Mickey Edwards
Washington, D.C.
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Former Congressman, taught at Harvard and Princeton, loves the Constitution, the Cleveland Indians and the Oklahoma Sooners
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Articles by Mickey Edwards
Make Congress Great Again
This article is brought to you by American Purpose, the magazine and community founded by Francis Fukuyama in 2020, which is proudly part of the Persuasion family. That we are facing the greatest threat to American constitutionalism since 1789 is beyond question. We need to stop treating the current situation as though it’s just another political scrum with the usual performative marches, signs, wailing, and arm waving.
Kathleen Inwood - A Legacy of Dedication and Advocacy
Many remember Kathleen Inwood for her 32-year teaching career at Village Elementary, where she touched countless lives. However, her influence extended far beyond the classroom. After supporting children at school for decades, she continued her mission during her “retirement career” by providing support services to children and families within the SOS service area. Kathleen was driven by a passion for learning, educating others, and ensuring that all children felt safe.
Before voting for Kamala Harris or Donald Trump, ask yourself these questions
This is the dilemma many of my friends face: Despite their serious concerns about Donald Trump, they have been Republicans for years, even decades, and, as it has been for me, being a Republican has been central to their political identity.
When considering foreign policy, there is only one choice for president
Every United States presidential election plays to three separate audiences: American voters, America’s allies and America’s enemies. For the most part, voters focus on questions of domestic policy, but the focus of the other two audiences is dramatically different. For our allies, it’s a question of America’s reliability as a partner in the defense of liberal democracy; for our enemies, it’s a search for Western vulnerability.
Opinion: When considering foreign policy, there is only 1 choice for president
By Mickey Edwards Every United States presidential election plays to three separate audiences: American voters, America’s allies and America’s enemies. For the most part, voters focus on questions of domestic policy, but the focus of the other two audiences is dramatically different. For our allies, it’s a question of America’s reliability as a partner in the defense of liberal democracy; for our enemies, it’s a search for Western vulnerability.
Mickey Edwards: When considering foreign policy, there is only one choice for president
Every U.S. presidential election plays to three separate audiences: American voters, America’s allies and America’s enemies. For the most part, voters focus on questions of domestic policy, but the focus of the other two audiences is dramatically different. For our allies, it’s a question of America’s reliability as a partner in the defense of liberal democracy; for our enemies, it’s a search for Western vulnerability.
Opinion | On foreign policy, Harris is the only choice for president
Every U.S. presidential election plays to three separate audiences: American voters, America’s allies and America’s enemies. For the most part, voters focus on questions of domestic policy, but the focus of the other two audiences is dramatically different. For our allies, it’s a question of America’s reliability as a partner in the defense of liberal democracy; for our enemies, it’s a search for Western vulnerability.
When considering foreign policy, there is only one choice for president | Opinion
Every U.S. presidential election plays to three separate audiences: American voters, America’s allies, and America’s enemies. For the most part, voters focus on questions of domestic policy, but the focus of the other two audiences is dramatically different. For our allies, it’s a question of America’s reliability as a partner in the defense of liberal democracy; for our enemies, it’s a search for Western vulnerability.
Blog: "There's a very good feeling around the place"
By Mickey Edwards Everyone is at the peak of their fitness and skills, and we can’t wait for that first game against Leicestershire to come around this weekend. I’ve said before that pre-season does tend to drag, especially in the latter stages, and you just want the games to start once you get to this time of year. There’s a very good feeling around the place. We have a young squad who are still developing, but we have some unbelievably talented players at this club.
COLUMN: Mickey already feeling right at home
New signing Mickey Edwards has arrived at Headingley from Australia, the fast bowler joining the county as a domestic player courtesy of a British passport. Sydneysider Mickey will be detailing his experiences of his maiden campaign with the club in a player column on yorkshireccc.com throughout the summer. By Mickey Edwards I’ve only been with the club for a few weeks, but I can honestly say I already feel right at home here and have been adopted as an unofficial Yorkshireman.
Avoiding an Authoritarian Future
As the laws, rules, norms, and traditions of American government continue to come under an unrelenting Trumpist assault, I have found myself increasingly puzzled by the responses of some of my friends and colleagues who share my fear of an authoritarian future and yet plant themselves firmly behind proposals I consider at odds with the liberal democratic views we share and are attempting to preserve.
Against the Will of the People
As the United States reels under an unrelenting assault from the great epidemics of our time—mass slaughters in our schools and stores and synagogues, raging fires, deadly disease—the government we ourselves have chosen and empowered too often seems utterly incapable of forging an effective response.
Ranked-Choice Voting
Given the state of American politics, a good many concerned citizens have formed strong opinions about what’s gone wrong and what needs to be done to fix it. One much-hyped proposal, ranked-choice voting (RCV), focuses not on serious election concerns—ballot access, ease of voting, ballot security, and the like—but on how we count the votes in order to produce a more “acceptable” winner. Ranked-choice voting would have voters rank candidates in order of acceptability.
Are Swing Voters Worried About Cancel Culture?
The Republican party has doubled down on the culture war—and “cancel culture” in particular. So this month with the Swing Voter Project, I asked 13 Trump-to-Biden voters what they thought about cancel culture. They told me some interesting things. First, none of them had any personal experience with it: None had been victims of, or targeted by, cancel culture. Second, it wasn’t even clear that they agreed on what cancel culture was.
Eight in Ten Americans are Concerned About Partisanship. Here's How to Reunite America Original
Healing our divided nation is the defining challenge of our time. Nothing less than the success of the American experiment is at stake. Our problems won’t be solved with a single election or a new president. Hyper-partisanship has poisoned our politics to such an extent that it compromised our response to the COVID-19 pandemic, fueled the spread of disinformation, and sparked the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Not My Party: Coke Too Woke
Ride or die. Support The Bulwark. Join Now “Screw you MLB. Screw Delta and screw Coke. In fact, screw all corporations” Corporate America has had enough of the GOP trying to make it harder to vote so they’re taking s— into their own hands. And this is making Republicans big mad. The former fellow faxed in his thoughts from Florida, demanding that Republicans boycott companies that are speaking out. That means you, Major League Baseball, Delta, UPS, Coke.
Mugged by Reality
Several years ago, I was mugged and robbed as I took an early-morning walk through Louis Armstrong Park in New Orleans. I should have been paying more attention, been more alert, but instead I was taken by surprise and had the bruises to show for it. That event came to mind as I watched this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
Former CPAC Chair Minces No Words Slamming What The Event, GOP Have Now Become
A former chair of the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday slammed what the event has now become, suggesting former President Ronald Reagan would not get elected by those in attendance at this year’s gathering. Mickey Edwards — who led the American Conservative Union, which organizes the event, for five years until 1983 — ripped Republicans attending this year’s CPAC in Orlando for their devotion to former President Donald Trump.
Republicans Make Me Proud I Voted for Biden
I have been getting a lot of mail from critics lately asking if I’m happy with the Biden administration. They point to some of the new president’s executive orders—the one about the Keystone XL pipeline, or the one rescinding the “Mexico City” policy withholding funds from international organizations that perform or advocate for abortion. They ask, snidely, whether I’m proud of my vote for the Democrat?
Can Democrats Abolish the Filibuster—and Should They? - The Bulwark
Until yesterday, Joe Biden’s agenda was stalled in the Senate by a primal conflict over power. The context was negotiations over how the two parties would navigate their 50-50 split. While, as majority leader, Chuck Schumer would control the legislative calendar, he offered to divide committee membership equally under Democratic chairs—replicating the arrangement in 2001 when there was an evenly divided Senate with a Republican vice president.
The Case for an Imperfect Solution in Afghanistan
Among the more ambitious foreign policy objectives of the Trump administration was its pursuit of a decisive resolution to the war in Afghanistan. Despite the persistence of insurgent attacks since the signing of the preliminary peace deal on February 29, 2020, optimism for a negotiated peace settlement with the Taliban has prevailed among a significant number of Afghan and international political and military leaders, Afghanistan analysts and scholars, and the Afghan population.
A longtime GOP member of Congress bids his party goodbye
It was 1958. I had turned 21, just a year past graduation from the University of Oklahoma, member of the student senate, one of the “Ruf-Neks” who lead the football team onto the field at the start of every Sooners game. In other words: a typical Oklahoma college student. Atypically, however, I was also a member of the Young Republicans, almost certainly the smallest club on campus. After a brief stint as a reporter on a small-city daily, I returned home to Oklahoma City and registered to vote.
House Republicans Look Pathetic Compared to Navalny
The ten Republicans in the House of Representatives who voted to impeach President Trump are being hailed for their courage. For the most part, they deserve it. By putting the interests of the country ahead of their positions in the party and their re-election prospects, they were willing to take personal risks for the sake of a larger cause—including perhaps the risk of physical danger, as several of them have reported receiving death threats and one even took the precaution of buying body armor.
Why I Am Leaving the Republican Party
It was 1958. I had turned 21, just a year past graduation from the University of Oklahoma, member of the student senate, one of the “Ruf-Neks” who lead the football team onto the field at the start of every Sooners game. In other words: a typical Oklahoma college student. Atypically, however, I was also a member of the Young Republicans, almost certainly the smallest club on campus. After a brief stint as a reporter on a small-city daily, I returned home to Oklahoma City and registered to vote.
Albion grad picked as new superintendent for ACS
Staff Reports Posted 1 December 2020 at 6:23 pm Mickey Edwards, former Albion teacher and principal, has been leading Byron-Bergen school district ALBION — The Board of Education has picked an Albion graduate to be the next district superintendent. Mickey Edwards started his career in Albion as an art teacher. From 2007 to 2009, Edwards was the Principal at Charles D’Amico High School. He also served as the Assistant Principal at Carl I.
This Election Is More Than 'the Most Important of Our Lifetimes'
COMMENTARY This year’s presidential election, just weeks away, has often been characterized as the most important election of our lifetimes. That it certainly is, whether the lifetime in question is that of an 18-year-old, voting this year for the first time, or a centenarian whose first memory of voting may have called for choosing between Franklin Roosevelt and Wendell Willkie.
Why these two former GOP congressmen are supporting Joe Biden
The two of us should be among Donald Trump’s biggest supporters. One of us (Mickey) is a founding trustee of the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank and a former chairman of the American Conservative Union. Another (Charles) is an Afghanistan War veteran, a devout Christian and a graduate of Trump’s alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Finance. Both of us were elected to Congress as Republicans.
Point of View: Why Congress should reclaim its constitutional role
All presidents naturally try to exercise as much unilateral authority as they can get away with. It’s the job of Congress to ensure that citizens do not lose the power the Founders gave them through their legislative surrogates. That’s why I am heartened to see the recent bipartisan momentum behind the idea of restoring the constitutional role of Congress on matters of national security.
Opinion | John Roberts Can Call Witnesses to Trump’s Trial. Will He? (Published 2020)
Democratic House managers should ask the chief justice to issue subpoenas for John Bolton and others. By Neal K. Katyal, Joshua A. Geltzer and Mickey Edwards Mr. Katyal and Mr. Geltzer are law professors at Georgetown. Mr. Edwards is a former Republican congressman from Oklahoma. Jan. 27, 2020 Chief Justice John Roberts, center, walked into the Senate chambers on Jan.
Democrats Are Helping Trump Become the Luckiest President Ever
Impeachment won’t get rid of him and his 2020 opponents care more about the left than beating him. Photo: Mandel Ngan/Getty Images Donald Trump has been called the most incompetent, most dishonest, and most dangerous president in the history of the United States and there is a growing stack of evidence to suggest that all those things may be true. But he may also be the luckiest, which is why it would be foolhardy to bet against his re-election, impeachment or no impeachment.
How Congress surrenders its constitutional responsibilities
By Sean Theriault and Mickey Edwards September 28th 2019 If there is a single overriding narrative about the current Congress, the institution America’s founders considered the first and most important branch of government, it is that partisan warfare has rendered it almost impossible for Republicans and Democrats to agree on anything, and especially on any question of significance.
(Woke) Corporations Are People, My Friend
Ride or die. Support The Bulwark. Join Now A miraculous resurrection has taken place on the banks of the Potomac. Entities once unpersoned have again been magically imbued with individual rights, rescued from the constitutional memory hole in which they had been cast.
Undocumented workers in Wyoming struggle to get workers' comp
A couple of summers back, a 25-year-old immigrant from Mexico was mowing a lawn for a landscaping company in Jackson, Wyoming. “I had an accident,” the worker said (Marketplace is withholding the worker’s name because of his fear of deportation). “A co-worker drove over my foot with a machine.” In an interview with the Jackson Hole News and Guide, a collaborator on this story, the undocumented worker said he was immediately worried after the accident. “I went to talk to the employer.
Undocumented workers in Wyoming struggle to get workers' comp
A couple of summers back, a 25-year-old immigrant from Mexico was mowing a lawn for a landscaping company in Jackson, Wyoming. “I had an accident,” the worker said (Marketplace is withholding the worker’s name because of his fear of deportation). “A co-worker drove over my foot with a machine.” In an interview with the Jackson Hole News and Guide, a collaborator on this story, the undocumented worker said he was immediately worried after the accident. “I went to talk to the employer.
Undocumented workers in Wyoming struggle to get workers' comp
A couple of summers back, a 25-year-old immigrant from Mexico was mowing a lawn for a landscaping company in Jackson, Wyoming. “I had an accident,” the worker said (Marketplace is withholding the worker’s name because of his fear of deportation). “A co-worker drove over my foot with a machine.” In an interview with the Jackson Hole News and Guide, a collaborator on this story, the undocumented worker said he was immediately worried after the accident. “I went to talk to the employer.
Undocumented workers in Wyoming struggle to get workers' comp
A couple of summers back, a 25-year-old immigrant from Mexico was mowing a lawn for a landscaping company in Jackson, Wyoming. “I had an accident,” the worker said (Marketplace is withholding the worker’s name because of his fear of deportation). “A co-worker drove over my foot with a machine.” In an interview with the Jackson Hole News and Guide, a collaborator on this story, the undocumented worker said he was immediately worried after the accident. “I went to talk to the employer.
Undocumented workers in Wyoming struggle to get workers' comp
A couple of summers back, a 25-year-old immigrant from Mexico was mowing a lawn for a landscaping company in Jackson, Wyoming. “I had an accident,” the worker said (Marketplace is withholding the worker’s name because of his fear of deportation). “A co-worker drove over my foot with a machine.” In an interview with the Jackson Hole News and Guide, a collaborator on this story, the undocumented worker said he was immediately worried after the accident. “I went to talk to the employer.
Undocumented workers in Wyoming struggle to get workers' comp
A couple of summers back, a 25-year-old immigrant from Mexico was mowing a lawn for a landscaping company in Jackson, Wyoming. “I had an accident,” the worker said (Marketplace is withholding the worker’s name because of his fear of deportation). “A co-worker drove over my foot with a machine.” In an interview with the Jackson Hole News and Guide, a collaborator on this story, the undocumented worker said he was immediately worried after the accident. “I went to talk to the employer.
Undocumented workers in Wyoming struggle to get workers' comp
A couple of summers back, a 25-year-old immigrant from Mexico was mowing a lawn for a landscaping company in Jackson, Wyoming. “I had an accident,” the worker said (Marketplace is withholding the worker’s name because of his fear of deportation). “A co-worker drove over my foot with a machine.” In an interview with the Jackson Hole News and Guide, a collaborator on this story, the undocumented worker said he was immediately worried after the accident. “I went to talk to the employer.
I Was a Republican Congressman. I Had to Do Something About Gun Violence.
For someone who has never owned a firearm, guns have intruded on my life in disturbing ways. As a junior in college, I was shot three times at close range during an attempted robbery. No, I wasn’t the one staging the heist: I was going to the bank with the day’s receipts from a store my dad managed. I still have bullet fragments in my chest (thankfully, they don’t set off the metal detectors at airports).
Should the U.S. Get Rid of Political Parties?
Quoted Aug 02, 2017 | 33 videos Video by The Atlantic Mickey Edwards was a Republican congressman for 16 years, but now he argues for shaking up the system. "It's a dumb way to try to run a government," he says, reflecting on the current gridlock and polarization between Democrats and Republicans during this interview at the 2017 Aspen Ideas Festival.
The Friday Cover: How Trump Blew Up the Conservative Media
The Alt-Right’s Favorite Team Visits the White House By Ben Strauss A Trump Victory on the Border By Rich Lowry Who Cares if Trump Is Religious? By Michael Shermer Just What Is Trump Trying to Do in Syria? By Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon
The Ever-Shrinking Senate
The Supreme Court has grown back to its proper size, and the United States Senate has continued to get smaller, locked in a long process of shrinking, on issues both foreign and domestic, from the days when it could with a straight face claim to be the world’s greatest deliberative body. We saw the latest instance of this a week ago, when President Donald Trump reacted to the Syrian government’s atrocities by launching missile strikes.
Stand Up, Paul Ryan, or Step Aside
That was a failure of omission, but there have also been failures of commission that have undermined the independence of the House. When President Trump demanded the health care bill be brought to the floor for a vote on a particular day last week, Mr. Ryan complied rather than telling Mr. Trump that the speaker, not the president, decides the House schedule. This was an opportunity for Mr. Ryan to assert the status of Congress as a separate branch, yet he reaffirmed his submissiveness.
We No Longer Have Three Branches of Government
For more than a dozen years, teaching government classes to graduate students at Harvard and Princeton, I filled my students’ heads with facts that no longer seem to be true. They have become “alternate facts,” or perhaps just outdated ones. It has been my habit to begin each semester by slowly taking students through the Constitution, each article and section in turn, emphasizing not only each provision but why it was included.
How the Next President Can Start Healing America
The Aspen Institute is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C. 1. Here’s how the next president can start healing America. By Dan Glickman in the Huffington Post 2. What America needs most this Election Day: A graceful loser. By Mickey Edwards in the Los Angeles Times 3. Science is also on the ballot in some states today. 4. Should 16 year-olds be allowed to vote? 5. Bringing back manufacturing jobs is more complicated than you think.
Mickey Edwards: Unlike Paul Ryan, Ronald Reagan wouldn't endorse Donald Trump
WASHINGTON D.C. -- Thirty-six years ago this summer, Ronald Reagan asked me to assemble and chair a group of advisory task forces made up of Republican members of Congress from both the House and Senate.
Self-inflicted irrelevance is harming Congress
The Obama administration's agreement with Iran over its nuclear development program presented American policymakers with one of the most significant national security decisions this country has faced in many years. There are legitimate questions about the agreement's merits, and we differ on how we would have voted if we were still in Congress.
Both parties flubbed Iran nuclear debate
If I were still a member of Congress, I would vote against the Obama administration’s agreement to lift economic sanctions against Iran in exchange for a temporary, hoped-for slowdown in the development of Tehran’s nuclear capability. My primary concern is that we lack sufficient ability to monitor Iranian compliance. But I accept the outcome; sometimes, your side loses.
Congress blundered Iran debate
If I were still a member of Congress, I would vote against the Obama administration's agreement to lift economic sanctions against Iran in exchange for a temporary, hoped-for slowdown in the development of Tehran's nuclear capability. My primary concern is that we lack sufficient ability to monitor Iranian compliance. But I accept the outcome; sometimes, your side loses.
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