Gerald R. Ford Leadership Forum

Essays

Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall” and One Means of Ordered Civic Life

by Jason Peters [Ed. Note: The full poem appears at the end of the essay. You are encouraged to read it first, remembering that poetry is meant to be read out loud.] We do violence to a work of art by using it for our own ends, especially for our own ideological or political ends, …

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Social Inventions and the Cultivation of Character

by Luke C. Sheahan President Jimmy Carter was castigated for infamously describing a malaise infecting the American people. Critics pounced. Surely if a nation is afflicted with malaise, its national leader bears some of the blame. Few could find in such an expression inspiration to action. Whatever the merit of that indictment in the 1970s, …

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The Risks of a Populist Politics or The Risk of a Permanent Populism

by Michael P. Federici Populism is a recurring phenomenon in American politics. It tends to rise and fall inversely with the fortunes of the leadership class. Its underlying presumption is that the people are far more trustworthy and sensible than elites who are out of touch with the struggles and values of common people. Populists …

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Virtue and Limited Government

by Glenn Moots James McHenry of Maryland, one of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention, recorded in his diary a now-famous story about Benjamin Franklin. After the convention, Franklin purportedly crossed paths with Elizabeth Powel. Mrs. Powel and her husband were well-connected Philadelphians. McHenry writes that Mrs. Powel, curious about the outcome of the convention, …

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On Boredom

by Kevin Gary Should we be concerned about boredom? Several recent psychological studies suggest that we should. Boredom, or more precisely the avoidance of boredom, is causally correlated with a number of troubling behaviors (drinking too much, overeating, gambling, and excessive consuming). In schools, boredom is linked to waning student attention, declining grades, and dropping …

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