This site is designed as a model or demo from which think tanks and similar organizations might draw ideas to create a supplementary section on their own websites structured along similar lines for purposes outlined herein.
As envisioned, this supplementary section would have three roles:
1) To outline the most serious major threats and challenges currently facing the country with articles arranged by threat topic to further explain them and how to address them.
See Appendix A at the end of this section for brief summaries of Article topics.
2) To serve as a shortcut introduction to key elements of the main site:
It would include some of the most important and pertinent articles, op-eds, and position papers from the main site arranged by topic and linked to other similar ones on the main site.
It would include, with a brief description, some of the most important books on the main site arranged by category, all linked to other books on that topic on the main site.
3) It would serve as a resource for civic education because it would address the fundamental principles of good government and the most important related issues in a simplified format and present an overall view of the big picture. An important function of the supplementary site would be its links to both major think tanks and specialized resources related to civic education.
If you Google principles of government you see the seven fundamental principles of the U. S. Constitution; popular sovereignty, limited government, separation of powers, checks and balances, federalism, republicanism and individual rights; the foundational principles of American government. They are in America the foundation for the successful operation of the principles of government addressed on this site. Their focus is on the structure of government, the architecture, and the operating principles. This site is focused on the underlying cultural and institutional conditions necessary for successful government and the results – what the government actually does in practice, what is its product, how can it do better and what are the greatest threats to it.
A core purpose of the supplementary section would be to promote the idea that fundamental principles and characteristics are common to good governments and good societies, that the worst countries violate many or all of those principles, and that the defining characteristics of the best and worst kinds of government produce radically different effects on their citizens’ lives.
The supplementary section should provide an introduction (through links to other key websites) to the wealth of excellent material that is available for a balanced understanding of political philosophy and of how good and bad types of government develop and are structured.
It should outline major threats and pitfalls that most successful democracies face and describe the defining characteristics of good and bad governments and societies. A reasonably widespread understanding of the right governing principles is essential for a successful democracy.
The character and quality of a democracy’s educational institutions are critical, particularly in the subjects related to civic education – history, government, political philosophy, economics, law, foreign and defense policy, sociology, etc. The new type civic education now being so widely promoted is very dangerous for a democratic republic. Educational initiatives that weaken respect for America’s founding ideals and divide our citizens into contending groups weaken our country and fray the social contract. They are accompanied by enlarging the scope of the federal government’s control over the states, institutions, and individuals through expanded government benefits with conditions attached (leading to increased dependence on government), and through increased regulation – all of which will weaken the institutions of civil society and reduce individual freedom and self-reliance.
Should an institution decide to include a supplementary section on its own website taking ideas from this demo site, the format might be quite different from what is shown here, but ideally, the general concepts would be retained. If used, the Principles of Government, Characteristics of Government, Voting and Commentary sections should be rewritten by that institution’s scholars. The expectation is that, for conservative think tanks, there would be rough agreement on, and similar descriptions of, the basic principles, and that those principles would align with the founding principles of this country.
The articles and book summaries on the site are selected to illustrate, explain and expand on the core principles and the major threats, challenges and opportunities.
As an example of how the articles section could work, assume several think tanks adopted the concept. Each could favor articles by its own scholars but would also include particularly illuminating articles from other sources on key subjects. Articles would be dropped as they become dated and replaced with more timely ones. Some articles are so timeless that they would remain on the site indefinitely.
The articles now on the site were selected partly to illustrate that only the most important and educational articles on the most important subjects would be included and they would all be ordered by topic and sub-topic. This would allow an argument to be seen from several different perspectives. Articles might appear under more than one topic where appropriate. These articles would all be linked to related articles on the institution’s main site so users could drill down for more comprehensive information.
The book review section would feature books by that institution’s scholars but could also include other important books. The book reviews would be much shorter than those shown on this site.
Wall Street Journal
Should the Wall Street Journal use ideas from this demo for a website featuring articles from its opinion pages, it could create an extraordinarily valuable educational resource. Robert Bartley is said to have estimated it took around 60 editorials to effect a change in policy. A properly structured and categorized Journal website featuring particularly pertinent articles, primarily from its opinion pages, but not limited to those, would multiply the effectiveness of editorials intended to influence specific government policies and practices. This feature could be offered as part of the Journal’s online subscription service.
The site could be structured like the articles section of this demo using similar topic descriptions but broken down into more subtopics. Seeing a number of articles together that approach a subject from different perspectives could give a better idea of its relative importance. Ideally, the articles to be included should all be educational and on important subjects to create a well-focused website in the national interest.
The book review section might include only books addressing issues important to the successful operation of government and society, including politics, economics, fiscal policy, monetary policy, legal and constitutional issues, regulatory policy, foreign and defense policy, social policy, education policy, etc.
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Appendix A
America and the world are facing an unusual array of major threats. Listed below are the major challenges and threats topics outlined.
Education, Culture, Ideology
Dominance of our educational systems by the left with a mindset to close out alternative viewpoints. The spirit of inquiry in academia has been foreclosed in so much of our educational system in so many critical areas. If the purpose of education is to “inform our children’s minds and form their allegiances” we had better be very thoughtful about what allegiances are being formed. The Woke and DEI ideology now permeating nearly all the key educational disciplines is a clear threat to merit as the criteria by which scholars are judged and if continued will lead to a decline in the performance of all disciplines which it affects.
Social Policy, Transfers and Entitlements, Immigration
Federal welfare and other social policies have been a major factor in the decline in personal responsibility, marriage and religious faith leading to all sorts of social pathologies and the rise of counterproductive and foolish belief systems as a replacement for religious faith – political correctness, DEI, Wokeism, socialism, etc.
The uncontrolled growth of illegal immigration and failure to agree on an immigration policy that would add greatest value to America’s human capital. The observation that people would rather be ruled badly by their own kind than well by anybody else has been borne out all over the world and is seen today in many major American cities. The competition between multiple racial and cultural groups for political advantage does not bode well for a democracy’s future
Politics, Political Parties, Election Regulations
After nearly 250 years American democracy has reached the point where it seems less able to choose reliable leaders. It was a mistake for the Republican Party to follow the lead of the Democratic Party (following recommendations of the McGovern Fraser commission) in choosing its presidential nominees by popular vote only and giving up the power of the national party apparatus to influence the choice of the nominee.
The Democratic Party’s recent attempt to federalize voting regulations, make D. C. and Puerto Rico states, pack the Supreme Court, etc. to gain a permanent lock on the electorate was a very dangerous threat to the future of our democracy.
National Defense and Foreign Policy
The threat from China especially over Taiwan, and China’s build-up of missiles, naval forces and nuclear, both tactical and strategic, and their effort to achieve world dominance in technology and control of critical minerals and military power. The importance of Ukraine prevailing against Russia for both protection of NATO and as a warning to China of the grave risk of invading Taiwan. The failure to rebuild that part of our defense/industrial complex needed to furnish the type weapons judged most effective in deterring China and Russia, particularly tactical nuclear, missile, naval, space, cyber and communications networks. The way to avoid potential tactical use of nuclear weapons is to have a clear superiority in those weapons systems.
Fiscal Policy
The threat from unsustainable growth in entitlements and irresponsible discretionary federal spending leading to growth in the national debt that threatens loss of trust in America’s currency and an unprecedented financial crisis. One of the most dangerous elements of our current fiscal policy is failure to fund the manufacturing base for, and to build, the weapons most necessary to deter China’s interest in war to achieve dominance in the South Pacific and ultimately worldwide.
Monetary Policy
The Federal Reserve’s mismanagement of the money supply in an attempt to accommodate irresponsible fiscal policy has allowed us to get into an increasingly dangerous debt situation.
Constitutional Issues, Federalism, Federal Agencies and Administrative Law
The aggressive growth of the administrative state without effective checks and balances.
Continued federal interference with and takeover of proper state government roles through a combination of constitutionally questionable regulations and subsidies with strings attached that give the federal government ever more control over state government activities.
Science, Technology and Innovation
China’s aggressive investments in all the key technologies, both military and industrial, and in the most advanced and dangerous weapons systems. China has openly stated it intends to become the dominant world power and to do it by becoming the world leader in all areas of key technologies, including AI, the most advanced chips, and military weapons.
Energy and Environmental Policy
The Biden’s administration’s economically destructive and fiscally wasteful approach to address climate change was more dangerous than climate change itself. It would fail any cost benefit analysis by a tremendously wide margin and was obviously ideologically driven.
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The shortcut/major threats section should focus on these main threats, and others that arise, and articles chosen that best explain them along with recommendations for addressing them.