As a U.S. presidential candidate, Robert Kennedy once said that the gross domestic product (GDP) of a country “measures everything except that which is worthwhile.” Although his message that materialism does not measure all that we want rings true to many people, today there are still few policy frameworks that recognize money as what it […]
Why the Left Should Forget about Fairness
If Barack Obama’s message of hope pushed a political pendulum, then Donald Trump’s rabid chauvinism has started a wild pirate ship ride. Although for many of us, having Trump as president makes us feel as though we are slowly walking the plank toward an impending societal plunge, there lies ahead a tangible future in which […]
The Baby’s Beard: Our Philosophical Youth
In my experience, a frequent barrier to conversations about some of the most important issues can be the narrowness of the path on which we find ourselves as adults. Understandably engaged in the progression of their own education, health, or career, us adults have a tendency to dismiss fundamental philosophical and political questions if these […]
Church of Trump
Is Donald Trump a good Christian? Ideologically, as Bill Maher declares, Trump seems to be “his own God.” In terms of methodology, however, Trump’s religious outlook seems to be both the natural consequence of and historically consistent with religious thought in the United States. As in most other areas of his campaign, when it came […]
The Moral Limits of Alliance
The United States’s relationship with Saudi Arabia is now more enigmatic than ever. Since 9/11, in which fifteen of the nineteen al-Qaeda hijackers were citizens of Saudi Arabia, the U.S. has held a heightened skepticism of Saudi military pursuits. Recent developments such as the conflicts in Syria and Yemen and the Justice Against Sponsors of […]
Spotting the Spoiler
Mention the word “spoiler” in the presence of a Democrat, and you will surely hear about the Al Gore presidency that could have been. “If only Ralph Nader had not played spoiler. If only he had not siphoned off a few of Gore’s votes in Florida to help George W. Bush win the presidency in […]