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3 weeks ago | 
lawliberty.org | Michael Lucchese
Protectionism seems to have become the dominant economic ideology of Washington, DC. Although politicians may squabble about particular tariffs, the leading figures of both parties have rejected free trade for neo-mercantilist policies aimed at, they claim, reigniting American industry. But as countless economists have shown, the utopian vision of autarky that most strident protectionists advocate has no basis in reality.
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1 month ago | 
mereorthodoxy.com | Michael Lucchese
In recent years, American conservatives seem obsessed with lamentation. Intellectual magazines and other outposts of conservative intellectualism have promoted several narratives of national decline which lift up a mythic American past to contrast with a supposedly dreary American present. But scratching beneath the surface, there is nothing particularly innovative about concerns for American deracination such as those expressed by Notre Dame political theorist Patrick Deneen.
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1 month ago | 
rlo.acton.org | Michael Lucchese
Today marks the 160th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s death. Almost immediately after the terrible event of his assassination, the martyred president was elevated to the heights of American civil religion. Despite their earlier opposition to the conduct of the war, Radical Republicans sought to appropriate his legacy to justify their extreme plans for Reconstruction. They wanted to draft him as a kind of secular saint to symbolize their revolutionary cause.
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1 month ago | 
lawliberty.org | Bruno Macaes |Graham McAleer |Michael Lucchese |Joseph Holmes
Techno-futurists commonly believe that a totally human-made future will advance individual liberty. Bruno Maçães is doubtful, arguing in World Builders: Technology and the New Geopolitics that the future will more likely see us living inside a metaverse crafted by one of the superpowers.
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1 month ago | 
lawliberty.org | Michael Lucchese
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1 month ago | 
fusionaier.org | Michael Lucchese
April 10, 2025 By Michael Lucchese“When the greatest power coincides in a human being with prudence and moderation, then occurs the natural genesis of the best regime.”- Plato, The Laws, 712aAmerica has never quite satisfied political theorists. On the one hand, it can seem as though the Founders were idealistic revolutionaries, committed to an abstract notion of the “rights of man” that can obliterate tradition and introduce disorder.
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2 months ago | 
washingtonexaminer.com | Michael Lucchese
Divided as we are, the American public nonetheless widely agrees that the Chinese Communist Party is our enemy. Poll after poll has shown that Americans understand the CCP’s hegemonic ambitions are a threat to national security. A unique cross-party coalition has even emerged in Congress to build on this public sentiment and prepare the United States for a serious confrontation with this rising totalitarian power.
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Mar 5, 2025 | 
providencemag.com | Michael Lucchese |James Diddams
Recent surveys indicate the decades-long ebb in religious observance has finally bottomed out. Last month, Pew Research released data indicating that the declining share of self-identified Christians in America has stabilized around 62 percent. Other surveys have found that young men especially are taking up more spews, with many seeking out the more traditional practices of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox communions. Why are Americans suddenly returning to tradition?
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Feb 27, 2025 | 
athwart.org | Michael Lucchese
On April 29, 1778, two great figures of the Enlightenment, Benjamin Franklin and Voltaire, met at the Paris Academy of Sciences. As Voltaire saw Franklin approaching, he declared “Behold the man who tamed the lightning!” Then, stretching his hands over the Philadelphian’s accompanying grandson, Voltaire anointed the young Franklin with the words “God and Liberty.”The American delegation to Europe used this moment to great effect as a stroke of propaganda.
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Feb 26, 2025 | 
lawliberty.org | Michael Lucchese |Samuel Gregg |Thomas Powers |Robert G. Natelson
Samuel Gregg has written a powerful assessment of the challenges facing the free society today—clearly the “true friends of liberty” have many causes to be worried. Triumphant illiberal forces on the left and right alike have little use for constitutions, free government, or even the American tradition itself.
