A Modern-Day Tocqueville 

In Law and Liberty, Habi Zhang writes about a young political theorist who spent six months visiting America to better understand its institutions, and who thereafter produced a brilliantly perceptive study of our country.

But it’s not Alexis de Tocqueville. It’s the 5^th ranking member of the politburo of China’s Communist Party.

The man’s name is Wang Huning. And his 1991 book America Against America is one you should know.

In it, Zhang finds a classically-trained mind and an astute eye that pierces to the heart of America’s contradictions—its rich social traditions and its “perverted nihilistic individualism.”

Should we be worried that this keen observer of America is also the chief ideological architect of Xi’s China? Very much so, Zhang argues.
 

Americans Against Themselves

It’s never been this bad before, thunders Peter Van Buren in The American Conservative.

You might be inclined to agree.

It’s not just the partisanship, or the cancellations—it’s the rampant incivility that upsets Van Buren most:

“Force us together and we bite. Road rage is our national sport. We refer endlessly to “communities” which are just anonymous associations of people online who claim to have been victims of something similar.”

The symptoms are everywhere—from electoral histrionics to the recent surge in disorderly behavior on flights.

What do you think? Is Van Buren right to say that “our nation has never been more divided—or uncivil”?

Read it here, and let us know.
 

3 Ways the DIY Economy Can Save Our Families—and Our Country

The George Washington Statesmanship Program, Application Due Tomorrow

• Study prominent thinkers and statesmen like Aristotle, Edmund Burke, Alexis de Tocqueville, Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, and of course, George Washington
   
• Participate in a series of ‘modern day application’ sessions like “Civil Rights, Race, and Identity,” and “America is the World’s Technological City on a Hill”
   
• Enjoy a trip to Normandy to participate in the annual Tocqueville Conversations conference at Alexis de Tocqueville’s family chateau and to visit historic sights including the beaches stormed by American troops in World War II

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