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Articles by Bradley C. S. Watson
Bradley C. S. Watson
Bradley C. S. Watson teaches at the Van Andel Graduate School of Government at Hillsdale College in Washington, D.C. He has authored or edited many books, including Living Constitution, Dying Faith: Progressivism and the New Science of Jurisprudence.
Woke Crackdowns and the New Totalitarianism
Editor’s Note – Dr. Bradley C.S. Watson is a scholar of jurisprudence whose most celebrated work has addressed progressivism and its challenge to the American constitutional system. Until 2022, he held the Philip M. McKenna Chair in American and Western Political Thought at Saint Vincent College and served as co-director of the college’s Center for Political and Economic Thought (CPET).
Is It Time To Stop Asking About Race? – Ethan W. Blevins
We’ve all checked the boxes on race and ethnicity questionnaires, a staple of most government applications and surveys, and they have never made much sense. On ethnicity, they ask whether you are “Hispanic or Latino” or “Not-Hispanic or Latino,” which is about as sensible a question as asking a mammal if it’s a cat or not a cat. And the racial groups don’t match up to reality either.
Evaluating Religious Liberty in the States – Mark David Hall & Jordan J. Ballor
Religious liberty was so important to America’s founders that they often referred to it as a “.” Virtually all state constitutions adopted after America’s break from Great Britain contained provisions protecting this freedom, but the federal constitution of 1787 did not.
The Challenges of Judicial Restraint – Zack Smith
Imagine a legal system where anyone can come to court and challenge anything for any reason. If it sounds fantastical, that’s because it is. Take it a step further, though. Imagine that the court’s decisions are final and unreviewable, that there’s nothing like a written constitution to guide or constrain the court’s decisions, and that a party may be prohibited from defending its own challenged actions before the court.
What Publius Missed – - Steven D. Ealy
Thanks to Professor Edmondson for providing an opportunity to reflect on the lessons we might glean from the Federalist Papers, not as a historically significant document that sheds light on our distant past, but as a potential guide to assist us in sorting out our current difficulties. In his discussion of Constitutional interpretation, Edmondson rightly notes the importance of “the liquidation of meaning” emphasized by Publius.
Cheats Do Prosper—at the Nation’s Expense – Helen Dale
During the second half of high school, I learnt the phrase “affirmative action” and what it meant. I was in the US with my father—he was in the country for work reasons—and met some of his American colleagues’ children. The system outlined to me did my head in. They recounted how personal essays—plus things like volunteering, sport, and church—played a large role in admission to one of the nation’s better universities.
A New Christian Progressivism – Bradley C. S. Watson
Many Americans are rightly chagrined by the direction of their country. The political, moral, and economic grotesqueries long favored by our ruling classes are now bearing particularly poisonous fruit—a story too familiar to recount. One response to those elite preferences, and the policies that have grown from them, has come from a handful of theological-political thinkers known as “integralists.” Integralism is very much a moving target, and no definition of it is likely to satisfy all.
A Practical Remedy for University Cancel Culture
Our institutions of higher learning are in freefall. The dominance of progressive political orientations among faculty members and administrators is well known, and the consequences of this intellectual monoculture are equally obvious. I need not recount the innumerable instances of cancel culture on American campuses, or the political pogroms launched even against established, tenured faculty members who have refused to bow before the progressive passions of the moment.
Institutional Capture: It Can Happen Here
My name has now been added to the long and depressing list of high-profile academic “cancellations.” I recently resigned my tenured position at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, due to an episode — sadly typical of American higher education — that has been widely documented in national media. Like so many recent academic debacles, the actions of the administrators who precipitated the affair were ridiculous and wholly unnecessary.
St. Vincent College & the Moral Collapse of Higher Ed
Much has been written about the intellectual failings of America’s institutions of higher learning, including their ignorance — or outright suppression — of the achievements of Western civilization, to which the modern university owes its existence. Far less, however, has been said of their moral failings. The absence of the moral virtue of courage enables the pursuit of almost every other radical fad.
What Happened At Saint Vincent College Demonstrates the Moral Collapse of Higher Education
Much has been written about the intellectual failings of America’s institutions of higher learning, including their ignorance — or outright suppression — of the achievements of Western civilization, to which the modern university owes its existence. Far less, however, has been said of their moral failings. The absence of the moral virtue of courage enables the pursuit of almost every other radical fad.
Social Darwinism and the Natural Law
In late 19th-century America, the old understanding of the nature and permanent limits of politics was dead or dying, at least among the intellectual classes. The death was linked to a reevaluation and reconfiguration of the American Founders’ political categories, including a Constitution dedicated to the preservation of natural rights through the limitation of government power.
Why You Can't Be A Progressive And Truly Love American History
America’s Founders understood political change is inevitable. They thought it must come about through constitutional mechanisms, with the consent of the governed, and must never infringe on the natural rights of citizens. Progressives – rejecting the idea that any rights, including the right of consent to government, are natural – accept no such limits.
How Progressives Rewrote American History
Opinion By Bradley C. S. Watson for RealClearPublicAffairs America’s Founders understood that political change is inevitable. They thought it must come about through constitutional mechanisms, with the consent of the governed, and must never infringe on the natural rights of citizens. Progressives – rejecting the idea that any rights, including the right of consent to government, are natural – accept no such limits.
How Progressives Rewrote American History
How Progressives Rewrote American History As progressivism has grown into modern liberalism, the commitment to extra-constitutional “progress” is broadly shared across elite political, academic, legal, and religious circles. Read Full Article »
How Progressives Rewrote American History
America’s Founders understood that political change is inevitable. They thought it must come about through constitutional mechanisms, with the consent of the governed, and must never infringe on the natural rights of citizens. Progressives – rejecting the idea that any rights, including the right of consent to government, are natural – accept no such limits.
Liberalism’s Civilization Problem
Two of the most influential essays written towards the end of the twentieth century were Francis Fukuyama’s “The End of History” (1989) and Samuel Huntington’s “The Clash of Civilizations” (1993). Later expanded into books, the authors outlined very different prospects for global politics.
A Politics of Nietzschean Righteousness
“After Buddha was dead people showed his shadow for centuries afterwards in a cave, an immense frightful shadow. God is dead—but as the human race is constituted there will perhaps be caves for millenniums yet, in which people will show his shadow. And we—we have still to overcome his shadow!” So said Friedrich Nietzsche, insisting that although God is dead to European man, there remains a new task of overcoming. How we escape God’s long shadow—whether we can escape it—is the subject of Mark T.
A Politics of Nietzschean Righteousness – - Bradley C. S. Watson
“After Buddha was dead people showed his shadow for centuries afterwards in a cave, an immense frightful shadow. God is dead—but as the human race is constituted there will perhaps be caves for millenniums yet, in which people will show his shadow. And we—we have still to overcome his shadow!” So said Friedrich Nietzsche, insisting that although God is dead to European man, there remains a new task of overcoming. How we escape God’s long shadow—whether we can escape it—is the subject of Mark T.
How the Academics Made Progressivism All-American
Richard Reinsch: Today we’re talking with Brad Watson about his new book, Progressivism: The Strange History of a Radical Idea. Brad is a professor of politics at St. Vincent College. He’s the author and editor of many books. I’ll mention one that I’ve read. It came out in 2009, Living Constitution, Dying Faith. Brad is also a reformed Canadian patriot. He told me about some quality time he spent this past summer at the US/Canadian border.
The Tyranny of Visible Deaths
Mid-afternoon view of a nearly empty 11th Avenue near 34... more There is an older and now often-ignored tradition in the study of decision-making that distinguishes decision-making under risk from decision-making under uncertainly. The difference is that the probabilities are known for decision-making under risk, while the probabilities are unknown for decision-making under uncertainty.
How “Second-Best” Arguments Can Make Things Worse
Strike of the Stock Handlers Union (shutterstock.com) James Rogers has argued that private-sector unions may be justified because they help compensate for some of the costs of crony capitalism. He acknowledges that the unions are not the first-best solution to crony capitalism, which would be the elimination of government structures that allow some companies to obtain rents.
The Undeniable Reality of Mass Incarceration in America
If one sought to determine whether there are too many cars and trucks in use in the United States, it would hardly make sense to look only to American-made vehicles. After all, to limit the inquiry in such an artificial manner would grossly undercount the actual number of cars clogging American roadways and polluting our environment. Quite obviously, the total number of motor vehicles would have to be ascertained, and only then could the normative issue be reached.
Progressivism and the Historians
Progressive Party Membership Certificate from 1912 I thank Richard Gamble for his generous review of my new book, Progressivism: The Strange History of a Radical Idea. Gamble is a historian, and my book is nothing less than a full-frontal assault on historians and the discipline of history as a whole.
Education in Crisis
Just like that, we’re all homeschoolers. Last week began quite normally, with universities and k-12 schools operating as usual. A week later, the doors were locked and the desks had been cleared. From their bedrooms, professors cursed at their terminals as they tried to decipher the instructions sent from the IT office. Parents flocked to homeschool websites, and dug deep in their memories too, trying to remember the difference between the stratosphere and the troposphere.
The Environmental Uncertainty Principle
The New York Times reports, with more than a touch of breathless enthusiasm, that a Department of Interior official is “on a campaign” to ensure that the agency’s scientific reports “misrepresent” climate change. The putative exposé makes for thrilling reading—hints of intrigue, deception, and craven self-interest.
Same-Sex "Marriage" in Canada: A Guide for American Legislators
Recent legal and political developments in Canada on same-sex "marriage" are enlightening for the American constitutional debate. Canada shares a number of important characteristics with the United States. It has a complex federal system, activist courts, and evolving public opinion on questions related to homosexuality. And on the issue of homosexual rights, Canada is a nation on the leading edge of change.
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