Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes described his colleague Justice Pierce Butler as a “monolith, there are no seems that the frost can get through. He is of one piece.” Justice Louis Brandeis regarded him as “one of the most powerful on [the] bench.” William D. Mitchell, who served as Butler’s law partner and later Attorney General in President Herbert Hoover’s administration, described him as a “domin...
The Iowa legislature is currently considering three major property tax reform measures. Each of the proposed measures contains a provision that would cap the growth of property taxes at or around 2%. In response, local governments are sounding the alarm that placing a 2% property tax cap would endanger vital services such as police and fire. This argument is nothing new, and the familiar chorus h...
The ”joy riding” of government spending continues. Whether it is the $38 trillion national debt or the 108 percent increase in Iowa property tax collections over the past 20 years. Christianson understood the cause, government spending, and without limiting spending the situation would only deteriorate.
In the Institutes of the Christian Religion theologian John Calvin outlined the major tenants of Reformed theology, which became known as the Doctrines of Grace or “Calvinism.” Calvin’s Institutes was, and remains today, a foundational text of the Reformation. Further, Calvin’s theology went beyond just Reformed Biblical interpretation, but it impacted political philosophy. David W. Hall argues th...
Reflecting on his early education, President Calvin Coolidge wrote that in his studies he “was attracted to civil government.” He recalled: “This was my first introduction to the Constitution of the United States. Although I was but thirteen years old, the subject interested me exceedingly. The study of it which I then began never ceased, and the more I study it, the more I have come to admire it,...
The assertion is often made that we live in “Alexander Hamilton’s America.” Hamilton, a co-author of The Federalist, served as Secretary of the Treasury under President George Washington and was the principal architect of that administration’s policies. As a leader of the Federalist Party, Hamilton often clashed with his Democratic-Republican critics, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, primarily ...
President Donald Trump has stirred the hornet’s nest with his preference for tariffs. The President has even described the word “tariff” as one of the most beautiful words in the English language. Perhaps more than any other policy, including immigration, President Trump’s protectionism is the most controversial. For many within the conservative movement, tariffs are a betrayal of free-market econ...
Nearly a century after they were fresh on the American scene, President Herbert Hoover and the infamous Smoot-Hawley Tariff he signed into law in 1930 are back in the headlines. Making a comparison to President Donald Trump’s protectionist tariffs, critics invoke a common wisdom that deserves reevaluation. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff is blamed for deepening the Great Depression, destroying internatio...
In Federalist Paper 11, Alexander Hamilton argued that one of the benefits of the proposed Constitution was the strengthening of the economy and ensuring the nation’s economic independence.[1] Hamilton closed by calling for the states to come together “in a strict and indissoluble union,” and creating a “great American system” of economy.[2] As a leading Federalist, Hamilton not only helped with t...
The idea of American exceptionalism is a strong cord in our history, especially within the philosophy of American conservatism. Conservatives from the Puritans to Alexander Hamilton to President Ronald Reagan have championed the principle that the United States was divinely created as a “shining city upon a hill” and beacon of liberty. As Herbert Hoover wrote, “the Founding Fathers consecrated a n...
On January 20, 2016, Rush Limbaugh quoted from an essay, “From Household to Nation” published in Chronicles magazine in 1996. “[S]ooner or later, as the globalist elites seek to drag the country into conflicts and global commitments, preside over the economic pastoralization of the United States, manage the delegitimization of our own culture, and the dispossession of our people, and disregard or...
“What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun,” wrote King Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes 1:9. This truth applies, especially in the realm of culture and politics. Recently, the Presbyterian Church (USA) announced the closure of the office of Presbyterian World Mission. This will not be the end of missions, but rather a new...
Former Vice President Mike Pence argues in The Wall Street Journal that President Donald Trump needs to return to “conservative principles.” The former Vice President is especially critical of President Trump’s tariff and foreign policies. “Economic warning signs are flashing” he notes, also worrying about the abandonment of Ukraine and the administration’s stance on Iran, which is too gentle by P...
What would Alexander Hamilton or George Washington think today of our dependence on foreign nations, and even hostile nations, for necessities?
The principles of lowering tax rates, reducing spending, reducing debt, and making state government more efficient are all policies that lead to making a state more competitive. 30-Second Summary: In presidential history, scholars place a higher value on American presidents who took an expansive view of their executive powers and increased the size and scope of government. As an example, […...
Jared Cohen in Life After Power: Seven Presidents and their Search for Purpose Beyond the White House, credits Herbert Hoover with the rise of the modern American conservative movement.[1] Cohen’s argument may be surprising to many because Hoover is traditionally viewed as a progressive. However, this was not always the case and not only was Hoover a conservative in terms […]
With states dependent on the federal government, administrative and welfare state costs at an all-time high, and $36 trillion in national debt, the nation’s economic security is on thin ice. The historical documentary by Ken Burns, The Roosevelts: An Intimate History, sparked further discussion about the historical legacies of Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt. The Roosevelts is another powerf...
This article was published in The Courier, National Review, and The Gazette. What DOGE should learn from Hoover is that eliminating waste and reducing the administrative state are noble policy goals, but even more important is the restoration of constitutional principles back to government. Former President Herbert Hoover described the federal government as having “the instincts of a vegetable” wh...
“An unlikely insult has emerged on the 2024 presidential campaign trail: ‘Herbert Hoover,’ wrote Catherine Lucy and Ken Thomas for The Wall Street Journal.[1] Both former President Donald J. Trump and President Joe Biden have both talked about Hoover in a negative manner.[2] President Biden has even gone as far to label the former President “Donald ‘Herbert Hoover’ Trump.”[3] Interestingly, [&hell...
To reverse the progressive revolution, it will take a cultural change and a reformation back to constitutional principles. Progressivism is not a new term. Eclipsing the Populist Period of the late 19th century, which embraced a “radical agrarianism” that was tied to “grassroots democracy,” a potpourri of thinkers and practitioners seized the opportunity to use the centralized administrative and t...
Many of the “Contract with America” conservative policies and reforms remain the foundation of the Republican party today. On September 27, 1994, Republican members of the House of Representatives stood on the steps of the Capitol building and signed the Contract with America. Led by Representatives Newt Gingrich and Dick Armey, the Contract with America outlined a series of conservati...
Whether they are farmers, factory workers, or small business owners, grassroots Iowans understand that Trump is not only standing up to China but also trying to rebalance trade and prioritize American interests. John Deere, founded in 1837, is an iconic American brand, particularly in Iowa, where its machinery is ubiquitous in fields, yards, and construction sites. The brand’s leaping deer [&helli...
This article was published in Townhall. Under the leadership of Governor Walz and a Democrat-Farmer-Labor (DFL) legislature, Minnesota is being transformed into a California-style socialist state. The nation is learning more about the progressive and even socialist record of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. Governor Walz’s progressive-socialist record is not a surprise for Iowans. Under the lead...
This article was published in The Gazette. Restoring manufacturing and preventing further outsourcing will require a combination of policies including protective tariffs, pro-growth tax reforms, reducing the regulatory burden, and ending the radical environmental agenda that is preventing energy independence and mining. The Republican Party is becoming a more pro-worker party, which is a direct re...
It is imperative that civic education be strengthened and restored back to the curriculum. A new academic year is approaching and across the nation our education system at all levels is plagued by a crisis in civic education. Students, whether K-12 or higher education, are increasingly ignorant when it comes to even the basic knowledge of American History, Government, and […]