James Madison

Government Doesn't Matter. America Does

Rabbi Abraham Unger, Ph.D. | Posted 04.20.2012

Read More: New York Times, Obama, Lobbyists, Religion and Politics, Mitt Romney, James Madison, Democracy, Healthcare, Religion News

Sadly, our country has taken the route dreaded by founding father James Madison in the Federalist papers. He was worried that special interests, which he called "factions," would destroy the fabric of our republic. He was right.

Read Post

Constitution Check: Is the "Roberts Court" Driven by Politics?

Lyle Denniston | Posted 04.05.2012

Read More: Supreme Court, Affordable Care Act, James Madison, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, Barack Obama, Chief Justice John Roberts, Marbury v Madison, Health Care Law, Health Care Reform, Supreme Court Health Care Law, John Roberts, Obama Health Care Law, Health Care, Supreme Court Health Care, Politics News

In today's polarized political environment, commentators can get caught up in the partisanship, and assume that government action not to their liking is necessarily driven by political bias. That borders on the silly and, at a minimum, shows a lapse of historical memory.

Read Post

Taking Its Place in History...

Lyle Denniston | Posted 05.27.2012

Read More: Supreme Court, Social Security Act, Taxes, Health Care, Founding Fathers, James Madison, Congress, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Thomas Jefferson, Politics News

By week's end, America will have witnessed a deeply serious and probably quite revealing conversation about the Constitution and what it might mean 225 years after it was written.

Read Post

When Buying a Gun Becomes Easier Than Voting

Josh Horwitz | Posted 05.05.2012

Read More: Second Amendment, National Rifle Association, Open Carry, Insurrectionism, Ted Nugent, Timothy McVeigh, One-Handgun-a-Month-Law, Abraham Lincoln, James Madison, Voter ID Laws, Sharron Angle, Wayne LaPierre, Politics News

Does anyone seriously believe that the vision of our Founders was that guys who carry a gun on their hips 24/7 are "super-citizens" with greater political rights than senior citizens, minorities, the impoverished?

Read Post

Olympia Snowe: Why I’m Leaving The Senate

The Washington Post | Olympia Snowe | Posted 03.02.2012

Read More: Gop, James Madison, Senate, Ronald Brownstein, Maine, Olympia Snowe, Politics News

Two truths are all too often overshadowed in today’s political discourse: Public service is a most honorable pursuit, and so is bipartisanship. I...

Read Whole Story

Pitchers, Catchers... and Signers Report: a Founding Fathers Baseball Dream Team

Michael Simzak | Posted 04.23.2012

Read More: Roger Sherman, Jonathan Dayton, Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, Major League Baseball, James Madison, James Wilson, Gouvernor Morris, George Mason, Benjamin Franklin, John Dickinson, Constitution, Founding Fathers, Sports News

If the framers of the Constitution were a baseball team, who would they be and what position would they play?

Read Post

The Presidents Who Owned Slaves

Elizabeth Dowling Taylor | Posted 04.21.2012

Read More: Presidents Owned Slaves, White House Slaves, Slaves in the White House, Presidents Day, Slavery, John Freeman, Paul Jennings, James Madison, Black History Month, Thomas Jefferson, Books News

Eight of our early presidents, beginning with George Washington, owned slaves during their tenure in the nation's highest office.

Read Post

Calling Wealthy Democrats

Brent Budowsky | Posted 04.10.2012

Read More: 1 Percent, Senate Majority Pac, Superpacs, John Roberts, Campaign Finance, House Majority PAC, American Democracy, One-Party State, Federalist Papers, Citizens United, Barack Obama, Slavery, Occupy Wall Street, Sheldon Adelson, Supreme Court, James Madison, Koch Family, Separate and Unequal Classes, Constitutional Amendment, Alexander Hamilton, Super Pac, Obama Reelection, Super PACs, Elections 2012, 2012 Election, Barack Obama PAC, Obama Super Pac, Politics News

Citizens United destroys the American notion of citizenship by creating separate and unequal classes of Americans. It creates a de facto American House of Lords, in which all other Americans are relegated to second-class citizenship.

Read Post

Right-Wing Band Plays For Occupy Congress

The Huffington Post | Arin Greenwood | Posted 01.20.2012

Read More: Gun Rights, Madison Rising, Founding Fathers, James Madison, Video, Politico, Music, Occupy Congress, DC News

WASHINGTON -- Patrick Gavin writes in Politico about the right-leaning band that received a surprisingly warm reception when they played at the Occupy...

Read Whole Story

The GOP and Presidential Power

Robert J. Spitzer | Posted 03.04.2012

As we begin the countdown to the November elections, let's appreciate how much American governance has become a debate over presidential power -- from health care, to the economy, to foreign policy.

Read Post

Confessions of a Pinkwasher

Yoav Sivan | Posted 02.14.2012

Read More: Tel Aviv, Lgbt, Sarah-Schulman, Dan Shapiro, James Madison, New York Times, Ido-Aharoni, Benjamin Netanyahu, Michael Lucas, Israel, David Harris, Hasbara, Israel Pink Washing, Pinkwashing, New York News

Sarah Schulman's article "Israel and Pinkwashing" contributes to an unrelenting focus on a useless question: is Israel more pro-gay or more anti-Palestinian?

Read Post

Winning The Debt Battle: Be Careful What You Wish For

Terry Newell | Posted 01.29.2012

Read More: James Madison, Politics, Congress, U.S. Constitution, Super Committee, National Debt, Politics News

Insiders suggest that Republicans and Democrats accepted the latest failure because they concluded it is better to go into the 2012 election cycle with the battle lines clearly drawn. Be careful what you wish for.

Read Post

Why America Needs a One-Term President

Donald Craig Mitchell | Posted 01.17.2012

Read More: Consitutional Convention of 1787, Bill Clinton, Mitch McConnell, President Barack Obama, President George Washington, One Presidential Term, James Madison, Speaker John Boehner, Franklin Roosevelt, Representative John Boehner, Barack Obama Race, Federalist Papers, Barack Obama, President Franklin Roosevelt, President of the United States, Presidential Election, President Bill Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama 2012, Senate Minority Leader, Elections 2012, Politics News

Is a six-year presidential term the solution to every problem that vexes the nation? Of course not. But is it a constitutional reform that merits serious public discussion? Absolutely.

Read Post

It's the Democracy, Stupid!

Edwin Eisendrath | Posted 12.05.2011

Read More: Democracy, Obama, Priorities, Tea Party, James Madison, Michele Bachmann, Economic Crisis, Chicago News

We need to focus on our problems, and none is bigger than the state of our democracy. The disconnect between elected leaders and the people is dangerously large.

Read Post

The Genius of Free Governments

Lewis Hyde | Posted 12.03.2011

Read More: Section 514, Supreme Court, Public Domain, Golan, Copyright, John Locke, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, Henry Fielding, Uruguay Round, Culture News

This week the Supreme Court will hear a case concerning what ought to be called "copyright rendition." The plaintiffs are challenging a 1994 law that, for the first time in U.S. history, removed hundreds of thousands of works from the public domain.

Read Post

The Constitution We Nearly Had

Robert J. Spitzer | Posted 11.15.2011

Read More: Alexander Hamilton, Treaties, Presidential Veto, Founding Fathers, Constitution Day, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, Constitutional Convention, U.S. Constitution, Constitution, Original Intent, Tea Party, Rick Perry, Politics News

Imagine a very different Constitution -- one where Congress could kill any state law, where a twenty-six member Senate controlled treaty-making with other nations, and where the president's veto was exercised jointly with the Supreme Court.

Read Post

Obama Meets Tea Party Half-Way

Mark Steinberg | Posted 11.01.2011

Read More: Address to Congress, Congress, Tenth Amendment, Pizza, Boehner. Jobs, Pizza Delivery, Capitol, Obama, James Madison, Grease Spot, Tea Party, Parchment, Comedy News

President: "Why can't I drive down Pennsylvania Avenue before or after the time that the pizza is supposed to be delivered?" Boehner: "The caucus feels that allowing you to precede the pizza man would make them look weak."

Read Post

The Debt Ceiling Impasse: It's Madison's Fault

Kent Greenfield | Posted 09.25.2011

Read More: Constitutional Framers, Deficit, Democratic-Factions, Debt, Debt Ceiling, John Boehner, James Madison, Grover Norquist, Constitution, Barack Obama, Politics News

The bottom line in all of this is that James Madison's framework makes for a bad institutional decision maker in a crisis. Congress simply is not built for nimble decision making.

Read Post

The Military Industrial Complex: The Enemy From Within

John W. Whitehead | Posted 09.11.2011

Read More: Boeing, Pentagon, Libya, White House, Chalmers Johnson, Congress, Dwight Eisenhower, Social Security, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Department of Defense, David Petraeus, Martin Luther King Jr., James Madison, Iraq, Politics News

Having been co-opted by greedy defense contractors, corrupt politicians and incompetent government officials, America's expanding military empire is bleeding the country dry.

Read Post

Spirit Of Independence: Best Books On Founding Fathers (And A Few Mothers Too)

Posted 09.03.2011

Read More: War of Independence, Samuel Adams, Alexander Hamilton, Founding Father Books, Thomas Paine, Founding Mothers, Revolutionary War, John Adams, Patrick Henry, James Madison, Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, 4th of July Books, Books News

Yes, we know the 4th of July is more about fireworks and picnics than the Revolutionary War, but we are, after all, celebrating American Independence....

Read Whole Story

Bachmann Divorces the Constitution

Bruce Fein | Posted 08.28.2011

Congresswoman Bachmann's ill-informed divorce from the Constitution disqualifies her as a presidential candidate. Nothing is as dangerous as constitutional ignorance in action.

Read Post

Unelectable Past Presidents: Part 1 of 3

Jonathan Hobratsch | Posted 08.14.2011

Read More: James K. Polk, Politics, George Washington, Humor, Political Humor, John Tyler, Andrew Jackson, Slidepollajax, John Adams, John Quincy Adams, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, Martin Van Buren, Presidents, Politics News

The following are the first nine of twenty-seven American presidents that would not be electable today. It is interesting to ponder what the fate of these men would be in the 21st century.

Read Post

McCain Dethrones the Rule of Law

Bruce Fein | Posted 07.31.2011

Read More: Supreme Court, Law, Alexander Hamilton, Congress, President Obama, Federal Reserve, James Madison, UN Security Council, U.S. Constitution, Pentagon Budget, Common Sense, Robert Jackson, Libya, UN Convention Against Torture, Enemy Combatants, John Bassett Moore, Constitution, Predator Drones, War Powers Resolution, Pentagon, John McCain, Thomas Paine, Libya War, State Secrets, Thomas Jefferson, James Wilson, Democrats, U.S. Supreme Court, Military Commissions, Patriot Act, Department of Treasury, U.S. Senate, War Powers Act, Fisa, Republicans, Politics News

John McCain's latest war gospel hangs an alarming tale. The rule of law has been dethroned and the president has been endowed with absolute power as the American Empire has eclipsed the American Republic.

Read Post

The Constitution and the Tea Party Part Company

Bruce Fein | Posted 07.16.2011

Read More: Supreme Court, Parliament, Alexander Hamilton, Pentagon, Declare War Clause, Libya War, Antonin Scalia, Founding Fathers, James Madison, Pennsylvania, Louis D. Brandeis, Federalist Papers, Barack Obama, Writs of Assistance, Patriot Act, Libya, Robert Jackson, Constitution, Obamacare, Security Council, Nancy Pelosi, John Adams, Youngstown Sheet & Tube v. Sawyer, Tea Party Caucus, War Powers, Tea Party, James Otis, United Nations, Politics News

If Tea Party Caucus Members wish to keep their constitutional escutcheons unsullied, they should not tarry in taking legislative action against unconstitutional presidential wars and unconstitutional unaudited military spending.

Read Post

Parents: This Fall, Beware Tea Partiers Dressed Up as James Madison

Doug Kendall | Posted 07.13.2011

Read More: Public Schools, Children, Founding Fathers, James Madison, Cleon Skousen, Constitution, Tea Party, Parents, Education News

It is undoubtedly the case that all our kids could use a good civics lesson, but the modern day James Madisons from the Tea Party who are vying for access to our schools are peddling ideological snake oil, not real history.

Read Post