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A Spiked Helmet for Every Young American?

by Hans Koning

It is difficult to realize that thirty years have gone by since Saigon was liberated and the Vietnam war was over. Half a lifetime! At some point, in the middle of the warless period, it seemed that we were beginning to discover that the war and its two million casualties had been a criminal mistake, and not because we had not won but because the start of the war had been based on a fraudulent premise (the alleged torpedo attack by a North Vietnamese warship). That, and the domino theory, pr

Does It Matter if the Anti-Evolution Rightwingers Win in Kansas?

by Melissa Deckman

Recently in Kansas the nation’s eyes turned once again to the State Board of Education, which sponsored hearings on the merits of evolution. In 1999, the same board voted to eliminate the subject of evolution from the state’s science curriculu

Excerpts: The Senate Filibuster Debate

In tthe course of the opening Senate debate concerning the nomination of Priscilla Richman Owen to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the Fifth District senators frequently invoked history. Excerpts follow.Bill Frist, Senate Majority Leader (R-TN)In the last Congress, for the first time in history a minority of Senators obstructed the principle of

The Filibuster Showdown: If You Can't Beat 'Em, Nuke 'Em

by Ira Chernus

Trent Lott and George Lakoff live in very different worlds. But they both understand the power of a good metaphor. Lott, the canny politician, knows that the public likes complicated policies best when they are reduced to snappy soundbites. The more complex and controversial the policy, the more compelling the word picture has to be. So when the Republicans set out to foist a complex, controversial policy on the American people -- getting Senate confirmation for every federal judg

In 1960 the Worry Was that a Candidate Was too Catholic to Be President Not that He Wasn't Catholic Enough

by Robert Rupp

As we celebrate the 45th anniversary of a primary that affirmed the relationship between Catholics and electoral politics, let us acknowledge that questions about the relationship between private faith and presidential politics, if not presidential governance, continues.

The Facts About the Fortas Filibuster: Why Orrin Hatch Is Wrong

by John Dean

The debate over whether to use the "nuclear option" when it comes to Senate filibuster rules continues. Senate Republicans, consistent with their conservative beliefs, claim they are only employing the "nuclear option" to preserve a Senate tradition - not to change one. It is not their own "nuclear option," but rather the Democrats' use of the filibuster to block judicial nominations that, they claim, is truly "unprecedented." Leading this charge is Se

Same-Sex Marriage: It's Just One of the Many Challenges to an Old Institution

by Vern L. Bullough

According to Nancy Cott, our concepts of marriage in the United States were heavily influence by the French Enlightenment philosopher, Baron de Montesquieu who in his Spirit of Laws emphasized marriage and the form of government as mirroring each other. Marriage was a voluntary union paralleling the new government.1 Marital relations were envisioned as a symetrical union of reciprocal rights and responsibilities. This idea was carried over into t

Why Getting Rid of the Filibuster Is Still a Good Idea

by Julian E. Zelizer

Democrats are making a major mistake by opposing filibuster reform.   By opposing the proposal of Sen. Bill Frist, the Republican Senate majority leader, to prohibit filibusters against judicial nominees, Democrats will miss a massive opportunity to reform one of the most outdated and anti-majoritarian practices in American politics. And, as liberal Democrats who attacked the Electoral College after the 2000 election reminded us, majoritarian democracy can be a good thing. &n

What Kind of Education Is Required in a Democracy?

by Tom Palaima

My friend Robert Ivie up at Indiana University offers a course in rhetorical theory called Democratic Deliberation. Its Web site - www.indiana.edu/~ivieweb/deliberative.htm - is worth visiting simply for its choice selection of quotations about democracy.George Bernard Shaw, as we might expect, was drily ironic: "Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve." H.L. Mencken was wi

Alan Brinkley: Liberalism in Collapse?

by Jesse Lemisch

Response by Alan Brinkley Response by Jesse Lemisch Columbia historian and leading liberal Alan Brinkley has once again illustrated in his behavior something of the hypocritical and contradictory state of much of contemporary liberalism. A year ago, Columbia Graduate Student Employees United struck (as they did again last week). In a s

The Harvard Parallel Lawrence Summers Hoped Nobody Would Make

by Martin Halpern

When the Harvard Arts and Science faculty expressed their lack of confidence in university president Lawrence H. Summers on March 15, 2005, it was an act unprecedented in the history of the United States’ oldest institution of higher education. This isn’t the first time, however, that the country has witnessed Harvard faculty members and a Harvard president arrayed on opposite sides of an issue rending the body politic. In 2005 Harvard faculty and its president are opposed on issu

Will Tom DeLay's Fiery Rhetoric Against the Courts Lead Anywhere?

by Rodger Citron

Campaigning against the federal courts is a familiar, even venerable, political sport. Recently, however, a number of politicians have raised the stakes by escalating their attacks upon the federal judiciary and even individual judges. Before the Terri Schiavo case, there were calls for Congress to impeach judges and to pass legislation that would strip the federal courts of jurisdiction in certain cases. After Schiavo's death, Rep. Tom DeLay has continued to press his jeremiad against the fede

How My Critics Have Slandered Me

by David Horowitz

Editor's Note Recently David Beito, Robert"KC" Johnson, and Ralph E. Luker wrote an article published on HNN that took David Horowitz to task for his campaign promoting ideological balance on American campuses. On the HNN blog, Cliopatria, Mr. Horowitz was criticized for allegedly mischaracterizing a controversy involving a student at the Universi

The Supreme Court and the Culture Wars

by Rick Shenkman

This article was first published by findlaw.com on August 9, 2001.Sometime this year, maybe next, a vacancy will occur on the Supreme Court. When it does the pundits will remind everybody of the bruising battle over Robert Bork. They will all say that Bork forever changed the politics of judicial appointments. They will all be wrong.They won’t be completely wrong. Bork was big. But by focusing on Bork they will be missing the larger picture. Step back and you see that s

Protestant America's Selective Embrace of the Pope's Teachings

by John Fea

In one of the more interesting and ironic twists in recent American religious life, a Catholic pope has found some of his most vocal supporters among conservative evangelical Protestants.   Evangelical-Catholic relations have come a long way over the last generation, but for all their papal cheerleading, conservative evangelicals have made no effort to consider embracing the breadth of John Paul II's social teachings. As a result, their moral authority to address American culture

Should Bloggers Be Covered by the First Amendment?

by Chris Daly

Who is a journalist? In America, where we don’t license journalists, that is not always a simple question. Lately, the issue has come up in a new light because of the claims made by people who post blogs (i.e.: web logs). Bloggers came to prominence during the 2004 election, often criticizing or correcting the “mainstream media.” Recently, the first blogger in history was issued credentials to cover the White House. And just last month, a California judge wa

Who's Undermining Freedom of Speech on Campus Now

by David Beito, Robert "KC" Johnson, and Ralph E. Luker

Freedom of speech is crucial both to a healthy democracy and the life of the mind. The 1st Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits Congress from any act that would abridge it and the charters of most of our colleges and universities recognize that freedom of thought and speech are essential to a healthy academic community. Yet, freedom of speech has been a contested value since the birth of the Republic, most commonly in periods of war, from the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 thro

George Bush's Addiction to Nuclear Weapons

by Lawrence S. Wittner

George W. Bush might have kicked his alcohol and drug habits, but he still appears to have at least one serious addiction--to nuclear weapons. Last year, Congress refused to fund the administration's ambitious proposal for new nuclear weapons, largely because both Republican and Democratic lawmakers agreed that the world would be a safer place with fewer—rather than more--nuclear explosives in existence. But, undeterred by last year's rebuff, the Bush administration rec

Putting Ex-Presidents Back to Work

by Timothy Walch

Former President Jimmy Carter is back at work again."I am concerned about the state of our electoral system," he told the Washington Post,"and believe we need to improve it." With former Secretary of State James A. Baker as co-chair, Carter will lead a national bipartisan commission on election reform. His prestige and experience will insure that policy makers will consider the commission's recommendations.   Carter is not our only activist former president. Last month, a

What Do Presidents Learn from Reading Books?

by Richard Norton Smith

I read the [Joseph J.] Ellis book, which is a really interesting book--His Excellency, it's called--and [David] McCullough is writing a book on George Washington as well. People are constantly . . . evaluating a president's standing in history. -- George W. Bush press conference, March 16A BIPARTISAN FLUTTERING OF EYEBROWS greeted the news that President Bush has been recommending to friends Tom Wolfe's sex-drenched novel of col