Outside the Beltway

Some thoughts on the American experiment at 235 years and counting.

Bachmann’s views on the Founders and slavery are more significant than simply a question of how to classify John Quincy Adams.

Does a little known provision in the 14th Amendment make the entire debt ceiling debate irrelevant?

Bachmann doubles-down on a problematic historical claim.

Sandy Levinson suggests that there is a key lesson from the Founders that we ignore.

Rick Perry makes a valid point about bringing the economy back to Biblical principles.

David Blight recounts the story of the first Memorial Day.

No, Ron Paul is not a viable candidate for president.

How much of public opinion is about tribal political identification and how much is about the actual policies themselves?

In a column about American Exceptionalism, a newspaper columnist makes a bizarre historical analogy.

So, some bright people are surprised at new polling showing that a significant minority of Southerners have not enthusiastically embraced their ancestors’ loss in the Civil War.

Francis Fukuyama: “In the developed world, we take the existence of government so much for granted that we sometimes forget how difficult it was to create.”

If you believe Minnesota Vikings’ Running Back Adrian Peterson, the NFL is a modern-day plantation and he’s a slave.

It’s a Republican meme that President Obama has “apologized” for America repeatedly. The one problem with the meme is that there aren’t any facts to support it.

New York Times writer Adam Liptak discovers that a Supreme Court decision protecting “corporate speech” might not be a bad thing considering that he works for a corporation.

Taking a dive into Mark Levin’s view of Federalism.

The blogging of Mark Levin’s magnum opus continues.

150 years ago, President-Elect Abraham Lincoln was presented with a chance to avert Civil War. He passed it up, and we should be glad that he did.

It’s Lee-Jackson Day again in Virginia, and, once again, I find myself wondering why the South continues to honor a dishonorable legacy.

I’m blogging Mark Levin’s Conservative Manifesto. Here’s part one…

Moqtada al-Sadr is back in Iraq, and it’s a good thing we’re on our way out.

Just over 100 years after his death, Mark Twain’s two greatest novels are once again the subject of controversy.

Those who argue that tariff increases, and not slavery, were the key reason for secession have some basic problems with the historical sequence.

What the Haley Barbour situation illustrates is that we, as a country, have not fully accepted or dealt with our own past.

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, who may end up running for President in 2012, has reopened wounds that finally seemed like they were closed.

150 years ago today a group of men gathered in Charleston, South Carolina and made one of the gravest mistakes in American history. They should not be honored for it.

President Obama is already taking heat from the left for his compromise on tax cut extensions, but will it actually hurt him in the end?

Would returning to indirect election of Senators really have a significant impact on the growth of the Federal Government? Probably not.

Further thoughts on a rather radical proposed Amendment to the Constitution, prompted by a link from Instapundit.

Roughly 150 years ago, the CSA was born. Is this something worthy of celebration?

If you think Jimmy Carter is the Worst Figure in American History, you really need to read more.

The Internet has given us many good things, but it’s also led to a decline in political discourse that we’d do well to reverse before it’s too late.

Jim Webb argues that we should stop measuring diversity by race alone.

Rural whites are outperformed by Jews and Asians and passed over by blacks and Hispanics in the name of “diversity” by elite universities.