Category: Politics & Society
-
The Dangerous Fantasy of Absolute Freedom
There’s a certain crowd—usually wrapped in a Don’t Tread on Me flag or ranting online about government tyranny—that insists the only true freedom is absolute freedom. No taxes. No regulations. No speed limits. No masks. No one telling them what to do, ever. To hear them tell it, paradise is just one deregulation away. But…
-
The Hidden Safety Net: Why Americans Depend on Federal Programs They Rarely Acknowledge
Most Americans like to think of themselves as self-reliant. We celebrate the bootstrap myth, the idea that hard work alone ensures survival and success. Yet underneath that national narrative is a vast, mostly invisible lattice of federal programs that quietly hold up our everyday lives. Remove that scaffolding, and the illusion of independence would collapse…
-
The Comforting Futility of American Democracy
In America, we cling to the charming belief that ordinary people control their destiny. The campaign ads assure us, the yard signs remind us, and the bumper stickers plead with us. But here’s the secret the grown-ups already know: what will happen, will happen. The stock market will wobble, hurricanes will make landfall, factories will…
-
When America Remembered Itself: The Rise and Fall of PlaqueWatch
It is hard to imagine now, in 2040, how something as small as a phone app could have redrawn the map of American memory. Yet that is precisely what PlaqueWatch did. It began, innocently enough, as a civic-tech side project—a way for ordinary citizens to geotag the locations of historical plaques and memorials that local…
-
The Dirty Secret of Democracy: Why Voters Love Corrupt Politicians
Every few months, another politician is exposed for some grotesque misdeed—an affair with an intern, connections to a sex offender, backroom deals with mobsters, or bribery stuffed into brown paper bags. Commentators gasp, pundits predict doom, and rivals sharpen their knives. And then, like clockwork, the politician’s supporters double down, shrugging off the scandal, sometimes…
-
The Year America Turned the Corner
On the first Monday of October, the school marquee in Dayton didn’t announce a fundraiser or a football score. It flashed a number: 78.4—the city’s Common Good Index for the week. Everyone knew what it meant. Fewer ER wait times. More kids reading on grade level. Local wages inching above the cost of living. No…
-
Don’t Erase Medical Debt—Fix the System That Creates It
Every election cycle seems to bring the same proposal: wipe out medical debt with the stroke of a government pen. It’s an idea that tugs at the heartstrings—after all, who could be against lifting the crushing weight of illness-related bills from struggling families? But good policy cannot be based on sympathy alone. The truth is,…
-
Preliminary Index of Films Inconsistent with National Values
United States Department of Cultural Integrity Office of Media ComplianceMemorandum for Internal Distribution Only SUBJECT: Preliminary Index of Films Inconsistent with National Values DATE: September 2025 Purpose This memorandum outlines an initial set of motion pictures determined to be inconsistent with the preservation of American heritage, family values, and patriotic cohesion. These titles have been…
-
Europe Owes the United States for the Gulf of America
Why is Paris mild while Montreal, at the same latitude, shivers? Why does London feel closer to the Carolinas than to Siberia? The answer is not divine providence. It is the Gulf Stream, powered and fed by the Gulf of America. The Gulf of America is the warm-water engine room that launches the Gulf Stream…
-
Grandpa Had It Made — and MAGA Promises I Can Too
By Chadwick H. Whitmore III When I was a boy, I sat at my grandfather’s knee and listened to his stories about the “good old days.” He lived from the late 1800s through the mid-1900s — the period my family has since enshrined as the Platinum Age of Being a Wealthy White Male. He would…
