Montesquieu: Luminary of the Enlightenment
(Please excuse any errors. I am writing on the fly from New York and time is limited). Cicero said, “To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child.” To paraphrase, he who only knows his own generation is an unwitting slave to those who have a knowledge of the past and an eye on the […]
What Sort Of Despotism Democratic Nations Have To Fear
The debate of the Federalists and the Anti-federalists is not our debate. Their argument was centered on how to create a system that maintained the strength of sovereign states and create a strong, independent general government. We now have the opposite, weak quasi-sovereign states with a run away all-powerful federal government. The central government debated […]
The Courage of Washington
George Washington was not a great president. He was an average farmer and a loyal but solitary if dispassionate husband and neighbor. When it came to people and relationships, public speaking, pressing the flesh, and gushing, Mr. Washington had a lot of room for improvement. It’s a good thing Washington’s mission was none of those […]
Article V: A Potential Path to Restoring State Sovereignty, Citizen Responsibility and the Original Intent of the Founders
Today there are two strongly promoted opinions regarding the advantages and disadvantages of a Constitutional Convention that could be activated by the application of at least 34 of the several states as outlined in Article V of the U.S. Constitution. One purports that such a move would likely put the nation and her 224 year-old […]
Fundamental Principles, Individual Rights, and Free Government: Do Utahns Remember How to Be Free?
The idea of jealously guarding freedom seems to be slipping quickly from the grasp of the average Utahn and American. Over the past year I have spent significant time in New York, California, and Utah with visits to Arizona, Nevada and Kentucky. I get a feeling that the average American is becoming less and less […]