Americans generally accept a role for government in meeting a number of important national needs. Defense, schools, roads, bridges, public health and safety, and courts are all services that we as a society support with tax dollars as components of government policy.
This semester, disputes over Greek life and the role of former World Bank President Robert Zoellick ’75 in Swarthmore’s commencement have engulfed the college. Several seniors I know have characterized the zeitgeist as the most divisive they have seen since they arrived.
Last week, the United States Senate cast votes on a large number of amendments to its budget proposal, many unrelated to the actual budget. One of those amendments was a resolution calling on President Obama to approve the Keystone XL pipeline. It
The mainstream political media – from top-rated television programs like Meet the Press to David Brooks and Thomas Friedman in the New York Times – tells America a story of perpetual partisan bickering. Democrats and Republicans are retreating to their extremes rather
Many left-leaning observers commended Barack Obama’s State of the Union last week for its calls for a $9 minimum wage, universal preschool education, immigration reform, climate action, and election reform. Yet most also acknowledged that these goals have little chance of being
Dodge Ram aired an ad in the Super Bowl last weekend featuring the late Paul Harvey’s 1978 FFA convention speech “So God Made a Farmer.” I grew up hearing Harvey’s voice on the radio in the bus on the gravel road to
Barack Obama delivered his second inaugural address on Monday. In clear and compelling terms, he celebrated the accomplishments that “we, the people” of the United States have achieved throughout our history in creating a more perfect union. He declared that “preserving our
