in Dubuque

Oct 15, 2024 | frontporchrepublic.com | Adam Smith |in Dubuque

People used to talk about whether something would “play in Peoria.” I don’t know if it matters anymore. Caterpillar left the city for Deerfield in 2017 (and then left Deerfield for Texas). A few years later, the proverbial center of American normalcy was one of the country’s fastest shrinking cities. When most people leave, how normal are the ones who stay? Every summer we camp with family at a farm not far from Peoria.

May 24, 2024 | frontporchrepublic.com | Adam Smith |in Dubuque

Like any theory of politics, localism is not without its ambiguities. It is not even clear that localism is a “theory.” Some might say it’s more like a sensibility, with room for many different theories. Many porchers call themselves conservatives, but we also have socialist localists like Russell Arben Fox, and this is perfectly coherent. Localists believe that small is beautiful, but localism is a big tent. Ambiguities are useful.

Jan 23, 2024 | frontporchrepublic.com | Adam Smith |in Dubuque

These summers were long ago, so long ago that cigarettes were given to high school students by cigarette companies as a way to get them started and hooked; so long ago nobody had televisions and there were shows on the radio to listen to in the nights, back when portable radios cost an arm and a leg and took close to four pounds of batteries just to keep the tubes going for an hour and a half; and African-American people were kept from voting in the South and other places and did not have...

Sep 11, 2023 | frontporchrepublic.com | Adam Smith |in Dubuque

From our place in Iowa, the way to the Dunes goes through Chicago. The Dunes are big old hills of sand on the southern shore of Lake Michigan, staked down by beachgrass and swamp oak. Chicago, of course, is a city on the same shore. It is big, and it is old enough, by American lights, to inspire poetry: “Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning,” said Sandberg. But he said that a hundred years ago.

Aug 11, 2023 | frontporchrepublic.com | Adam Smith |in Dubuque

Last month, Patrick Deneen came to bury liberalism; Danielle Allen comes now to save it. Deneen’s Regime Change aims for the heart of our ruling idea. Allen’s Justice By Means of Democracy tries to absorb that blow and make liberalism stronger. At times, I think she almost succeeds. But I have some questions. I hope you’ll forgive a theorist for theorizing at some length.