Crime and punishment sit near the foundation of any functioning civilization. Long before debates over taxation, healthcare, or environmental policy arise, a society must answer a basic question: Will law-abiding citizens be protected, and will wrongdoing be punished fairly and consistently? If the answer is unclear or evasive, everything else begins to wobble. For American…
Critical Issues Dividing the Parties and the Nation: Free Speech
Free speech is not a fashionable abstraction or a luxury for polite societies. It is a structural necessity for a constitutional republic. The First Amendment’s protection of speech, press, religion, assembly, and petition is not an ornament added for decoration; it is the load-bearing wall that allows every other liberty to stand. At its core,…