When is it time to call in the state?

How much should the state be involved in solving family problems?
 
You might say “very little.” But with marriage and birthrates plummeting . . . and American families hurting economically . . . shouldn’t the government do something?
 
Andy Smarick tackles this thorny question in National Affairs.
 
“Today's conservatives find themselves in a bind,” he writes. “They want to help families, but they also worry about continuing America's dangerous pattern of centralizing power, enervating state and local governments, and robbing civil-society bodies of their purpose.”
 
Surveying the past century, Smarick primarily sees the cancerous growth of the administrative state as it seeks to solve social and familial ills.
 
But the Catholic principle of subsidiarity offers much wisdom in understanding where we went wrong . . .
 
. . . and what policies might best help American families today.
 
You should check out the “six governing rules of thumb” derived from subsidiarity right here.

Religion is coming back into politics

No, Declan Leary is not fretting that the Dobbs ruling has made America theocratic again . . .
 
But he is going to bat for conservative luminary L. Brent Bozell, who today is being derided in liberal media as a “theocon” and “the true godfather of a revanchist right.” 
 
Reconsidering Bozell’s writings, Leary finds a writer who prophesied the collapse of conservative fusionism . . . and who offers a powerful defense of religious politics.
 
Does that offend your classical liberal sensibilities?
 
Wake up, Leary writes. The battle lines of the post-Roe struggle are unavoidably religious . . . on both sides.
 
And the sooner you realize that—and the sooner you read Brent Bozell—the better prepared for the present struggle you will be.

American Economic Forum: July 29-30, Washington, D.C.

ISI invites you to our 2022 American Economic Forum, to be held July 29-30 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C., to hear leading conservative politicians, intellectuals, and thought leaders debate the best way for conservatives in 2022 to apply fundamental economic principles to our current crises.

For a limited time, students register for free. And if you’re under 30, weekend tickets are only $50.

You’ll hear panel discussions on a range of important topics, including: cronyism in the administrative state, China geonomics, big tech censorship, woke capital, middle-class prosperity, and more.

This is a conversation you don’t want to miss.
 

Double Suicide

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