Education, Culture, Ideology

Can David Hume Save the Democratic Party?

By Ryan Streeter Aug. 24, 2026

Principles of Government · October 17, 2026 ·

By Ryan Streeter Aug. 24, 2026 – … Hume criticizes “parties from principle,” those organized around ideology. “Parties from principle, especially abstract speculative principle, are known only to modern times, and are, perhaps, the most extraordinary and unaccountable phaenomenon, that has yet appeared in human affairs.”…He contrasts them with parties “from interest,” which form around professional and geographical interests…. Parties from principle produce fanatical behavior in a way that parties from interest don’t… Parties of interest compromise to get what they want, but ideological purists don’t. This was the root of religious wars and of present-day culture wars. Read More

Habits for Humanity in the Age of AI AA

By Ben Sasse May 8, 2026

Principles of Government · October 17, 2026 ·

By Ben Sasse May 8, 2026 – Character, whether of an individual or of a nation, is molded by habits and by time. This republic requires men and women to do long-form deliberation, serious thinking, honest humility and daily striving. What good is it to gain the whole world if we forfeit the souls that we’re supposed to form? We can’t expect to remain free without being virtuous, we can’t be bold without being rooted, we can’t be great without aiming first to be good. To stave off Huxley’s dystopia, we must deliberately shape our children’s souls so that they can be creators, doers and thinkers embracing the next frontier. Read More

Habits for Americans in an Age of Disruption AA

By Ben Sasse May 6, 2026

Principles of Government · October 17, 2026 ·

Ben Sasse May 6, 2026 – What I’m suggesting tonight requires us to reject the relatively new but culturally pervasive assumption we have that school is the primary institution of character formation. If there’s a villain in my story, it’s John Dewey. As Americans, we have sleepwalked into a culture now defined by one man’s bureaucratic thinking. … too much of childhood today is defined by Dewey’s vision of an institutionalized childhood…. We have led the next generation on a path to more soul-deadening complacency, and this is the institution we’ve decided to outsource habit formation to? Modern schooling is systematically terrible at forming well-adjusted, curious, intellectually creative, entrepreneurial adults…. Fewer than half of Americans read a book last year. That is a national crisis. We have to develop the intentional habit of reading. A nation that does not read will not thrive. Shorter attention spans are killing our imagination…. This republic requires men and women to do long-form deliberation, serious thinking, honest humility, and daily striving. Read More

Americans Are Getting Caught in the Safety Net AA

By Paul Ryan and Les Ford Aug. 20, 2026

Principles of Government · September 7, 2026 ·

By Paul Ryan and Les Ford Aug. 20, 2026 – …America’s safety net is badly broken. It often punishes families who make progress toward financial stability. Parents who work more hours or increase their salaries can lose more in benefits than they gain in income…. a hypothetical single parent in the District of Columbia gains nothing financially as earnings rise from $11,000 to $65,000. When these “benefit cliffs” punish parents for earning more or getting married, they weaken the foundations of self-sufficiency and help transmit poverty from one generation to the next….UBI doesn’t solve any of this and creates another benefit cliff. Rather than reforming the safety net that discourages work and marriage, UBI would make unconditional assistance a permanent feature. Read More

Move Fast and Regulate Later: The Paradox of China’s Economic Dynamism AA

By By Carl Benedikt Frey July 31, 2026

Principles of Government · August 24, 2025 ·

By Carl Benedikt Frey July 31, 2026 – How does a country with such casual regard for the rule of law produce so much dynamism?…The answer is that the rule of law, in China …is not one thing. It has a liberal side—secure property rights, courts that constrain the state… It also has a regulatory side that can wall off competition… America used to be alive to this distinction. It is no longer…….CHINA’S DYNAMISM does not come from the absence of law. It comes from the sequence in which laws are enacted. The Communist Party allows firms to scale in regulatory gray zones, when a sector serves growth, employment or strategic competition….The pattern recurs: firms scale first; law and politics arrive later, often together…. Dynamism occurs when newcomers can innovate before lawyers—or regulators—arrive….…But every rule proposed today should be tested against a simple counterfactual: had it been on the books a decade ago, would the firm we are now regulating have ever been built? Read More

Can David Hume Save the Democratic Party?

Habits for Humanity in the Age of AI AA

Habits for Americans in an Age of Disruption AA

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Education, Culture, Ideology

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Characteristics of Government

Principles of Good Government

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