| From | Intercollegiate Review <[email protected]> |
| Subject | Four-year forecast |
| Date | November 21, 2024 7:04 PM |
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The best of intellectual conservative thought.
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CATEGORY: POLITICS (11 MIN)
Winds of change
[link removed]
The people who lived through momentous cultural and political shifts often didn’t know their own time’s importance. After all, how can you fully understand your place in history without knowing the future? But sometimes, the drastic changes affecting the world for years to come make themselves obvious.
ISI alumnus Ross Douthat, writing for his column in the New York Times, argues that the 2024 election marks a change in eras. “The post-Cold War era has ended, and we’re not going back,” Douthat says. He doesn’t mean this in an “alarmist” sense; he means that the political alignments and balances in America have been in flux, and President-elect Donald Trump’s second win confirmed that the coalitions will never be the same.
Douthat points to several indicators of change. He notes that the culture no longer has a moderating mechanism to stop “radical and reactionary” forces. With the collapse of trust in major mainstream institutions, Douthat believes America is experiencing an “informational fracture,” and he looks to Trump’s and Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign strategies to bolster that claim.
Internationally, Douthat sees American dominance on the global stage as waning, likely to be replaced by new foreign alignments. And he also cites the falling birth rates in the West as likely generators of even more drastic change. What will that change look like? Douthat is not “so confident” in prophesying the details of that future.
Read Douthat’s article with our NYT guest link here.
Read Now
[link removed]
Weekly Poll
Should America be more or less engaged in foreign affairs?
[A] More
[B] Less
[C] Right level
[D] Not sure
[link removed]
RESULTS: 11/14/2024
Do you think America needs major economic reforms?
[A] Yes - 85.5%
[B] No - 9.7%
[C] Not sure - 4.8%
[link removed]
CATEGORY: INTERNATIONAL (4 MIN)
Foreign feelings
[link removed]
For several years, a conflict across the ocean has captured a substantial amount of American attention. The Republican primary candidates and the general election presidential candidates battled over the level of U.S. commitment to the war in Ukraine. And recently, reports indicated that President Joe Biden allowed Ukraine to use US missiles in the conflict against Russia.
How will President-elect Trump affect this balance? For The American Conservative, Ted Snider discusses the possible reactions of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin to Trump’s victory. Snider notes that Putin has said multiple times that he preferred President Biden in office—Putin may prefer the general passiveness and predictability of the current president.
On the other hand, Snider argues that Zelensky has soured on President Biden’s administration. Despite claims to the contrary, Snider believes it’s possible Zelensky might even “prefer to roll the dice” with Trump now as the war turns against the smaller nation. Trump might be able to better facilitate negotiations to end the war, Snider says, negotiations that might benefit Ukraine more than anything else now.
Snider reminds readers that Russian officials know Trump imposed sanctions on the nation and made life very difficult for Putin’s staff. They might be more afraid of Trump than the media would like to believe, Snider suggests.
Read his article here.
Read Now
[link removed]
[link removed]
CATEGORY: VIDEO
Vivek Ramaswamy: How to Dismantle the Administrative State
[link removed]
In a compelling clip from Daring Greatly with Johnny Burtka, Johnny sits down with entrepreneur and political thinker Vivek Ramaswamy to discuss a provocative and timely topic: dismantling the administrative state. This conversation dives into Ramaswamy’s vision of reducing federal bureaucracy to empower state governments and reinvigorate American self-governance. With Ramaswamy’s background in business and law, he outlines concrete strategies for scaling back federal agencies, ensuring government accountability, and re-establishing a culture of merit and efficiency. The clip captures a spirited exchange on the philosophical and practical steps needed to restore power to the people and to simplify the federal government’s role in everyday American life, offering listeners a glimpse into the ambitious reforms Ramaswamy champions—reforms that he may be able to implement as the incoming co-head of the Department of Government Efficiency.
Watch Now
[link removed]
Because our student editors and writers are bravely bringing conservative ideas to their campuses, we’re highlighting their efforts here.
Chris Gade Named New VP of Communications: A Bold Step Forward for the University of Minnesota
[link removed]
via The Minnesota Republic
“On November 15, 2024, the University of Minnesota’s Board of Regents approved the appointment of Chris Gade as the new Vice President for Communications, effective November 25, 2024. This decision was announced during a special meeting and marks a significant step for the University as it aims to strengthen its public image and communication strategies. Gade’s role will involve overseeing the University’s branding, marketing, and communications efforts while playing a vital part in shaping the institution’s reputation locally and nationally.”
The History Club Semi-Formal: Former Dean of the College Ed Ayers Discusses a Career in Academia and the Civil War’s Legacy
[link removed]
via The Jefferson Independent
“This past Saturday, the History Club at the University of Virginia hosted its semesterly semi-formal at 1515. The History Club, founded by third-year student Robert Martin during the fall of 2023, is one of the most recent additions to UVA’s expansive catalog of CIOs. Even so, it has already made a name for itself, having hosted the likes of Melvyn Leffler, professor of history at the University; Jennifer Sessions, director of the university’s undergraduate history program; and Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics. For its semi-formal, the club hosted Ed Ayers, who taught at UVA from 1980 to 2007, and served as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences from 2001-2007 and president of the University of Richmond from 2007-2015. Ayers began his talk by describing his career. A self-described “hillbilly” from western North Carolina, Ayers completed his undergraduate education at the University of Tennessee. By his own admission, though he graduated early,
summa cum laude, he was not a particularly diligent student, and was surprised when he gained admission to a graduate program at Yale in 1974. While studying in New Haven, he found himself as one of the few southerners—much less southerners from a less affluent background—at the school. Having never previously considered his identity as a southerner, he soon began what became a lifelong study of the history and identity of the American South."
Republicans Want to Get Rid of LGBTQ Minor at UT Austin
[link removed]
via The Texas Horn
“Texas taxpayers are funding woke, politically driven LGBTQ and Gender Studies programs at public universities, leading some conservatives in the state legislature to call for these programs to be defunded.
“UT Austin is forcing you to fund a “LGBTQ/Sexualities Studies Minor,” Representative Brian Harrison posted on X. “I will file legislation to ZERO THE BUDGET of the Office of the President if [the minor] isn’t ended,” he added.
After mounting criticism from conservatives, Texas A&M University eliminated its LGBTQ Studies minor, and now UT might follow suit. State Representative Brian Harrison played a pivotal role in the program’s removal at Texas A&M and he now wants to do the same at UT. Harrison has voiced strong objections to the use of taxpayer funding for such programs, arguing that they serve primarily political purposes rather than educational objectives. He recently stated on X, “Taxes are for education. Not indoctrination. There must be accountability for this abuse of tax dollars.”
Cornell Lobbies as Washington Transitions to Trump
[link removed]
via The Cornell Review
“Cornell has had spectacular success in obtaining federal funding. Of Cornell’s total $5.95 billion budget for 2023-24, 2.6% ($154 million) was state and federal appropriations. For the 2023-24 fiscal year, Cornell received $825,572,000 in federal research contracts and grants. Cornell Cooperative Extension was funded at $6.12 million each from the New York Executive Budget matched by the US Department of Agriculture. From the student perspective, most significant are the federally-funded financial aid programs including Pell Grants, Federally Guaranteed Student Loans and work-study funds. In addition, the Biden Administration has offered alumni–including Cornellians–expanded relief from existing student loan debt.
From an economic development perspective, Cornell is currently constructing two federally-funded projects that create both short-term construction jobs as well as long term staff employment. On the Cornell campus in Ithaca, Wilson lab is expanding with a $32.6 million grant for new experimental halls and x-ray beamlines. In addition, Cornell is building a new $20 million precision X-ray beamline for research on biological and environmental systems.”
The Insatiable R&DE Mob Must Be Stopped
[link removed]
via The Stanford Review
“Late Night at Lakeside is a universally beloved institution among Stanford students as perhaps the only cheap, fast late-night food option on Stanford’s campus. The first week back this year, however, students returned to find that the prices had all virtually doubled. Stanford's Residential & Dining Enterprises (R&DE) has long been a thorn in the side of students, but the recent price hike to which students returned this year sets the bar even lower. R&DE's insatiable appetite for squeezing every last cent out of students, who already pay sky-high tuition rates, has reached an unacceptable point, and the bloated bureaucracy behind it must be stopped. Let's start with the great meal plan scam, an audacious cash grab that would make the most shameless street hustler or bike thief blush. This fall, the 15 meals per week plan costs $2,797 for 12 weeks, or $15.54 per meal. However, if you drop to 12 meals per week, you're giving up 36 meals worth $560. And
what do you get in return? A measly $100 in dining dollars. All told, you're paying $560 for $100 worth of campus currency. It is an out-and-out scam.“
CATEGORY: RELIGION (17 MIN)
Memories of meetings
[link removed]
Christians have many important historical events—including many that happened after the time of the New Testament—to point back to as part of the fundamental tradition of their faith. Several of those events have been picked up by popular culture and used in works of extremely sketchy factual accuracy.
One of these events, the Council of Nicaea, has a huge impact on modern Christianity, especially through the Nicene Creed. For this week’s article from the Modern Age website, Philip Jenkins discusses many misconceptions about the Council. He notes the most popularly well-known ones, which largely stem from Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, a novel that made early Christianity look like a political tactic.
But Jenkins also targets non-Dan Brown errors in understanding Nicaea. The council, Jenkins says, did not mark a decisive orthodox victory for the divinity of Jesus (despite an overwhelming victory in the council’s vote). Arianism, the idea that Christ was a created being, did not collapse until decades later, when its Roman supporters lost in military conflict.
Does the fact that the council was not “itself a decisive ending” matter? “The fact that scholars have recorded it in this way indicates the need for historical milestones, especially in matters where truth and error seem to confront each other so clearly,” Jenkins argues. “We don’t pay enough attention to the nuances and blips that contradict our neat narratives and their simple chronologies.”
To learn more, read Jenkins’s piece here on the Modern Age website.
Read Now
[link removed]
Thought of the Day:
“To educate a person in the mind but not in morals is to educate a menace to society.”
- Theodore Roosevelt
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
[link removed]
Follow on Twitter Friend on Facebook Forward to Friend
Copyright © 2024, All rights reserved.
Our mailing address is:
Intercollegiate Studies Institute
3901 Centerville Road
Wilmington, DE 19807
unsubscribe from all emails
[link removed]
update subscription preferences
[link removed]
Email not displaying correctly?
View it in your browser
[link removed]
.
[link removed]
CATEGORY: POLITICS (11 MIN)
Winds of change
[link removed]
The people who lived through momentous cultural and political shifts often didn’t know their own time’s importance. After all, how can you fully understand your place in history without knowing the future? But sometimes, the drastic changes affecting the world for years to come make themselves obvious.
ISI alumnus Ross Douthat, writing for his column in the New York Times, argues that the 2024 election marks a change in eras. “The post-Cold War era has ended, and we’re not going back,” Douthat says. He doesn’t mean this in an “alarmist” sense; he means that the political alignments and balances in America have been in flux, and President-elect Donald Trump’s second win confirmed that the coalitions will never be the same.
Douthat points to several indicators of change. He notes that the culture no longer has a moderating mechanism to stop “radical and reactionary” forces. With the collapse of trust in major mainstream institutions, Douthat believes America is experiencing an “informational fracture,” and he looks to Trump’s and Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign strategies to bolster that claim.
Internationally, Douthat sees American dominance on the global stage as waning, likely to be replaced by new foreign alignments. And he also cites the falling birth rates in the West as likely generators of even more drastic change. What will that change look like? Douthat is not “so confident” in prophesying the details of that future.
Read Douthat’s article with our NYT guest link here.
Read Now
[link removed]
Weekly Poll
Should America be more or less engaged in foreign affairs?
[A] More
[B] Less
[C] Right level
[D] Not sure
[link removed]
RESULTS: 11/14/2024
Do you think America needs major economic reforms?
[A] Yes - 85.5%
[B] No - 9.7%
[C] Not sure - 4.8%
[link removed]
CATEGORY: INTERNATIONAL (4 MIN)
Foreign feelings
[link removed]
For several years, a conflict across the ocean has captured a substantial amount of American attention. The Republican primary candidates and the general election presidential candidates battled over the level of U.S. commitment to the war in Ukraine. And recently, reports indicated that President Joe Biden allowed Ukraine to use US missiles in the conflict against Russia.
How will President-elect Trump affect this balance? For The American Conservative, Ted Snider discusses the possible reactions of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin to Trump’s victory. Snider notes that Putin has said multiple times that he preferred President Biden in office—Putin may prefer the general passiveness and predictability of the current president.
On the other hand, Snider argues that Zelensky has soured on President Biden’s administration. Despite claims to the contrary, Snider believes it’s possible Zelensky might even “prefer to roll the dice” with Trump now as the war turns against the smaller nation. Trump might be able to better facilitate negotiations to end the war, Snider says, negotiations that might benefit Ukraine more than anything else now.
Snider reminds readers that Russian officials know Trump imposed sanctions on the nation and made life very difficult for Putin’s staff. They might be more afraid of Trump than the media would like to believe, Snider suggests.
Read his article here.
Read Now
[link removed]
[link removed]
CATEGORY: VIDEO
Vivek Ramaswamy: How to Dismantle the Administrative State
[link removed]
In a compelling clip from Daring Greatly with Johnny Burtka, Johnny sits down with entrepreneur and political thinker Vivek Ramaswamy to discuss a provocative and timely topic: dismantling the administrative state. This conversation dives into Ramaswamy’s vision of reducing federal bureaucracy to empower state governments and reinvigorate American self-governance. With Ramaswamy’s background in business and law, he outlines concrete strategies for scaling back federal agencies, ensuring government accountability, and re-establishing a culture of merit and efficiency. The clip captures a spirited exchange on the philosophical and practical steps needed to restore power to the people and to simplify the federal government’s role in everyday American life, offering listeners a glimpse into the ambitious reforms Ramaswamy champions—reforms that he may be able to implement as the incoming co-head of the Department of Government Efficiency.
Watch Now
[link removed]
Because our student editors and writers are bravely bringing conservative ideas to their campuses, we’re highlighting their efforts here.
Chris Gade Named New VP of Communications: A Bold Step Forward for the University of Minnesota
[link removed]
via The Minnesota Republic
“On November 15, 2024, the University of Minnesota’s Board of Regents approved the appointment of Chris Gade as the new Vice President for Communications, effective November 25, 2024. This decision was announced during a special meeting and marks a significant step for the University as it aims to strengthen its public image and communication strategies. Gade’s role will involve overseeing the University’s branding, marketing, and communications efforts while playing a vital part in shaping the institution’s reputation locally and nationally.”
The History Club Semi-Formal: Former Dean of the College Ed Ayers Discusses a Career in Academia and the Civil War’s Legacy
[link removed]
via The Jefferson Independent
“This past Saturday, the History Club at the University of Virginia hosted its semesterly semi-formal at 1515. The History Club, founded by third-year student Robert Martin during the fall of 2023, is one of the most recent additions to UVA’s expansive catalog of CIOs. Even so, it has already made a name for itself, having hosted the likes of Melvyn Leffler, professor of history at the University; Jennifer Sessions, director of the university’s undergraduate history program; and Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics. For its semi-formal, the club hosted Ed Ayers, who taught at UVA from 1980 to 2007, and served as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences from 2001-2007 and president of the University of Richmond from 2007-2015. Ayers began his talk by describing his career. A self-described “hillbilly” from western North Carolina, Ayers completed his undergraduate education at the University of Tennessee. By his own admission, though he graduated early,
summa cum laude, he was not a particularly diligent student, and was surprised when he gained admission to a graduate program at Yale in 1974. While studying in New Haven, he found himself as one of the few southerners—much less southerners from a less affluent background—at the school. Having never previously considered his identity as a southerner, he soon began what became a lifelong study of the history and identity of the American South."
Republicans Want to Get Rid of LGBTQ Minor at UT Austin
[link removed]
via The Texas Horn
“Texas taxpayers are funding woke, politically driven LGBTQ and Gender Studies programs at public universities, leading some conservatives in the state legislature to call for these programs to be defunded.
“UT Austin is forcing you to fund a “LGBTQ/Sexualities Studies Minor,” Representative Brian Harrison posted on X. “I will file legislation to ZERO THE BUDGET of the Office of the President if [the minor] isn’t ended,” he added.
After mounting criticism from conservatives, Texas A&M University eliminated its LGBTQ Studies minor, and now UT might follow suit. State Representative Brian Harrison played a pivotal role in the program’s removal at Texas A&M and he now wants to do the same at UT. Harrison has voiced strong objections to the use of taxpayer funding for such programs, arguing that they serve primarily political purposes rather than educational objectives. He recently stated on X, “Taxes are for education. Not indoctrination. There must be accountability for this abuse of tax dollars.”
Cornell Lobbies as Washington Transitions to Trump
[link removed]
via The Cornell Review
“Cornell has had spectacular success in obtaining federal funding. Of Cornell’s total $5.95 billion budget for 2023-24, 2.6% ($154 million) was state and federal appropriations. For the 2023-24 fiscal year, Cornell received $825,572,000 in federal research contracts and grants. Cornell Cooperative Extension was funded at $6.12 million each from the New York Executive Budget matched by the US Department of Agriculture. From the student perspective, most significant are the federally-funded financial aid programs including Pell Grants, Federally Guaranteed Student Loans and work-study funds. In addition, the Biden Administration has offered alumni–including Cornellians–expanded relief from existing student loan debt.
From an economic development perspective, Cornell is currently constructing two federally-funded projects that create both short-term construction jobs as well as long term staff employment. On the Cornell campus in Ithaca, Wilson lab is expanding with a $32.6 million grant for new experimental halls and x-ray beamlines. In addition, Cornell is building a new $20 million precision X-ray beamline for research on biological and environmental systems.”
The Insatiable R&DE Mob Must Be Stopped
[link removed]
via The Stanford Review
“Late Night at Lakeside is a universally beloved institution among Stanford students as perhaps the only cheap, fast late-night food option on Stanford’s campus. The first week back this year, however, students returned to find that the prices had all virtually doubled. Stanford's Residential & Dining Enterprises (R&DE) has long been a thorn in the side of students, but the recent price hike to which students returned this year sets the bar even lower. R&DE's insatiable appetite for squeezing every last cent out of students, who already pay sky-high tuition rates, has reached an unacceptable point, and the bloated bureaucracy behind it must be stopped. Let's start with the great meal plan scam, an audacious cash grab that would make the most shameless street hustler or bike thief blush. This fall, the 15 meals per week plan costs $2,797 for 12 weeks, or $15.54 per meal. However, if you drop to 12 meals per week, you're giving up 36 meals worth $560. And
what do you get in return? A measly $100 in dining dollars. All told, you're paying $560 for $100 worth of campus currency. It is an out-and-out scam.“
CATEGORY: RELIGION (17 MIN)
Memories of meetings
[link removed]
Christians have many important historical events—including many that happened after the time of the New Testament—to point back to as part of the fundamental tradition of their faith. Several of those events have been picked up by popular culture and used in works of extremely sketchy factual accuracy.
One of these events, the Council of Nicaea, has a huge impact on modern Christianity, especially through the Nicene Creed. For this week’s article from the Modern Age website, Philip Jenkins discusses many misconceptions about the Council. He notes the most popularly well-known ones, which largely stem from Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, a novel that made early Christianity look like a political tactic.
But Jenkins also targets non-Dan Brown errors in understanding Nicaea. The council, Jenkins says, did not mark a decisive orthodox victory for the divinity of Jesus (despite an overwhelming victory in the council’s vote). Arianism, the idea that Christ was a created being, did not collapse until decades later, when its Roman supporters lost in military conflict.
Does the fact that the council was not “itself a decisive ending” matter? “The fact that scholars have recorded it in this way indicates the need for historical milestones, especially in matters where truth and error seem to confront each other so clearly,” Jenkins argues. “We don’t pay enough attention to the nuances and blips that contradict our neat narratives and their simple chronologies.”
To learn more, read Jenkins’s piece here on the Modern Age website.
Read Now
[link removed]
Thought of the Day:
“To educate a person in the mind but not in morals is to educate a menace to society.”
- Theodore Roosevelt
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
[link removed]
Follow on Twitter Friend on Facebook Forward to Friend
Copyright © 2024, All rights reserved.
Our mailing address is:
Intercollegiate Studies Institute
3901 Centerville Road
Wilmington, DE 19807
unsubscribe from all emails
[link removed]
update subscription preferences
[link removed]
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