“The Localist Revolution.” David Brooks writes in defense of localism: “We’ve tried liberalism and conservatism and now we’re trying populism. Maybe the next era of public life will be defined by a resurgence of localism.”
“A Patriot’s Perspective.” David French talks about his varied background and his forthcoming book. He describes his thesis this way: “The extreme centralization of our federal government is incompatible with extreme polarization. In the absence of an external factor that we cannot anticipate, America will either have to decentralize or divide. We can be together if we decentralize and de-escalate the stakes of national politics so California can be California, Tennessee can be Tennessee.”
“Chopping With Care: Towards an Ecological Conservatism.” R. M. Stangler defends conservatism from its present-day interlopers with recourse to Aldo Leopold: “It is from Leopold that we learn that the two characteristics of the conservative life are, first, attention to what is around you, and second, awareness of consequences.”
“Facebook is Broken. Let’s All Fix it Together.” Gracy Olmstead suggests the best solution to fake news and disinformation would be for us all to exercise more discernment when reading and sharing stories.
“Why Public Intellectuals Need Their Ivory Towers.” Jen Pollock Michel commends Ta-Nehisi Coates for recognizing that limits are necessary and good: “In the end, what looks like virtue—unbounded giving of oneself to the public—easily becomes a vice. The lesson for the public intellectual, then, is a lesson for each of us. To be faithful in our respective vocations, limits must always be observed: limits of capacity, limits of ambition.”
“1968: Fifty Years On.” Philip Jenkins considers how the religious landscape has changed in the past fifty years and concludes it has changed in ways that would have surprised prognosticators in 1968.
