 (6:30 pm – 11 pm)
Guests will gather at ISI’s campus for a reception, bonfire, and open house
Saturday, September 21
Guests will gather at ISI's Campus for an 8:00 am breakfast
9:00 – 10:00 am: Reagan and Nixon Revisited
Speakers: George Will and Lord Conrad Black, moderated by Dan McCarthy
10:30 am: The Democratization of American Christianity
Speakers: Rusty Reno, Nathan Hatch, and Joshua Mitchell, moderated by Johnny Burtka
Top 20 under 30 Awards Ceremony
12:00 – 1:15 pm: God and Man at Yale 2024
Michael Knowles (lecture) and moderated discussion feat. Michael Brendan Dougherty
1:15 pm: Lunch and festivities begin
Reserve your ticket>>>
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CATEGORY: GOVERNMENT (26 MIN)
Winds of change
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With drastic events rocking the political world on both sides of the Atlantic, it’s hard to take a step back from our feeds and think about the theoretical place of a nation in the West today. But we ought to. Our lives have changed in fundamental ways, and so have the foundational conceptions of countries and governments. The difficult question is: what exactly are these changes?
In this week’s article from the Modern Age website, Pierre Manent lays out his ideas about how the Western world has shifted, interacting with the work of many philosophers along the way. Manent, in a piece originally published in a 2003 edition of Modern Age, delves into observations that still prove prescient twenty years later.
Manent discusses what he sees as the modern rejection of the “sovereign state,” and he works through the impacts of such a rejection on punishment and justice, specifically the death penalty. He then moves to the concept of the “nation,” which Manent argues is under pressure from multiple sides. He says that the democratic equality that nations allowed people to achieve then made the concept of the nation obsolete in the eyes of many.
“It therefore seems that today democracy detaches itself from the nation, abandons the nation like a snake does its skin, and pursues its path on its own,” Manent writes.
Discover Manent’s thoughts on this trend and its impact on our political future here.
Read Now
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Thought of the Day:
“It is not enough to be nice; you have to be good.”
- Sir Roger Scruton
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.
Join the Club
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