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S. Adam Seagrave

S. Adam Seagrave is Associate Director and Associate Professor in the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University. He is the author of The Foundations of Natural Morality: On the Compatibility of Natural Rights and the Natural Law.

constitution

“Oh Say Can You C?” Compromise, Consensus, Consent, and the Constitution

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Each of these books presents valuable and insightful contributions to ongoing conversations about the role of the Constitution in contemporary American political life.
Founding

Is the American Founding Christian, Secular—Or Something Else?

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In The Classical and Christian Origins of American Politics, Kody Cooper and Justin Dyer successfully refute the still (somehow) influential interpretation of the American Founding as a secular-not-Christian project. However, they do so without successfully establishing their preferred alternative, the Christian-not-secular interpretation. There is a vast middle between these two extremes whose existence slips through the authors’ fingers again and again like a well-greased elephant.
Man with three screens

The 50/50 Problem: How the Internet Is Distorting Our Reality

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More than 50 percent of Americans spend more than 50 percent of their waking hours living in virtual, artificial worlds rather than the given, created one in which their bodies exist. The 50 percent threshold represents a tipping point that renders dialogue, deliberation, civic friendship, and compromise extraordinarily difficult in any society.
Founding

The 3395 Project: American National Identity Includes Both the Ideals of 1776 and the Legacy of 1619

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The 1619 Project points us to the need for the 3395 Project—the project of constructing a new and stronger American identity that incorporates both the experiences, perspectives, and distinctive contributions of the descendants of enslaved Africans (1619) and also the aspirations and ideals enunciated by European Americans in the Declaration of Independence (1776).

Christianity and American Founding Principles: A Response to Patrick Deneen and Robert Reilly

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When it comes to Christianity, the Enlightenment, and the American Founding, Patrick Deneen and Robert Reilly are both right.

Pursuing Unity: Race and the American Story

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The primary cause of American disintegration is not the proliferation of sources of division, but rather the absence of sources of unity to counterbalance and contextualize them. The racial divide is the most productive place to start in recovering the American mission and restoring national unity.

The Accessible Federalist: Historical Documents and Human Nature

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Although The Federalist is indeed a historical document that emerged from and was directed to a particular time period with particular concerns, historical sensitivity itself should also lead one to view The Federalist as something more than this. Adapted from the introduction to The Accessible Federalist.

The Counterfeit Money of Our Casino Economy

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There will always be economic inequalities and problems in our country and in the world. In a real economy with real money, though, at least these would be closer to real inequalities and real problems.

Race, the Legacy of Slavery, and American Promise

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A new documentary about the Thirteenth Amendment and the disproportionate imprisonment of African Americans is a wake-up call to conservatives who feel threatened by apparently unpatriotic protests or demands for racial justice.

A 49er Fan Reflects on Colin Kaepernick’s Protest

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American political history mirrors Colin Kaepernick’s football career: exceptional promise coupled with often disappointing performance. We would do well to remember and embrace the meaning of American greatness while candidly acknowledging our nation’s shortcomings.

How to Fix the GOP

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By invoking the principles of the Declaration of Independence, Republicans can wholeheartedly embrace the ideas of integration, inclusion, and respect in a way that remains consistent with their commitments to morality, patriotism, and liberty.

Is Liberalism Dead?

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Kim R. Holmes's new book interweaves abstract philosophy with history, empirical data, and concrete narrative.

Valuing Full-Time Motherhood

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While most Americans respect and appreciate mothers on an individual basis, we as a society devalue their vocation.
Public Discourse

What Trump and Sanders Teach Us about America

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Enthusiastic support for Trump and Sanders shows the stranglehold that materialistic individualism has on American political culture. Unless we can find a counterbalance to our excessive focus on economic interests, we should expect to be crushed beneath their weight.
Public Discourse

The National Parks: “America’s Best Idea”

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We will benefit most from the national parks if we can remember their role as natural cathedrals that orient us to the crucial relevance of “Nature” for politics and society.
Public Discourse

The Troubling Stakes of the Originalism-Living Constitutionalism Debate

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Any defense of constitutional originalism depends on accepting the principles of natural law and natural rights on which the Constitution was founded. Unfortunately, these principles no longer have meaning for most judges, politicians, and ordinary citizens today—which has troubling implications for the future of our republic.
Public Discourse

Goodnight, Vienna: What’s Wrong with Saying That Corporations Are People

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Corporations, and civic associations in general, are necessary bulwarks between governmental power and individual citizens—but they’re not people. Now more than ever, we must recover a clear understanding of what it means to be a human person with inherent dignity and natural rights.
Public Discourse

Why ISIS Might Win, Even If It Loses

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If Western culture continues to be defined by the pitiful desire to go on living in as much physical comfort as possible, we will continue to be victimized and oppressed by the much more powerful appeal of radical Islam to die for God and eternal happiness.
Public Discourse

What Science Doesn’t Know

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Perhaps it isn’t ignorance that keeps ordinary, non-scientific Americans from accepting what scientists tell them; perhaps it’s their knowledge of and experience with realities which they rightfully judge to be more important than the objects accessible to modern science.
Public Discourse

A Call for a Unified Party

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The recent Obergefell decision should serve as a wake-up call to conservatives. In particular, conservatives should rethink the Republican Party platform and work to refocus the GOP around the broad theme of “nature.”
Public Discourse

There Is No Fundamental Right to Marry

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It’s easy to confuse fundamental rights with intensely-desired goods—and thus to wrongly invest the latter with the moral urgency and primacy of the former.
Public Discourse

Christianity and American Political Thought

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A new book examines the philosophical and religious roots of American government. Amid scholarly disagreement, one thing is clear: America is a nation founded upon the truth of human freedom and equality—whether one arrives at this truth by way of Calvin or Locke.
Public Discourse

A Tocquevillian Argument against Contraception

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Parenthood powerfully combats the two greatest dangers to a democracy: selfishness and isolation.
Public Discourse

Natural Morality, American Exceptionalism, and Race Relations

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The anti-slavery arguments of American abolitionists demonstrate the way in which Lockean natural rights and Thomistic natural law can be reconciled.
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