Patriotism
and Unity

This month, California approved its new set of highly controversial math standards. When it comes to instructional practice, Stanford mathematics professor Brian Conrad wrote a 25-page document detailing the ways in which the research cited in the framework either did not support or directly contradicted its claims. Former Brookings Institute fellow Tom Loveless documented more still, and argued that the framework would put California students years behind the developed world. But California is becoming a world leader in one department: using mathematics as a vehicle for Marxist ideology.

In a recent interview with Fox News’s Maria Bartiromo, former President Donald Trump recounted a long-ago conversation he’d had with the late Sen. Ted Kennedy. He claimed he asked Kennedy whom he considered to be the smartest senator. “I won’t tell you the answer because I don’t particularly like the guy. I said, ‘Who’s the dumbest?’ He said, ‘Probably Joe [Biden].’”

Climate czar John Kerry’s visit to China illustrates the fallacies of the Biden administration's environmental policy. Kerry, the administration, and many in the media will celebrate the trip. In contrast, China will make promises that will not be fulfilled. China will continue to build vast numbers of dirty coal-powered plants.

It’s common (and normal) for adults to shed the ill-conceived utopian ideals commonly heard in the freshman dorm after midnight. Independent adulthood demands an honest engagement with reality as it is, as opposed to what we’d prefer it to be, and that begins with a hard look at ourselves. The inability to wake up on time or manage a video game addiction, for instance, reveals the frivolity, and even arrogance, of being preoccupied with abstractions such as “humanity” and “the world.”

Modern political conservatism is fond of occasional statements of comprehensive principles, letting the world know there is something deeper at work than mere political jockeying. An eloquent new entry in that field came July 12 with the publication of something aptly called “Freedom Conservatism.”

In the great film Glengarry Glen Ross, Alec Baldwin has an epic scene in which he tries to motivate a group of salesmen. People “are sitting out there waiting to give you their money,” Baldwin says. “Are you willing to take it? Are you man enough to take it?”

President Richard Nixon had no scruples about using state power to pursue his political goals, embracing the New Deal model that created our nation’s insolvent entitlement programs, the administrative state, and some of the greatest abuses of the Constitution and government power in our nation’s history.

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) warned that national security was being undermined by woke military policies, including the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, as he announced his "Mission First" proposal for the Pentagon.

Politics is more polarized than it has been in a generation. With an acrimonious presidential election looming in 2024, it seems like there is little that can bring together the Left and Right. Sadly, it’s also true that political violence is skyrocketing. It feels as though the country is entering a period of political crisis.