Following up on the most recent posts by Greg and Ben, let me highlight a book by my Texas Law colleague, Calvin Johnson, Righteous Anger at the Wicked States. Calvin’s book underscores Ben’s point that the federalists, including Madison at the convention and during ratification, were very much nationalists — just as the Anti-Federalists claimed. The concessions to the states were grudging and reluctant and, as Herbert Storing argued, did not actually represent the states qua states. The Anti-Federalists understood this well, pointed it out repeatedly, and it was the main reason they opposed the Constitution. Why did it come … Continue reading Misunderstanding State and Nation in the Constitution

Given the stakes and high pitched tone of politics for the last five years, and the pandemic, I know many Americans are tired of the relentless drumbeat of political news and opinion. I feel that way myself. But it is in precisely circumstances like the present that the American constitutional order is in greatest danger. I added my signature to those of many others who study democracies for a living to warn our fellow citizens of just how perilous our present condition is today. Here is our Statement of Concern. Continue reading New America Statement of Concern

“The Western canon is, more than anything, a conversation among great thinkers over generations that grows richer the more we add our own voices and the excellence of voices from Africa, Asia, Latin America and everywhere else in the world. We should never cancel voices in this conversation, whether that voice is Homer or students at Howard University. For this is no ordinary discussion. The Western canon is an extended dialogue among the crème de la crème of our civilization about the most fundamental questions. It is about asking “What kind of creatures are we?” no matter what context we … Continue reading Canceling the Classics

Melissa Lane at Princeton has written an insightful article explaining how the idea of anarchy better explains Donald Trump, and some of his followers, than do the notions of tyranny or autocracy. Anarchy captures the absence of office even while Trump was putatively the president. Lane also connects this idea to the phenomenon of democratic decay in ancient political thought. Continue reading Anarchy As Absence of Office